| Concept Toy | SEMA Show 2007 | Lotus Hot Wheels Concept |

Many Lotus owners think of their cars as weekend toys, but now Lotus has gone the whole hog and designed a proper scale model toy car. The idea came about when toy maker Hot Wheels asked Lotus to design a car to help it celebrate its 40th anniversary of building die-cast models.

Only too willing to get stuck in, Lotus put its top designers to work and came up with the Lotus Hot Wheels Concept. Head of Lotus Design, Russell Carr said: "We relished the opportunity to design a concept that was free of the typical technical and legal constraints of a full-size car. There were unique challenges as it has to work as a toy."

However, the 1:5 scale model, which was unveiled at the SEMA tuning show in Las Vegas, gives some clear indications of Lotus's thinking for the next Esprit supercar and potentially Project Eagle, which the Norfolk firm is currently developing for sale in late 2008.

The broad 'mouth' of the Hot Wheels Concept is a typical Lotus feature and will make it on to the next Esprit, though Lotus says the swept in sides of the toy would be too constraining for a road-going production car's interior space.

That doesn't mean other details of the model won't filter through to real road cars. The low-slung nose of the Hot Wheels cars smoothes out the current shape seen on the Elise and tidies up the Lotus front end. We can also expect to see the top-exit radiator of the toy car cross into the real world, moving the radiator exit back towards the windscreen to give a cleaner bonnet profile.

At the rear of the model, a large and high-set rear wing looks great but won't be part of the next Esprit, though Lotus insiders say this type of wing could make it on to a more track day-focused model, similar to the current 2-Eleven. A rear diffuser on the model is also something that is set to jump the gap to make it into production models, helping to sucker the cars to the road through improved aerodynamics.

Lotus boss Mike Kimberly said: "We are delighted to have worked with Hot Wheels. The same design team who created this stunning concept is also designing our new range of cars, the first of which will be Project Eagle that goes into production at the end of next year."

Alisdair Suttie - 22 Nov 2007