New Lotus Europa Details (and pics)

It's always a happy day when Lotus releases new information on their latest cars. This one is the Europa, a name not used since the 70's for the incredibly small flat car that I believe Mr Bond used once (but can't for the life of me remember in which film). Anyway, the original was a dream car for me growing up - something so small being so fast, and the fact that you saw maybe one a year if you were lucky (and tall enough to see out of the car window when you're 6).

This one stays light, gets a Vauxhall 2.0 litre turbo engine, and is designed for "business class" travel, rather than the cheap and cheerful Elise and Exige (talking about interior fittings here, not actual prices I hope you realize). It looks like it's about 10 grand more expensive back in England than the Elise, and it was while I was working on the money conversions to see if it was going to go into my list of possible cars when I have (lots) more money, I read the dreaded "This car will be available in 2006 in all Lotus current markets except Canada and the USA". I'm guessing it was to do with Vauxhall engine not being ok for California, or maybe the Elise is doing so well they don't need anything else (at least until the new Esprit comes along anyway).

Still, probably saved me 50 grand, so I shouldn't complain