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Lotus is priming a new version of its Emira sports car inspired by legendary racing driver Jim Clark.

A video posted to the brand’s social media reels off a number of the Scotsman’s victories from his 1965 campaign: the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indy 500 and the Tasman Series, as well as the French Formula 2 and British Formula 2 titles.

The video then flashes a glimpse of an Emira wearing the green and yellow livery worn by the brand’s contemporary open-wheel racers, and tomorrow’s date (2 May). 

Lotus has yet to confirm whether the new car will bring extensive modification compared with the standard Emira, nor which engine it uses from the choice of the AMG-sourced turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot or the supercharged Toyota 3.5-litre V6 – although the V6 seems a more natural fit for a commemoration of one of motorsport’s all-time greats.

Lotus previously celebrated Clark’s success in 2018, when it built a one-off version of the Evora GT410 inspired by the red Elan driven by the Scotsman during the 1960s. The 100,000th car to be built by Lotus, it was conceived in collaboration with the Jim Clark Trust and raffled off to fund the Jim Clark Museum in Duns, Scotland.

It’s possible that the new car will be similarly billed, although it may also be offered for sale as a high-cost special edition, amid Lotus facing financial challenges. The firm recently warned it would be cutting jobs after its profits fell from £76.3 million in 2023 to £21.7m for the 2024 financial year.

Lotus chief financial officer Daxue Wang attributed the drop to the imposition of tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles – such as the Eletre SUV and Emeya saloon – as well as broader “global trade uncertainties”. Wang added that the firm would embark on a campaign of “strategic cost optimisation to improve profitability”.

As Lotus notes, Clark’s 1965 season is considered one among the greatest ever individual seasons for a driver, having also included overall wins at Brands Hatch and Oulton park in the British Saloon Car Championship (forerunner to today’s BTCC). 

The Leapmotor C10 has been updated in China, gaining more range, extra power and an upgraded infotainment system.

Chief among the updates is a switch from 400V electricals to a more powerful 800V system.

Leapmotor has yet to confirm specifics, but this should bring a significant increase in the car’s maximum charging speed – currently capped at 84kW, behind the 100kW or greater offered by many rivals.

Meanwhile, it has uprated the rear-mounted electric motor from 215bhp to 295bhp, cutting its 0-62mph sprint time from 7.5sec to 5.9sec.

The reworked C10 also gets a new LFP battery pack with 5kWh more capacity (74.9kWh total), boosting its range from 329 miles to 376 on the Chinese CLTC test cycle.

Leapmotor has yet to publish figures for the new C10’s performance from Europe’s WLTP range test, but given that it currently stands at 261 miles, the new C10 is expected to nudge the 300-mile mark.

The range-extender EV powertrain of the C10 REEV is unchanged, according to Chinese media reports.

Both versions’ infotainment systems now run on a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P processor and their arrays of ADAS sensors now include a lidar.

The C10's design remains the same as before, but the fully electric car can be had in a new purple paint colour. 

Leapmotor has yet to announce when the revised C10 will land in British showrooms, but it comes as the Stellantis-backed brand positions itself for rapid global expansion.

Having already launched the C10, C10 REEV and T03 city car, it will soon follow that with the B10 crossover, a Volkswagen Golf-sized hatchback named the B05 and a Renault 4 rival named the A10.

That will be joined with an entry-level model – possibly priced below £20,000 – dubbed A05.