As brilliant as its chassis dynamics are, Lotus has been in need of a design revolution for some time now. Back awhile, Lotus said something about entering the shores of the big boys like Ferrari and Aston Martin, with their new lineup, and now you’re looking at it. These are the first images and details released on the much anticipated new Lotus Elite, set to be unveiled in a little over a week from now at the rapidly approaching Paris Motor Show.

Now, some of you might not know the name Elite from Lotus. But the name has been used twice in the history book of Lotus, in 1957 and 1974. The Elite was a 2-seat coupe GT-style car, with well-balanced lightweight body. Lotus even had their first Elite compete in the Le Mans, and won six times. Therefore it is quite a surprise to see the legendary name Elite being brought back alive. I’m not sure if this would be the much-talked about Esprit replacement, but in the press release, the Elite have been described as “ultimate refinement”.

You can plainly see from the photos that the Elite mark a styling departure from the language spoken by the likes of the Elise and somewhat-boxy Evora. This svelte GT’s lines represent what recently hired designer Donato Coco has planned for future Lotus vehicles, and comes wrapped around a front/mid-engine 2+2 shape. If you look closely at the front of the car, there’s air duct behind the front lamp of the car. Ferrari also has this design in their Italia 458, where the air duct from the front wheel arch actually let the hot air generated by the wheels to move away, thus reducing pressure and improve downforce. Perhaps Lotus is also trying the same concept here.

The show car actually showcases a retractable hardtop – a first for Lotus and a potential shocker to company founder Colin Chapman’s ethos of extreme weight savings, the car tipping the scales at 1650 kg (3600 lbs). Some have said that it’s rather impossible for Lotus to do a retractable hardtop with such sleek back.

Underneath that front hood sits a force-inducted version of the 5.0-liter V8 (which hasn’t been confirmed whether this will be turbocharged or supercharged) from the famous Lexus IS-F, coupled to unique automatic transmission with optional integrated hybrid boost. With a massive 611 horsepower on tap and 720Nm of torque, Lotus estimates 0-62 mph times in a scant 3.6 seconds (give or take) and its 315 km/h (195 mph) top speed should be enough to propel it into the supercar leagues.

Lotus also mentioned that there will be an optional hybrid system which will be made up by a hybrid gearbox integrated with two electric motors and a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). At the moment it is not certain if the above mentioned power figures take the hybrid system’s output into account, although judging from the high numbers, it is likely that power from the alternative source has been included. This also gives it approximately 215g/km of CO2 emissions output.

“There’s no denying that the Elite is breathtakingly beautiful to look at but it’s so much more than that, it’s a car that over delivers in all other aspects as well. One could say it’s a car of perfect contradictions, it’s compact yet spacious, high performing yet low emitting, lightweight yet still reassuringly solid. It’s a car that we are exceptionally proud of at Lotus and we truly believe that there is nothing else like it out there both in terms of styling and performance,” said Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus.

The car you see here is a conceptual preview of the production model, slated to hit the market in 2014 with an approximate £115,000 ($180k) price tag. The public will be the judge of that, but no doubt design has progressed slightly, which should help in its quest to compete with the big boys. I must admit that the prototype pictured here does point to a pretty good looking production car.