Anti-paddle shifter comment!

I don't see how it's a mid engined 2+2, once you put 2 seats behind the driver it would be rear engined.

Today it's flappy-paddle 2+2s... Tomorrow its a Porsche Cayenne fighter

Please Lotus, dont go down that road.

Obviously there is a Fiero under there. With a Northstar.

Isn't that the coolest test mule ever?

You turn up at a track-day in that with the extra vents and that weirdness under the rear bumper:- and you own the circuit.

@RalphieDC: So what does that make the Vanagon?

It's like the Panamera, only not crappy looking.

Dunno. Looks conspicuously like an older Esprit. Not that that's a bad thing.

woopty doo, looks like an esprit to me

yeah, '02 esprit
[www.pistonheads.com]

wait mid engine 2+2...anyone else hear Mondial?

Looks like it's been stretched ever-so-slightly. Maybe. The rear side window looks longer, and the rocker-panel intake's indentation starts farther back from the front wheel house.

PS them's some ugly wheels.

@streetpirate: Yes, we know. It's a Lotus test mule dressed as an Esprit. That's what mules are for. Disguising stuff.

@Fitty7lax: Yes please!

Where are the missiles, the fins and the sexy bitch in the helicopter?

@tentacles: Much taller, you don't think they put the engine under the back seats do you?

It's totally a four door to take on Porsche.

@RalphieDC: If the engine is somewhere between the axles, then technically it's mid-engined. Despite that, mid-engined is typically taken to mean that the engine is mounted just ahead of the rear axle. I personally think that's because people can't handle the idea of the Citroen DS and SM, the Bizzarini Strada and possibly the new Audi A4 as being mid-engined cars.

This does look slightly stretched and has very homemade looking front arch flares. I'd bet the 'Eagle' is under there. I hope they come up with a more original name though. Either that or just call it 'Excel'. I also hope there's a proper manual 'box for the UK market.

This is one of the Esprit mules. Data search shows first registered in Feb 2006, running a 4.8L engine.

Oh please, dear lordy, please don't tell me Lotus is building a hybrid! Lotus does use Toyota engines and stuff, and this makes me shake with fear. Please, please, no Prius under an Esprit shell!

Anybody wanna place bets that that isn't the case?

@PapaLegba: I can't imagine they'd try to build a hybrid; they've already got their fingers in the electric cookie jar with the Tesla. Not wholly theirs, of course, but without my contacts in I couldn't tell the difference between an Elise and the Tesla.

@Lost_in_the_valley:
how'd you find that out? I don't doubt you, I just want to know how you look that stuff up

@MarkVictorArnold

I have a good bunch of contacts at Lotus, and the data you can search for at www.dvla.gov.uk

When I first spotted the posted photo, I was going to ask if it had a back seat. Then I read it is a 2+2. The elongated and rectilinear body reminds me of the Aston Martin Lagonda, which still stirs my blood to an erotic boiling point. I realize as a mule, different body panels are likely, but even as a test-bed, I find it sexy.

Very sweet.
Sometimes you need that "back seat."
For an extra 'little person' or two, or maybe a bale of hay or something.
A possible future JFG nominee.

The front wheel arches suggest they've widened the front track. For a mid-engined, rear drive car, the stagger of the old Esprit makes more sense. The widened track could indicate a 4 wheel drive system on the mule.

As far as the car being stretched or given a higher roof line, I'd have to see the photos next to an original. Either way it doesn't look long enough to have stuffed two more seats in there.. not real seats anyway. So my guess is still an Esprit w/ 4WD, maybe even the flappy paddles, so less of a Prius in an Esprit shell and more of an Evo.

Wow, that car almost looks new...if it were 1991.

So, it's an Esprit with (most likely) better handling, greater reliability and more power? Sign me up!

It definitely has a longitudinal engine, not transverse, you can tell by the transmission hanging out the back. So, it's not the Eagle. . .

Yep, it looks like the old Esprit. And if it looks like the new Esprit, I say good -- glad to see they didn't follow Jaguar, BMW, Subaru, and seemingly countless other manufacturers who seem hell-bent on employing a bunch of acid-eating gibbons with exacto knives and blocks of clay to "improve" their designs.

BTW, a new species of monkeys with a penchant for sculpting shapes from mud was recently discovered deep in the heretofore impenetrable darkness of darkest Africa. They're calling the new species the "Bangle".

Please just get something that makes us forget the new Europa. A new Elan maybe?? or atleast something that has
Barbara Bach and some antiaircraft missles yaknow I'mean?

I for one am truly excited to see what lies ahead with this thing. I feel as though I've been hearing about it and seeing spy shots of test mules forever. When are we going to see the real deal? Has there ever been a concept rendering? Lotus sure really knows how to keep things under wrap... argh! It's like waiting for Jennifer Love Hewitt to go topless. It never happens no matter how patient you are. C'mon Lotus, let me just sneak a peak. Just one peak won't hurt.

Isn't Lotus still a division or Proton? Or is it again newly independent? Either way, I don't see it surviving much longer.

didn't lotus do the suspension on the Ford GT? I could be wrong

@HansStuckJr: Well, it DOES look like one. Which may be why I like the Esprit so much.