At this point, it’s no surprise that Lotus is moving towards an electric future. As with every other sports car manufacturer, Lotus has released an SUV—which in its case is called the Eletre. But, in the coming years, Lotus will also be releasing modern interpretations of its unreleased vehicles from its past via its newly-formed Lotus Advanced Performance (LAP) division.

LAP will handle the brand’s motorsports efforts as well as the development of rare, high-performance models that will be sold alongside its more mainstream models. In a nutshell, LAP will operate in a similar fashion as Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) or McLaren Special Operations (MSO). The team will be led by Simon Lane, who was formerly the boss of Aston Martin’s Q division which operates similarly to LAP.

One of LAP’s upcoming creations will be inspired by 1970s Lotus F1 cars, and they’re also currently in the middle of the development of a number of restomod cars that are unlike anything that is on sale today. These cars are based on models from the 1960s and 1970s that were never green-lit for production.

It must be noted, however, that cars from that era have very different mechanical bits and were engineered with less stringent safety standards. Therefore, this leaves the 15-man team at LAP to have a bit more freedom to develop its line of restomod vehicles. Lane says:

Lane, however, was also quick to point out that the restomod cars will also be 100% bespoke, as they won’t be riding on upcoming new platforms from Lotus:

LAP will also be working with Classic Team Lotus for "electromod" models. Classic Team Lotus is headed by Clive Chapman, the son of the founder of Lotus, Colin Chapman. The team also found out that there’s also a customer demand for era-appropriate vehicles that are powered by an electric powertrain. Lane adds:

Lastly, while Lotus is headed towards an electric future, and will make use of platforms from its new and upcoming vehicles, you’d be happy to know that the internal combustion engine will play a bigger role in LAP’s vehicles. As a matter of fact, Lotus will even use variations of its iconic engines from the past.