LONDON -- Lotus is open to selling the tooling for its outgoing Elise sports car, the automaker's managing director Matt Windle said.
The two-seat Elise has been sold for 25 years and is regarded as one of Lotus's finest ever sports cars for its light weight, nimble handling and good looks.
"If the right project and the right partner came along, I do not see why not. It's a wonderful car," Windle told Automotive News Europe.
The Elise goes out of production this year along with the more expensive Exige and Evora sports cars to make way for the new Emira coupe, which debuts in July.
Lotus sold the tooling to its first sports car, the Seven, to British company Caterham in 1973. Caterham still builds a version of the car today.
Windle worked for Caterham for two years from 2012 as a chief body engineer before moving to another niche sports-car maker, Zenos, and on to Lotus in 2017. He became Lotus Cars managing director in January.
Caterham was bought in April by Japanese importer and distributor VT Holdings, which sells Lotus cars.
Windle would not say whether Lotus was in talks with Caterham to buy the Elise. "I think they are just trying to sort out what their plans are going forward," he said.