Vijay Mallya's Force India is set to initiate legal action against Formula One team Lotus on a charge of breach of intellectual property...

Lotus has dropped the idea of using modified Toyota engines in its next generation of sports cars. Instead it is rushing out an all-new engine family. It will be a lightweight, high-revving, naturally aspirated V-8 making 550 horsepower-plus. Later, a 90-degree V-6 and possibly inline-four modular derivatives will join the family for the replacements for the Evora (called Elan) and Elise.

Niche Player Insists Six All-New Sports Cars are Coming - Here's the Plan

Have you ever had the dream? You know the one. You're out in public, as if everything is normal, but you're driving a naked car and everybody else is driving ordinary cars and you're hoping nobody notices; especially law enforcement? Maybe it's just me, but that's how driving the 2006 Lotus Exige feels. There's something exotic and naughty about taking the Exige out in public. It gets attention, and I'm sure the bright orange paint and flat-black wheels and wing have something to do with it.

Turn 12, Road Atlanta's screaming-fast, off-camber, downhill bend defines this old-school European-style road racing circuit. In the 2006 Lotus Sport Elise, it's dispatched in 4th gear at about 95 mph. Get it wrong and there's a massive concrete wall only 22 feet off the outside of the bend ready to make you regret your lack of talent. Get it right — flat out, eyes fixed past the apex, foot to the floor — and there's no drama at all. It takes us about 100 tries to get it right.

This may be the best car in the world — if all you need it to do is stay ahead of whatever's chasing it. If Bonnie and Clyde had a 2006 Lotus Elise they might still be on the run.

Dig through any sales literature on the 2006 Mercury Milan and one point becomes glaringly obvious: Mercury wants its new sedan to stand out as upscale and valuable in one of the market's most aggressive and important segments. This only makes sense. After all, American carmakers have lacked a genuinely competitive midsize sedan for years.

There is a corner at the infamous Nürburgring that sets the Lotus Exige apart from just about every other car on the road, the Lotus Elise included. It's toward the beginning of the 13-mile lap and as you approach it, you cannot help but wrap your fingers ever tighter around the thick black steering wheel. For you know that not only is the approach to the ultrafast double-apex right-hander completely blind but also that, for a sizable chunk of the time you'd usually be thinking about slowing a normal car and positioning it on the track, you're going to be in the air.

At the 2010 Paris Auto Show, Lotus unveiled the impressive Elan concept with the full intention of bringing it back in production form by 2013. Be it blind passion or just a mere oversight, Lotus failed to notice that their new concept bared a strong resemblance to their Evora model, so the company is putting the concept on hold indefinitely.

We all had a dream car when we were children, but most of us will never own the exotic machine that adorned our bedroom walls so many years ago. The lucky few individuals that do usually buy decades-old supercars that more often than not are disappointing by modern standards. But for one lucky (and obviously very wealthy) man, the dream of owning a brand-new Lancia Stratos has become a reality.