2005 Lotus Elise on 2040-cars

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Lotus hands Pastor Maldonado a new Evora S in Monaco

Being a Formula One driver has its privileges. First off, you get to drive F1 cars for a living. You get treated like royalty and fly around the world. And if you're lucky, you might get a supercar thrown at you once in a while. It all depends on which team you drive for.
Fernando Alonso, for example, has had countless Ferraris, Maseratis, Abarths and Jeeps thrown his way. Lewis Hamilton was a little disappointed not to get the keys to that rare McLaren F1 LM when he won the championship. But Pastor Maldonado just got his hands on a new Lotus Evora S.
Pastor who now, you ask? Pastor Maldonado. The first Venezuelan driver in F1, Maldonado won the GP2 title in 2010 then made the jump to F1, driving for Williams for the past three seasons, impressively winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012. Now he's at Lotus filling Kimi Raikkonen's seat, and took delivery of his white Evora - complete with 3.5-liter supercharged V6 and six-speed sequential gearbox - in Monte Carlo last weekend during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Jay Leno goes old school with 1966 Lotus Elan 26R

On the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage the guest's are both from inside the garage: the man they call Professor Jim Hall, Leno's master fabricator, and the 1966 Lotus 26R that he spent 18 months building. The Elan 26R was the racing version of the Elan that Lotus founder Colin Chapman began building after watching privateer teams prep their roadgoing Elans for competition duty all over Europe. Built by the factory from 1964-1966, drivers like Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart won silverware in the roadster called "the giant killer."
Hall, a veteran Lotus wrench, started with the 1966 Elan street car and turned it into a 26R that's arguably better than the factory original. Except for the engine block and head, original 26R body and Elan chassis, just about everything is custom built, highly modified or special order, from the fabricated oil pan, brake lines, safety wiring and oval exhaust tubing to the six-speed sequential transmission.
The episode is an unusually-long 21 minutes because, as an in-house build, Leno can go through the process of putting the whole roadster together. When he takes it for a drive and keeps going on about how it sings, you can hear it, too. It's worth the time to check out Mr. Hall's Opus in the video below.

Kimi Raikkonen to miss rest of season for back surgery

Formula One drivers keep themselves in peak physical condition, such are the demands placed on them in order to do what they do. But otherworldly as their capabilities may be, they're still human, and that means they get injured or sick just like the rest of us.
Case in point: Kimi Raikkonen and the announcement made today by Lotus that he'll have to sit out the rest of the season in order to undergo back surgery. That means Lotus will have to find a replacement driver for the last two races in Austin and Brazil while Kimi has and recovers from the operation.
Though we wouldn't debate the legitimacy of Kimi's condition or the necessity to rectify it, the timing is sure to raise some eyebrows. Raikkonen has been at the center of a pay dispute with Lotus, and while the situation was reportedly resolved, his decision to undergo what is said to be elective surgery at this point in the season (as opposed to waiting until its end) raises some questions as to his commitment to the team he is leaving and his team's financial commitments to him in turn.