Lancia Beta Berlina S1 Headlamp Bezel Mounting Clip on 2040-parts.com

Lotus to invest £500 million to build Esprit, Eterne, Elite & Elan. 1900 new jobs

The new Lotus Esprit Dany Bahar – Lotus boss – revealed plans at last year’s Paris Motor Show to turn Lotus in to an East Anglian Aston Martin. Those plans included one car we knew about – the new Lotus Esprit – and a number we didn’t – the Lotus Eterne, Lotus Elite, Lotus Elan and a new Lotus Elite. But the plans seemed to be nothing more than a wish list, and although it was intimated that Lotus owners Proton were going to provide a war chest of £770 million to fund the development, that later appeared to be an intent to provide Lotus with funds to develop a new range of cars, rather than an actual commitment.

Who's Where: Jason Castriota opens own design consultancy

Former Bertone and Pininfarina designer, Jason Castriota, has opened his own design consultancy based in New York and Turin. CDN recently caught up with Castriota - who is currently in New York - and discovered he's already working on a series of projects, despite having not yet officially launched the company. Castriota told us that it had always been his "dream to have my own consultancy in New York", yet what's clearly pleasing him most is the volume of work he's already accrued, without officially launching the firm.

VW bring Golf GTI and Polo Concepts to Wörthersee

VW has brought the Golf GTI & Polo Worthesee Concepts to the Worthersee Tour in Austria The Wörthersee Tour is in full swing in Austria, and as we told you yesterday Audi has brought along the Audi Q5 Wörthersee Concept to show off, along with a handful of its latest models. But this is a VW as well as Audi show, so Volkswagen has gone one better and brought along a pair of  Concept Cars – The VW Golf GTI Wörthersee  Concept and the VW Polo Wörthersee  Concept. The Golf GTI Concept, based on the new VW Golf GTI, comes in a dark Firespark Red and a set of mean looking black alloys.