Chris Evans buys ‘Freddie Mercury’ Lotus

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Last month, you will have no doubt heard that a Lotus Evora S was liveried up and sold at a very special auction. The theme? ‘Freddie Mercury'.

This wasn't some cruel, satirical work of art designed to parody the firm's recent brush with celebrity, but an actual thing. It's real. And to be fair, it is for charity: the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Well, it now transpires that none other than Chris Evans - that rather talkative chap off Radio 2 - was the last bidder standing when the hammer fell.

He adds the moustachioed Lotus to his considerable car collection; one that includes many white Ferraris and some red ones, including that rare £12m 250 GTO. He visited Lotus HQ in Hethel to finalise the spec of his ‘Freddie Mercury' Evora S, as well as take in some of the factory's highlights.

White riot: Chris Evans and his white Ferraris

"Muchos gracias to Russ and his design team for helping me spec the Freddie Mercury Tribute Evora S in the spirit with which it deserves," he said.

Coming up soon from Lotus, the ‘Axl Rose' Elise. Probably. Key features include monumental brake squeal followed by a disappointing run of terrible mediocrity. Regale us below with your celebrity-Lotus hookups, and then watch some behind-the-scenes footage of Chris on the TG track, driving quite ‘enthusiastically'...

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Chris Evans buys ‘Freddie Mercury’ Lotus Evora S

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Last month, you will have no doubt heard that a Lotus Evora S was liveried up and sold at a very special auction. The theme? ‘Freddie Mercury'.

This wasn't some cruel, satirical work of art designed to parody the firm's recent brush with celebrity, but an actual thing. It's real. And to be fair, it is for charity: the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Well, it now transpires that none other than Chris Evans - that rather talkative chap off Radio 2 - was the last bidder standing when the hammer fell.

He adds the moustachioed Lotus to his considerable car collection; one that includes many white Ferraris and some red ones, including that rare £12m 250 GTO. He visited Lotus HQ in Hethel to finalise the spec of his ‘Freddie Mercury' Evora S, as well as take in some of the factory's highlights.

White riot: Chris Evans and his white Ferraris

"Muchos gracias to Russ and his design team for helping me spec the Freddie Mercury Tribute Evora S in the spirit with which it deserves," he said.

Coming up soon from Lotus, the ‘Axl Rose' Elise. Probably. Key features include monumental brake squeal followed by a disappointing run of terrible mediocrity. Regale us below with your celebrity-Lotus hookups, and then watch some behind-the-scenes footage of Chris on the TG track, driving quite ‘enthusiastically'...

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Proton: Lotus is ‘not for sale’

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Group Lotus owner Proton has played down reports that it could sell the Norfolk sports car firm to investment company Genii Capital.

However, the Malaysian car firm has also stated that it is open to discussions about outside investment into Lotus, leaving the door open for a possible link-up with Genii.

On Saturday Autocar reported on speculation that Genii, founded and run by Gérard Lopez, was interested in buying a stake in Group Lotus.

Genii owns a large portion of the Renault GP, but Group Lotus sponsors the F1 squad and also has a 25 per cent stake.

A statement from Proton said: “The alleged moves between Group Lotus and Genii Capital are untrue and that the reports are highly speculative in nature. Proton's relationship with Group Lotus is as good as it has ever been. Our priority now is to ensure that the Lotus business turnaround plan is executed according to schedule and that both parties are committed to its success.

“Proton and Lotus have reached a juncture whereby the market is eagerly waiting for Lotus' new products and all our energy and efforts have to be channelled towards achieving this critical goal.

“However we wish to add, that as a proactive business entity, the Proton Group of Companies will continue to initiate and consider viable business opportunities and arrangements which will benefit and add value to the group's interest.”

Lotus has embarked on an ambitious plan to increase its sales figures from under 3000 to about 7000 by the end of 2015. Read more about that here.

See all the latest Lotus reviews, news and video

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Frankfurt 2011: the new Lotus Exige

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Lotus wants to remind the world of what it does best. Ignore the spurious employ of a Mr Beatz and the promise of a gazillion new sports cars for the moment, because here are a pair of cars that literally want to tear you a new one.

Welcome everyone, to the 2012 Lotus Exige S and the Evora GTE.

The new Exige S bins the Toyota 1.8 four-pot and its 220bhp high-revving charms, and instead opts for the 3.5-litre V6 straight from the Evora, adhering closely to a Top Gear truism that to become better, you need more.

See more pics of the new Lotus Exige S and Evora GTE

Lotus tells us performance figures aren't available yet because they "have not been witness tested", so we're going to play the Internet's favourite game of This Car Which I Don't Own Will Beat Every Car In The Earth. The old Exige - which was great, don't forget - did the 0-62mph dash in 4.3 seconds and finished up at 148mph, so with an extra 125bhp on tap and a modest increase in weight - up to 1080kg - the Exige S will likely venture into supercar territory.

The new Exige also gets a new front splitter and gets a slightly - slightly - more modest rear wing than before, as well as a slightly less snarling set of headlamps. Sadly, the roof scoop is gone. RIP.

Three driving modes are available with the Lotus Dynamic Performance Management system, ‘Touring', ‘Sport' and, err, ‘Off'. Should you require more testicular abuse, an additional race pack is available that features launch control and "optimised suspension settings" for hardened track use.

Also on the Lotus stand was its most powerful road car ever built: the 438bhp Lotus Evora GTE. Originally intended for the Asian market, it was created to celebrate Lotus entering the global GTE motorsport category.

It comes with an automated manual transmission racing gearbox, lightweight alloy rims and a "clever use of carbon fibre" to help shed 105kg from a standard Evora: the doors, rear wing and front and rear bumpers are now made of the stuff, along with Recaro CF seats too.

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar said: "The response to this model in China has been so incredible, within days we had sold out with 114 orders. In response we decided that the only logical step from a business perspective was to increase production and widen our reach."

That's right, Lotus is planning to build more. Watch this space.

View the original article here

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