LOTUS M250

Elements of the tragically stillborn Lotus M250 were revisited for the Evora a decade later

Earls Court’s final motor show outing – plans for a 2001 follow-up were quietly ditched after a slew of manufacturers pulled out – included the original Mini’s final visit to a British Motor Show.

However, the big news for the Rover Group was the debut of its new 25 and 45 (actually a substantial revamp of the HH-R-generation 400 and the R3-generation 200), with each incorporating the 75’s new corporate front-end. The MGF had been treated to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it set of tweaks, too, including the option of a new gearless Steptronic transmission.

Having checked them out, before shuffling through the Earls Court crowds to get a sneaky peek at Vauxhall’s facelifted Omega, you could have queued up at the Aston Martin stand. Here the V12-engined DB7 Vantage was making its first appearance at a British motor show and crowds were gathering around the Vantage Le Mans, of which just 40 were hand-built at Newton Pagnell to mark 40 years since Aston’s maiden (and so far, only) victory there.

Other queues you could have joined were those to get your first glimpse of Ferrari’s new 360 Modena and the Porsche 911 Turbo, which had been unveiled earlier that year at Geneva and Frankfurt respectively.

The real excitement at that year’s London Motor Show, however, was reserved for a new Lotus – one that was to to fill the gap between the Elise and the Esprit and give the Porsche Boxster S a proper drubbing.

The plan was for the M250 to deploy a 250bhp mid-mounted V6 – rumoured to be a Hethel-tweaked version of Renault’s three-litre unit, also used in the Clio V6 – and use the Elise’s bonded extruded aluminium construction to keep the weight down to just 1000kg.

Lotus’ then-MD, Graham Peel, boldly proclaimed that it would be the best handling Lotus ever made and that 3000 would be made each year, with an on-sale date of mid2001. Sadly, even the svelte Russell Carr styling couldn’t save it from the clutches of production obscurity.

The theme was revisited, somewhat soberingly, nine years later when the Evora – a similarly-sized V6 GT that did actually make into production – was introduced. Sadly, that car didn’t exactly set the world alight, either.