Not much is known about the car other than it lives in California and is owned by a guy who goes by the name Perry. If anyone can fill in the details we'll happily add them. Until then we'll just quietly consider how we're wasting our lives.

Photo Credit: kertong.com on Flickr

[JonSibal]

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Ahh, Thanksgiving — turkey, family, angst, and burnouts. (Your holiday doesn't have burnouts? What are you, a commie?)

Also lists. We make lists every day, and on holidays, we sit around and stuff our faces full of food and make more lists. What are we thankful for this week? Turkey, that's what. We're also thankful for these ten cars — even though we can't afford some of them, we're happy that they exist. Dig in.

Bugatti Veyron

Because it's proof that one man can still go stark raving mad and build a world-beating car that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Makes the idea of a focus group seem like a fate worse than death. One set of its tires likely costs more than your first car did. It is yin and yang, Jalop (engineering masterwork) and anti-Jalop (heavy, unattainable). Do not try to understand it. It just is.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Chevrolet Corvette

It is an American car made by American men and women. It is like walking down the street wearing a T-shirt that says, "I'm with Penis." It is remarkably modern and wonderfully crude all at once. And for a short, glorious while, it went to Le Mans and reminded the world that Yankees could kick ass. All hail the LS7. All hail the LS9. All hail Detroit.

Photo Credit: Sam Smith

Lotus Elise/Exige

Because someone, somewhere, forgot to tell the boys in Hethel to make it fat, ugly, and boring. Because it is a real car that happens to be built out of gossamer and fiberglass. And because I once flung one sideways through Road Atlanta's Turn Twelve — not entirely on purpose, mind — at triple-digit speeds and lived to tell the tale. It made me look less than stupid. I am eternally grateful.

Photo Credit: Horgakx / Flickr

Nissan GT-R

It is heavy, clublike, and run by a million computers. It is surprisingly sterile and undoubtedly better at driving itself than you are. (You get the feeling that no matter how you treat it, it is toying with you, watching you from afar.) It is on this list because it is unique. Because it is everything wrong with Japan's car industry. Because it is also everything right.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen's GTI is the ultimate automotive success story, a model that lost its way only to find it again years later. Sure, it's not the most durable thing on the planet, but that's part of its charm — it's cheap, cheerful, and faster than it seems. If you haven't embarrassed a supercar on some winding back road in one of these things, then you haven't lived. Hot hatches don't get much better.

BMW 335i

It is very nearly the perfect automobile, but this is no surprise. The 3 Series has been exceptional for decades, and save the odd dose of corporate German hubris, it just keeps getting better. Build a better sport sedan than this 300-horse, velvet-glove monster, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Photo Credit: Fabio Aro / Flickr

Mazda RX-8

Quirk, and for little reason other than satisfying a decades-old obsession on the part of its maker. Painfully slow around town. Those once-trick doors are now almost too much work, and the RX-8's Renesis rotary sucks dino juice like it's on OPEC's payroll. But the chassis is flat-out magic, the kind of magic you only discover at nine-and-a-half tenths when you're trying to eke out that last little bit of speed and you think nothing is left. It reminds you of a Spec Miata with more weight in the tail. It is the attainable sports car for people who truly understand what that phrase means.

Photo Credit: Michael Banovsky / Flickr

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

Now that both Subaru and Mitsubishi have left the international rally stage, the WRX STI and the Lancer Evolution seem a bit lost. (Homologation specials need something to be homologated for, no?) Were we forced to choose between the two, we'd probably pick the Evo, but it's a tough call. It depends on the roads you're on, on how you feel that day, and on whether you have be someplace very quickly and with little drama (STI) or absolutely nowhere at all (Evo).

The STI is an amazingly talented car and arguably the better all-rounder. The Evo is the dirty, rough-edged monster that everyone thinks rally cars are supposed to be. We like them both — a lot — but only one of them feels as mean as it looks. Mitsu by a hair.

Ford Mustang

The Mustang is a rolling contradiction, equal parts modern muscle and hopeless anachronism. It is an argument for and against everything we stand for, a piece of yesterday bound up in a slightly cheesy modern wrapper. It is both much better and much worse than you expect it to be, but somehow, that's part of its charm. It is very, very difficult not to like.

Exhaust rumble. A rompy V-8. A stick axle so well-controlled, it makes the concept almost seem relevant again. These things are not the future, but we love them all the same. Were we to wake up tomorrow and drive off into the soul of America, we would do it in a Mustang.

Photo Credit: Sausyn / Flickr

Caterham Seven

One long-dead man's ridiculous dream turned reality turned company-bill-payer turned neglected relic turned reality again. Impossibly small. Sillier than almost anything else on wheels. Older than dirt. And still fantastic.

Happy turkey!

Photo Credit: Exfordy / Flickr

"We have taken color schemes from our past, used on the Elite and Elan in the 1960s, and cleverly brought them up to date with a modern feel to the interior. The whole design package is modern with a classic twist," says Lotus director Luke Bennet.

