Take some time today, if you haven’t in a while, to admire the Lotus Esprit. Why doesn’t it get more credit for being an enduring, compelling design? The world doesn’t make sense sometimes.

We got some Tesla stuff for you this morning, Mazda, Suzuki and Yamaha in the doghouse, some money possibly being thrown at Lotus and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018.

Though Lotus has been making the same car for roughly three decades now, it’s hard not to appreciate the raw look of the 2005 Exige, even today.

There were only 23 Lotus Elite Super 95s produced, including one that Lotus gave to racing legend Jim Clark as payment for Clark’s Formula One driving instead of actual money. A fair deal, if you ask me.

Remember: if Lotus can get through... everything, you can get through today!

It’s strange to think about comparing modern cars with older ones because nearly all modern cars are bigger, heavier and usually more powerful. But when you compare a 1991 Acura NSX with a 2018 Lotus Evora 400, the line between the two gets blurry.

Chief executive officer of Lotus Jean-Marc Gales just stepped down “for personal reasons,” and will join a company that restores and sells old classic cars. Replacing Gales at Lotus is Feng Qingfeng, vice president and chief technical officer of Geely, the Chinese company that, as of 2017, has owned a controlling…

The Lotus Esprit’s initial design was a classic shape, one that Lotus didn’t want to change for a good three decades. Except when the 1981 Esprit Turbo added a big duck tail spoiler in the back, Lotus designers had to block it with another, smaller hidden spoiler. Why? Too much downforce.

Every moment you’re driving the 2018 Lotus Evora Sport 410 GP Edition you are engaged in motorsport, whether you want to be or not.

You can never get enough Esprit.

Today we’re used to seeing completely stripped and caged Ariel Atoms, Exocets and Vette Karts, but it’s still refeshing to see the so-millenial-it-hurts 2000 Lotus 340R, one of the most extreme cars ever put into production.

Lotus, bless its heart, has debuted yet another new car, the 3-Eleven 430. Supposedly it is the new fastest road car the company has yet produced. I’m more impressed that the company has made a new car at all.

It once took three whole companies to bring the engine in today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corvette to life. Let’s see if this red rocket’s price tag will mean there’s still some of that life left in it.

Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.

Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales got pulled over in one of his company’s sports cars last January for doing 102 mph in a 70 mph zone. But a judge allowed Gales to get by without a single point on his license, because the boss’s lawyer argued that it was “vital” that Gales continue test driving cars himself.

For a brief moment in the 1990s, GT1 was the top tier of international auto racing, with major manufacturers firehosing gigantic budgets into homologation special programs to conquer Le Mans. Also, there was this Lotus, sent with a handwritten approval to the FIA.

There once was a time (let’s just say in the 1960s) that Lotus and Porsche were fairly equivalent in the automotive world. Both small, both making nimble sports cars. If you wanted a German car, you got a Porsche, and if you wanted a good car, you got a Lotus. That time is long gone, but now Lotus is flush with…

The Lotus Exige Cup 430 is another fantablous-looking car with a jaw-dropping spec sheet and just enough creature comforts to be street legal somewhere. If there was ever an ode-to-stuff-fanboys-like, this is it served up on a carbon fiber platter.

These days the Ford MK2 Escort has been making the news, what with Ken Block ripping around in one lately. That’s great! And it reminded me of another old, little rear-drive rally car that sounded incredible: the Sunbeam Lotus. And that idle brain wander had me realize that the little Lotus was weirder than I thought.

The bad news is that we’ve known Lotus was likely going to plunge into the crossover craze for a while now. This new patent rendering seems to show they’re getting pretty far along with the concept, but it shouldn’t be anything to worry about.