COMMENT

TRUE DRIVER’S CARS STILL UNDERPIN ASTON & LOTUS

There are few more iconic British sports car manufacturers than Aston Martin and Lotus, both of which feature on this week’s pages with their respective exciting developments. Both have been through significant struggles over recent years and arguably still have many more to overcome – and both have announced new leaderships this year alone amid those tumultuous times.

There’s another key thing the two firms have in common too: SUVs. Of course. The now-established DBX and newer Eletre are fundamental to Aston’s and Lotus’s future success and profit. By introducing these (affluent) family-friendly models, they can more easily justify the exciting stuff.

In the case of Aston, it ’s back to its old-school glory, as we demonstrate with this week’s road test of the new Vantage (p32). It may be the company’s entry-level sports car, but we describe it as “a machine of stunning breadth and likeability”.

Lotus’s latest show, for now, is far more conceptual: a supercar called the Theory 1 (p4). It ’s a clear sign of intent for the company. Lotus may have the Eletre and Emeya, plus a smaller SUV coming, but its soul is still in cutting-edge sports cars.

Rejoice then: Aston and Lotus haven’t given up on why we all loved them in the first place.

Rachel Burgess, magazine editor rachel.burgess@haymarket.com

Meanwhile, online…

autocar.co.uk

4 LOTUS ESPRIT REBORN AS THREE-SEAT EV

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Issue 6637 | Volume 322 | No 2

NEWSNew 989bhp Lotus Theory 1 concept 4 Citroën SM reborn as DS style study 8 Board in conflict with unions at VW 10 Status update on charger roll-out 12 Volvo promises big EX90 updates 14 FIRST DRIVES Mika Meon 20 Audi S E-tron GT 24 Volkswagen ID 3 GTX 26 BMW M440i xDrive Convertible 28 McLaren GTS 30 Volkswagen Golf 2 .0 TDI 31 Renault Megane E-Tech Electric 31 ROAD TEST Aston Martin Vantage 32 FEATURESGoodbye to the Jaguar I-Pace 44 Key EV technology explained 50 Showing kids motorsport can pay 54 OUR CARS Land Rover Defender 56 Maserati MC20 58 Lexus LBX 59 EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse 11 Mark Tisshaw 13 Steve Cropley 15 Matt Prior 16 Damien Smith 17 Your Views 18 Subscribe 2 Testing, testing 43 Lost in the archive 65 Road test results 67 Why I love… 74 USED CARS Volvo XC40 Recharge 60 My car & I 62 Caught in the classifieds 63

Adrian Newey on our podcast Aston Martin’s new signing joins Steve Cropley and Matt Prior to talk all things motoring.

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