Motorsport Car Portal Information Tips

The compact Fabia won't be the only new offering from Skoda in the new year. An all-new version of their flagship luxury sedan, the Superb, is expected to make its world debut at the Geneva auto show in March, and thereafter hit the Indian streets before the end of the year.
Like the existing Superb, which was based on the previous generation Volkswagen Passat platform, the new one will be based on a stretched version of the latest Passat chassis. This new car will undoubtedly share some of the same qualities as the existing model, which include rear seat space and comfort rivaling the very best luxury sedans at only a fraction of the price.This image reveals a slightly more svelte and interesting look as well. Nevertheless, they'll have to work hard to differentiate the new Superb from the Passat, which has only recently debuted in the Indian market.

The Lotus name is an iconic one in the history of motorsport. Lotus was founded in 1952 by Colin Chapman arguably one of the greatest automotive engineers ever. They have since won the F1 world championship seven times.

Chapman strongly believed that weight is the enemy of performance. This philosophy is still very much adhered to by the company. Many sports car makers claim to follow this belief, but none with quite the same purity and sense of purpose as Lotus.

Their success in the past hasn't guaranteed a smooth ride in the company's recent history however. Lotus has changed hands a number of times in the recent past, but is currently in good shape with majority ownership in the hands of Proton - the Malaysian national carmaker has owned 80% of Lotus since 1996. The company is still headquartered at Norfolk in the UK however.

Off late, Lotus have been looking to expand their presence in the global market, and are currently present in Thailand, Korea and of course Malaysia as well. India is next on the radar. Lotus is on the lookout for dealers and plans to launch their famed Elise model in 18 months time.

The Elise was launched in 1996 - a car that's been a huge success and changed the fortunes of the company. The car has as fiberglass body on top of a very unique chassis made of extruded aluminum, which is glued and riveted together to form not only an extremely light, but also stiff structure.

The Elise has a 1.8 litre, 4 cylinder, mid-mounted Toyota engine that produces 190bhp, which may not sound like a great deal but it accelerates from 0-100km/h in under 5 seconds. Moreover, since its debut, it's been widely regarded as the best handling car in the world. This is a pure sports car in every sense - so much so that, until recently, basic creature comforts like carpets and a CD player were optional extras.

Frankly, the Elise is more suited to a racetrack than the daily grind, especially on Indian roads. But then, we could well have an F1 track in the NCR by 2010 - at which time an Elise would be a handy tool indeed.