Lotus has launched a new package for the 2008 Europa S sports car to provide increased luxury without a significant performance penalty. The Luxury Touring Pack Option dresses the interior in the smart attire of saddle tan leather, chocolate colored leather and brown carpets.
Where the standard Europa S uses lightweight composite components for items such as the steering column shroud, dash top, instrument and ventilation binnacles and sill covers, the Luxury Touring Pack Option on the Europa S covers these and other components with four hides of soft high-grade leather.
Supportive sports seats are fitted and are also clad in similar material. Safety critical composite components such as the passenger airbag door are coated in a high-tech soft-to-the-touch material.
Exterior additions to the Luxury Touring Pack Option include tinted rear and rear three-quarter glass, body coloured front driving lamp surrounds, side air-intake surrounds and roof air-outlet grille. All other exterior grilles such as the front radiator grilles and the rear light grille surrounds are colored in silver.
All these added luxuries add very little weight to the feather-light Europa S, Lotus says.
03/06, 10:27 AM
posted by:
imageWIS
The interior is sick…I wish every car had an interior like that.
Jon.
03/06, 11:07 AM
posted by:
theshadow
nice but it still needs more power to make it come across as simply a ‘big elise’
03/06, 11:08 AM
posted by:
theshadow
err…’MORE THAN’ a big elise that is…
03/06, 11:55 AM
posted by:
lotusfire
Sharp, I love the car in black.
homeboy234: That may be true, but based on my tastes I would buy this car before a GT. I would aslo rather have the touring version.
03/06, 11:58 AM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
this is sweet, like it better than the elise derivitaves.
03/06, 3:18 PM
posted by:
Aston Martin
Easier to use day-to-day but still ridiculously uncomfortable. The Europa isn’t a GT, it’s a slightly bigger, softer (but still rock hard) Elise. The interior does look incredible, but the Lotus badge looks out of place amidst all that leather. I suppose it makes the car nicer to be in when mucking about on country lanes and winding mountain roads, but still now way near being a long range GT car.
03/06, 4:06 PM
posted by:
A4
well damn its nice, but the europa isnt a great car.
03/06, 4:38 PM
posted by:
meanpants555
It is a great car, but at $65,000 the Europa is not the best value (wouldn’t a used 911 be better?)
03/06, 4:38 PM
posted by:
meanpants555
The Touring Package would be one box ticked by many if they were to offer it across the range.
03/06, 5:12 PM
posted by:
LamborghiniZ
I like the exterior looks, they’re quite handsome, and the interior is gorgeously finished in that leather, and what an awesome shifter head! However everything I’ve read about this car is it’s not quite as good as it’s Elise/Exige siblings, that it’s not nearly as satisfying a product as it could/should have been.
03/06, 11:16 PM
posted by:
naggs
who would have though that a big elise with leather interior would be a crappy car?
anyone who was paying attention.
just because a brand CAN expand into a different market doesnt mean it SHOULD. take a lesson from harley davidson. when business is good, keep a long list and charge a permium. dont expand your company to meet temporary demand. when it dissapears, your a niche company that cant sell all it produces. stick to what your good at and maybe you will survive more than 10 years between bankruptcy (spelling?) and new ownership.
the elise/exige should be lotus’s halo model. it pretty much is weither lotus realizes it or not. they should be looking BELOW that for new models. lotus should be making the fastest 120 hp car ever made, not a medioker unreliable 4-500 hp supercar.
03/06, 11:46 PM
posted by:
Jaguar Sovereign
All of that plush soft inviting leather looks great and probably feels even better. However Aston Martin put it right by saying that it looks extremely out of place in a vehicle such as a lotus. I only wish they borught these to North america and include canada this time. I would buy one and send it off to forcedfed engineering for a turbo setup (make about 400 hp).
03/07, 12:07 AM
posted by:
Renton
Love it.
03/07, 12:20 AM
posted by:
F451
I do love this automobile as it is a bit more practical than the Elise. Issues for me are the price-point that is bit too high, and the engine. Far too many cars in this price range that offer substantially more for the money. However, the soft-spot I have Lotus will still have me looking at if it makes to the States.
03/07, 1:33 AM
posted by:
amanda
Lotus should stick to doing what it does well.
Which is what, again?
03/07, 8:08 AM
posted by:
Renton
They should totally sell this in the US, no brainer.
03/07, 11:50 AM
posted by:
PrimeGTP
Yeesh, what a horrendous interior! Ever heard the phrase “less is more”??
03/08, 1:38 AM
posted by:
europerspective
Sold!
03/08, 11:22 PM
posted by:
LamborghiniZ
PrimeGTP: Just out of curiosity, what is it, exactly, that you DO like? You seem to dislike a hell of a lot, so for example, what don’t you like about this interior? I’m not trying to be a tool or anything I’m just wondering
03/22, 12:08 PM
posted by:
RICH AS HELL
Aint bad and remember it is a touring car.