Sale Of Parent Company Puts Lotus’ Future In Question

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, so does the automotive business. Volvo is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, while Jaguar / Land Rover is owned by the Indian company Tata. Upscale British brands Bentley and Rolls Royce are both owned by the Germans, with Bentley under VW’s brand and Rolls under BMW’s. Read more…

Lust-Worthy Cars In The Canyons Of Southern California

Southern California is the center of the collector / exotic car universe, and nowhere is that more evident than the canyons of Mulholland Highway, near Malibu, California. YouTube poster RNickeymouse makes a living by filming motorcycle riders in some of the better corners, then selling them the footage and stills. Occasionally, he captures a few cars worth noting, too, like the ones in the video below.

If you’ve got a keen eye, you’ll spot Jay Leno (twice, in fact), and the list of cars captured is pretty impressive. There’s a Ferrari 599 GTO, a McLaren MP4-12C, a prototype Audi eTron Spyder, a few Ariel Atoms, a Caterham 7, a Bugatti Type 57 SC and even what looks to be an original Shelby Cobra. If idiots crossing double-yellow lines mid-corner raise your blood pressure, there’s some sweet justice in the middle of the video, too. Read more…

A Lotus Exige S, A Boxer And A Whole Lot Of Peyote

We’ll be straight with you: none of us at Automotive Addicts are big into artsy concept videos. We have no idea what the latest video ad from Lotus, which features the new Exige S, a boxer and a whole lot of tire smoke, is supposed to mean. Is the Lotus nimble enough to dance around a pro boxer? Is the Lotus beefy enough to go round after round with the toughest competitors? Is the Lotus Exige S a good choice when you want to run over a guy who’s probably six foot three and 240 pounds? We don’t have answers to the first two questions, but we’re pretty sure the answer to the last one is “no.” Read more…

Video: World’s Greatest Drag Race

The guys at Motor Trend take 11 of the best “drivers cars” to an empty airstrip for the world’s greatest drag race. Why in the world would Motor Trend do this? Well, because they can as Angus MacKenzie explains. What are the world’s best “drivers cars” according to Motor Trend equaling an 82-cylinder, 5000 horsepower and $1.5 million drag race? Here is the full list of cars (in winning order) and drag video in its entirety below. Enjoy!

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Heading To Europe? Rent A Lotus Evora Through Hertz

It’s no secret that Europe has some of the best roads on the planet, and a business trip across the pond often requires you to rent a car to get from place to place. I’ve had good luck and bad luck with my own European car rental experiences, and usually wind up getting stuck with a station wagon. Sure, they’re comfortable, but a quick run up the Stelvio Pass in a BMW 525 Estate isn’t quite as much fun as the same drive in an Audi S4 or a BMW M3. You can’t rent those cars (at least not easily), and the Europeans are probably wise to stick us under-trained American drivers in station wagons and subcompacts, just to keep us from dying on their roads. Read more…

The Caterham Seven Lives: Team Lotus Buys Caterham

In the U.S., you need to be a true enthusiast to know what a Caterham Seven is, but the car is known, loved and feared throughout the rest of the world. Based on the minimalist Lotus 7, the Caterham Seven is a tube frame, front-engine, rear-drive sports car that’s always been about function over form. Some variants are road legal while some are reserved for the track. Some are powered by a 1.4-liter four, good for just 105 horsepower, while the range-topping Superlight R500 gets a 263 horsepower out of a 2.0-liter Ford Duratec. That’s good enough to get the R500 from 0 to 60 in 2.88 seconds, on the way to a top speed of 150 miles per hour. All of them, including the base Classic model, are superb-handling cars that reward smooth driving and punish those lacking in finesse. Read more…

1200HP 2011 Hennessey Venom GT In Jay Leno’s Garage

By now, if you read AutomotiveAddicts.com often, you now that we keep up on what ‘new’ car is currently in Jay Leno’s garage. For this week it is the infamous 2011 Hennessey Venom GT packing in Bugatti Veyron Super Sport numbers with 1200 horsepower. With the unbelievable power-to-weight ratio in this Lotus Elise/Exige based monster, it is a wonder how anyone is able to keep it on the track.

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Preview: 2011 Hennessey Venom GT w/Video

Usually when a car is either named after a deadly snake or a snake’s venom, it means that it is nothing to play around with because it means business. That’s just what the 2011 Hennessey Venom GT is all about, some serious business when it comes to performance.

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