In addition to white, there's also Elite Yellow, Carbon Grey and Sky Blue. Those colors continue into the interior on the transmission tunnel and the microfiber bucket seats. The club racer also gets grey 6-spoke alloys, Yokohama AD07 LTS tires, a grey shift knob and an anodized aluminum floor. The Elise S reaches 60 MPH in 5.7 seconds.

If all that's a bit girly for you or, perhaps you are actually a large scale consumer of Olde English, then Lotus is also showing the 2010 Lotus Exige Cup 260, which makes the same 257 HP as before, but is now lighter, stiffer and more nimble than before, largely thanks to shedding 26 pounds through the use of even lighter components and ditching the rearview mirror, sun visors and carpets. All that ads up to just 1,958 Lbs of total weight, meaning it weighs half of what a Camaro does and will hit 60 MPH in 4.0 seconds.

The Lotus driver apparently lost control around a corner, over-corrected and slammed straight into a BMW X5. The passengers of the BMW suffered only minor injuries, but the passengers in the Lotus were trapped for 30 minutes and had to be cut out of the roof. The 14-year-old boy was life-flighted to the hospital while the father was well enough to be taken by ambulance.

And the driver of the Porsche, of course, fled the scene until he was later stopped by deputies. The D.A. is still trying to determine what charges will be filed. (Hat Tip to Jo Schmo!)

[Photos/Story: KSL]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Just so we're clear here, this is an Italy-only deal so far, with no immediate plans to expand it to other shores, that said, those in Italy will be getting a pretty sweet loaner option. The cars on-hand will get a yellow paint job and special Hertz-themed interior including contrasted stitching and "Hertz" embroidered seats. Among the options are the Elise, Elise SC and Exige. Meanwhile, America will just have to deal with their crummy old Mustang and Corvette options.

[Source: Hertz]

Spotted somewhere in Abu Dhabi by the jet-setting paint specialists at Death Spray Custom, it also appears that this Fauxarri is sporting some kind of fur-themed interior. Sadly, Death Spray's good taste was so offended by lipstick-like grill that they were unable to get close-up shots of what might just be a stuffed lion covering over the instrument binnacle. [Death Spray Custom]

The Elise Purist Edition will come in with a price of $43,995, undercutting the base Elise which starts at $47,250. If you consider the included options, it's practically a steal. It comes with the 190 HP 1.8 liter Toyota four cylinder, leather seats, a leather Momo steering wheel, an in-dash CD player with four speakers, floor mats and sound deadening along with air conditioning and a starter button — basically the bare minimum of what you want if you're a Lotus buyer.

Unfortunately, color options are limited to red, white and yellow. We'd have liked to see good old British Racing Green in there, but it's a minor grievance when we're talking about a brand spankin' new Lotus. By removing the options we don't really need and leaving the bare minimum for regular comfort, this may be the best non-SC Elise you can get. For the complete spec sheet, click here while we head down to our local Lotus dealer for no good reason. [Lotus Enthusiast]

Police in Derbyshire, England claim to have clocked Mr. O'Reilly zipping along the A515 at the breakneck pace of 173 MPH in an unmodified Lotus Elise. When the case went to court, Tex's attorney pointed out that despite police claims of properly calibrated radar equipment, the car he was traveling in was only capable of a much more sedate 127 MPH. When the prosecution could not disprove the claim, O'Reilly plead guilty to 105 MPH which brings a fine instead of a three year jail sentence. [Telegraph]

This 2002 Type 72 JPS Lotus Elise took six months to complete and was built by TW Auto Limited of Hong Kong, China for customer Jimmy Wong. The interior and exterior has been fully replaced with a custom raw carbon fiber body allowing for a weight savings advantage of 66-88lbs under the original weight of the Lotus Elise. Additional aftermarket parts were added to supplement the weight loss including a KW suspension package, JP Racing wheels, Lotus Racing exhaust, a larger intake and air filter.

We questioned if the effort was really worth it, but it certainly does look cool. Just make sure to clean up the drool when you're done.

[via Carbon Fiber Gear]

All was well in Top Gear land for the review of the Tesla Roadster. Clarkson’s usual suspicious attitude was quickly wiped clean when he raced a standard Lotus Elise, as the little electric-that-could tore past the Elise in the straights, but like the stereotype of many American cars, took a crap in the corners. Then it lost battery power after 55 miles (of heavy track use) and would require 16 hours to recharge. A second Tesla Roadster was brought out and broke soon after with Clarkson stating the motor was overheating. Clarkson went back to the first car only to find that the brakes were busted. Things weren’t looking good for the Silicon Valley startup.

