LOTUS has a new position - forget about cheap sports cars, let's go hell for leather after Ferrari and Lamborghini.

The company is ditching its affordable sportsters like the Elise and spending millions on a new range of hypercars.

And the most eagerly awaited Lotus of them all has been unveiled at the Paris Motor Show today (FRI).

The new Esprit harks back to the Seventies when Lotus was a supercar name to conjure with.

The first Esprit was the car that James Bond drove in The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. It was also the first car to show what a small capacity turbocharged engine was capable of.

The new Esprit has abandoned the idea of a small engine with a massive turbo in favour of a 5.0-litre V8 derived from long-time partner Toyota.

With a bit of help from Lotus engineers the powerplant now delivers a mighty 620PS punch - enough to put the Esprit in the elite supercar league.

As before it's a mid-engined two-seater driving through the rear wheels.

Lotus reckons it'd good for 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds and has a top speed of 330 km/h.

Oh, and it looks pretty good, too.