With a return of wintry weather promised for East Anglia later this week, Lotus are ahead of the game as usual for they are already experiencing a blizzard of their own, but not of the snowy variety, for there is a veritable storm of activity happening around the Lotus brand.

Firstly, the eagerly awaited new Grand Prix contender – the first to bear the Lotus name for many years – is set to take to the track for the first time on Tuesday. The Hingham-based Lotus F1 squad fired-up their new Cosworth V8 for the first time on Saturday, ahead of Tuesday’s shake-down at Silverstone. They are then due to return to the home of the British Grand Prix on Saturday following the official unveiling of the car and team to the world’s press on Friday night at London’s Royal Horticultural Hall.

“We’ll be shaking the car down on Tuesday, just getting the fire-up is one more thing, there’s still a lot of parts to put on” a cautious Mike Gascoyne told Radio Norfolk. 

Despite earlier impressions to the contrary, it now seems that some sort of working relationship is developing between Group Lotus and the newly-formed Lotus F1 Grand Prix team, for the race team's driver, Jarno Trulli, is to assist with testing the Evora Cup race car that was unveiled at the recent Autosport International show. Starting with a couple of test days at Snetterton this week, the Italian ace will be working alongside Lotus Engineering test driver Gavan Kershaw to get the ultimate out of the machine Lotus Motorsport are preparing for a one-make race series. The days will also see Lotus testing an evolution of the award winning Lotus 2-Eleven GT4. The days have been opened up to the Media as well as those involved in Motorsport  and will hopefully start the process of putting Lotus at the forefront of European and World Motorsport. 

Well, it seems the time is almost here! If you want to catch a first glimpse of the new Elise S3 you'll need to set your alarm early on the morning of Tuesday 2 March, for that's when we are led to believe Lotus will take the wraps off the eagerly awaited new car - they have an 08.45am slot (that's 07.45 in UK/Portugal) booked for a press event on the opening Press-only day of the Geneva Motor Show.

Naturally details are sketchy at the moment but we are led to believe that Elise S3, or Project Anglesey as it is known internally, will once again be Toyota powered although with stocks of the now-obsolete 1.8-litre running down, alternative 1.6- and 2.0-litre units from the same source will be phased-in by the end of 2010. On the face of it even the 2.0-litre engine would appear to be less powerful than the existing unit according to Toyota figures, bear in mind that Toyota have given Lotus a free hand in re-mapping engines, so presumably that arrangement would continue. 

Lotus Press Release

Lotus Cars Limited is delighted to sponsor the Bob Champion 60:60 Challenge and support both the Injured Jockeys Fund and the Bob Champion Cancer Trust in their fund raising pursuits.

The Bob Champion Cancer Trust is dedicated to improving the detection and treatment of male cancers. Awareness is vital to early detection of testicular and prostate cancers and as manufacturers of iconic sports cars Lotus recognises a unique opportunity to raise awareness amongst its male customer and fan base.