Tesla spokesperson, Rachel Konrad (as an aside we know quite a number of young lads who fancied Konrad during her time spent in Detroit) was more than a little peeved upon hearing the bad review and decided she needed to step in. Konrad states the lithium-ion batteries never lost their charge, and more specifically, neither car’s charge level dropped below 20 percent.

Konrad says,

“They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault and it isn’t clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that.”

Curious as to why Clarkson states that the Tesla needs 16 hours to charge, she says,

“The vast majority of people who have a Tesla in their garage have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours (using the Tesla Motors High Power Connector).”

The issue with the engine overheating wasn’t addressed, but Konrad says that the brake failure in the first car was an issue with a blown fuse.

“The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes,” she said.

Although Clarkson was his usual self, complaining about anything and everything, he did appear to enjoy the car, even calling himself a “volt head” during the first part of the segment. Clarkson’s voice carries weight the world over, but considering the little Tesla Roadster's current market — Silicon Valley execs with money burning a hole in their pocket and eco-freaks; Does it matter?

[via Wired]

The Top Gear boys got their fish and chips scented mitts on a couple of Telsa Roadsters (you'll see why) and gave it the full program. Loving videography, a little racing with a Lotus Elise and then they tossed it to the Stig for a run at the leaderboard. Take a look and see what the final verdict is yourself.

Also, thanks to the fanboys at FinalGear, this map shows roughly what the Australian track looks like from a bird's eye satellite view. It seems to us like a pretty tight course, with some sections looking quite narrow, so it'll be interesting to see how real-world supercars like the RHD Ford GT fare.

The news comes via CAR magazine, which reports that the new Dino will stay true to the Bertone-styled 1966 original’s capable, but basic and affordable, sportscar mantra. Think of it as the Italian take on GM’s Vauxhall VX220, which was built from 2000-2005 and is widely considered one of the brand’s best-ever vehicles.

While it's likely that the 2011 Dino will use one of Fiat’s many four-cylinder powerplants, we’d like nothing better than to see a miniscule 2.0-liter V6 shoehorned into the Elise’s too-small engine bay. [CAR]

The company is quite ambitious, with talk already of distribution strategy and a possible quick-charge infrastructure around Malaysia. In addition to Paul's test drive of the Lotus, he also got to ride shotgun in an electric Proton Persona. Both seemed to have impressed him with their level of development, but read Paul's comments for yourself at paultan.org.

This little green Lotus is set to cost approximately $53,500, though it's cheaper if you've already got an Elise of your own that can be converted. That's a fairly reasonable price given the promised performance and the novelty of getting a car with a "powered by VTEC" sticker that is actually powered by VTEC. In addition, you might be able to shed a few pounds and Pounds by foregoing the six layers of super green spray. The car also comes with a 12-month warranty, though we're guessing it doesn't cover rolling your super Elise into the Thames at 160 mph. [AutoBlog.nl via MotorAuthority]

Jalopnik Snap Judgement: Despite Lotus producing the Evora in a mere 21 months and they're expanding operations globally, given the size of Lotus operations under the guidance of Proton, this three-platform plan seems extremely ambitious. But the real news is still that new mid-engined supercar. Given the existing lineup, starting with a four-banger in the smallest chassis, and now the six-cylinder Evora, a V8 seems the logical next step, and a Toyota V8 at that (Toyota 4.7-liter, anyone?). Despite our fervent wishes to see the return of the Esprit, we think it's probably unlikely they'll drink from the fountain of retro, so expect yet another new "E" name to remember.

Photo credit to Autogaleria

We know the real reason that you cut the weight was to improve the Elise's 0-to-62 MPH time. Sub-six seconds and gas-drinking can't be green! We all know performance and good looks kill spotted owls. Why do you think the Toyota Prius is so slow and ugly? And by using hemp and sisal in your body panels, seats and interior fabrics, we know you're just secretly planning to cut down the rain forest to build your cars.

And solar panels used to power the A/C? We've got you beat there too you filthy capitalists. The new Solar Toyota Prius is getting solar panels as a "symbolic gesture." Everyone knows that being green is about appearances, jeeze.

Oh and a light that tells you when to shift for maximum economy. Sheesh, we're starting to pity you. Don't you know real environmentalists let their transmissions do the shifting for them? How else would we drive while drinking our free trade coffee? We bet you don't even drink free trade coffee. And don't even get us started on the 36 MPG highway figure that the stock car gets. The Tesla Roadster doesn't even use gallons, and it totally exists in reality, too — so stop trying to copy their styling cues with such seeming ease it's like your cut from the same cloth. Nice try Lotus, but you're not going to kill Mother Gaia on our watch. [via World Car Fans]

While we already know what some of the suspension looked like, we're also able to see there might be some funky geometry going on with the roof, or it could just be folds in the fabric. Other than that? Well — there's those fog lights and rear view mirrors sticking out... and... umm... there's not much more to see. We guess we'll just have to wait for someone to leak all the other pictures the British Motor Show starting July 22nd. [Carnoise]