Lotus Elan's Digital Instrument Panel in Action

The Lotus Elan was one of the five sportscar concepts presented by the famous British manufacturer at last year’s Paris Auto Show. The bunch created quite the stir in the journalistic world, but for a while now, there has been no new information about this car.

Fortunately, Paul Tan visited the Lotus factory in Hethel recently and caught a glimpse of the Elan’s digital instruments in action.

The panel consists of a large LCD screed flanked on either side by two smaller ones. Some of you might think that the Lexus LF-A has a better cluster, and you might be right. But the Elan should only cost £75,000 (about US$120,000).

When it will be launched, sometime before 2014, the Elan will come in a 2-seater configuration with an optional 2+2 layout. It should sit somewhere between the Evora and the Esprit in the range and will be powered by a 4.0-liter V6 engine.

Its 450 horsepower and 465 Nm (630 lb.ft.) of torque will be enough for a 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 193 mph (310 km/h). Lotus also promises that a hybrid will be available using a Kinetic Energy Recovery System similar to those seen in Formula One a season ago.

"The Elan will convert people to Lotus. I would challenge people not to become addicted to driving it. It will also go a long way towards dispelling the old misconceptions about this class, that in order to have high performance you must sacrifice usability – those days are gone," said Dany Bahar, Lotus CEO, in the press release announcing the Elan Concept.