Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was a young British Entrepreneur, who found Lotus cars in 1952.
Having a passion for racing, Lotus competed in Formula one between 1958 and 1994. Chapman passed away at a young age of 54 in 1982 and the company was later sold to General Motors in 1986. They owned the company for 7 years and later sold it to A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. in Luxembourg. The owner of the company is an Italian businessman named Romano Artioli who owned Bugatti. Today, Lotus has limited models out, the Elise and Exige. The new Lotus Elise and Exige base model has a 1.8 Liter Toyota engine which produces 190 bhp. Although it does not have a lot of power, the car weighs only one ton which accelerates the car from 0-60 mph in only 4.7 seconds. Not only that, the car gets 20 miles to the gallon.
The new 2008 Exige S comes equipped with 240 bhp supercharged engine boosting this car from 0-60 in less than 4 seconds. For a car like this, it has its benefits including incredibly fast, great gas mileage, sporty design, incredible handling, and an affordable price.
The cars only disadvantages are that they are extremely tight inside and has no power steering or luxury what so ever. Lotus is definitely not your every day driver. It is designed for the track and a great weekend car to take out on the town.
