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Heritage Customs Valiance convertible brings a soft top to the Land Rover Defender.The Valiance convertible starts at a little more than $155,000 at current exchange rates, including the donor vehicle.The Valiance convertible is based on the two-door Defender 90.With its retro looks, off-road hardware, and a notable heritage, the current Land Rover Defender is a worthy foe to the likes of the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco in just about every way save for one notable exception: its fixed roof. That’s right: whereas Jeep and Ford let Wrangler and Bronco buyers drop (or remove) their SUVs’ tops, Land Rover forces Defender buyers to make do with little more than an available power-operated glass sunroof or folding fabric roof. Although both bring some sunlight into the cabin, neither offers the wind-in-your-hair experience of removing (or folding) the roof back entirely. Presumably, Heritage Customs viewed Land Rover’s omission of a bona fide Defender convertible as a business opportunity, as the custom coachbuilder plans to lop the top off of five Defender 90s in 2022. The result is a two-door Land Rover Defender that bottles the open-air energy of its Jeep and Ford competition. Dubbed the Valiance convertible, Heritage Customs’ soft-topped Defender starts at a smidge more than $155,000 (at current exchange rates). This sum includes the cost of the approximately $74,000 Defender 90 donor vehicle.Yet, Heritage Customs doesn’t simply saw the top off Land Rover’s two-door Defender and call it a day, as it also adds a dollop of extra opulence by way of the Valiance’s three available trims: Côte d’Azur, Solihull Sand, and Kokkini Paralia.

Heritage Customs

Côte d’Azur leans less on the Defender’s innate ability to rove all sorts of ranges and instead focuses on the cloth-topped Valiance’s inevitable life as a beach cruiser for the well-off (hence the trim’s name). It certainly looks the part of a way for the wealthy to take in some ultraviolet rays while cruising the Mediterranean coastal roads of the Côte d’Azur, or South Beach, or Manhattan Beach, or . . . well, you get the idea.Credit the SUV’s big 22-inch wheels wrapped in whitewall tires. Heritage Customs complements the trim’s throwback wheel and tire design with a coat of blue paint about the vehicle’s body, a rich brown soft top, and copper exterior and interior trim pieces.

Heritage Customs

Those who find the ritzy style of the Valiance’s Côte d’Azur trim a bit much may prefer the more classic decor of the SUV’s Solihull Sand trim. Inspired by the first production Land Rover from 1948, the Solihull Sand kit brings a set of old-school-looking 20-inch wheels to the Valiance, as well as a green exterior hue, gunmetal trim pieces, and a tan top. Finally, Heritage Customs offers the Valiance in Kokkini Paralia trim. Whereas the Côte d’Azur and Solihull Sand trims seem to crib their aesthetics from the past, the Kokkini Paralia embraces the present. Modern-looking 22-inch wheels accompany the likes of a coat of red paint, a black soft top, and gunmetal exterior bits.

Heritage Customs

No doubt, the Heritage Customs Valiance convertible is a rare and attractive machine. Whether it’s worth north of $150,000, however, is another question. Arguably, the Wrangler and Bronco offer the same basic convertible vibe of the Valiance at a much more affordable price point. Then again, neither is particularly rare, nor do the Jeep or Ford badges offer the clout associated with the Land Rover one. Unless Land Rover formally produces a Defender convertible of its own, the Heritage Customs Valiance is arguably one of the best options for those with the means and desire to own a Defender without a roof. The rest of us in search of an open-topped off-road SUV will just have to settle on a Wrangler or Bronco. Either that, or we start writing letters to Land Rover begging it to mass-produce a sub-six-figure drop-top Defender.
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As time goes on, the Lexus LFA becomes more and more desirable to collectors. More than a decade after its release, people are finally starting to realize just how special a car it really is. Widely touted as the best-sounding production car ever built, just 500 were made through two years of production. And just 50 of those cars came with the high-performance Nürburgring package. Now, one of those cars is for sale.

In addition to the flashy BBS magnesium wheels and fixed wing out back, Nürburgring package cars got a retuned suspension, stickier tires, a big front splitter, dive planes, and a recalibrated six-speed single-clutch automatic transaxle for even faster shift times. Combine those with a naturally aspirated 4.8-liter V-10 engine making 562 horsepower—10 more over the standard car—and you have one of the best vehicles Japan has ever come up with. In a successful attempt to live up to its name, a Lexus LFA equipped with the Nürburgring package was able to set a Nordschleife lap of 7:14.64 back in 2011—a record at the time.

This particular car was originally sold in Canada before being exported to the United Kingdom in 2014. It currently shows just under 12,000 miles on the odometer and wears a beautiful green wrap around its original white-painted body. Prior to its listing, the car received a major service with new spark plug, as well as a brake service 3000 miles ago. This LFA is currently listed for sale on Pistonheads.com in the U.K. with an asking price of £849,950 (roughly $1.13 million at current exchange rates). Because the car was originally built for the Canada market, you shouldn’t have much of a problem importing and registering it here in the U.S., which is a plus.

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Ford has announced the recall of nearly 185,000 F-150 trucks from 2021 and 2022 model years over a problem with the driveshaft.In a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall report, Ford said underbody insulators could become loose and contact the driveshaft, which could then become damaged and even drag on the ground, causing loss of control or loss of power while driving.Ford will begin notifying owners of the recalled pickups at the end of January and will inspect and repair the vehicles at no charge.Ford will recall 184,698 of its 2021 and 2022 model F-150 pickups to address a problem with two underbody acoustic/thermal insulators. These could loosen and come into contact with the truck’s aluminum driveshaft and damage or even fracture it, Ford said. The problem affects 4×4 SuperCrew models with the 145-inch wheelbase and the optional sound insulation package, and Ford estimates only 10 percent of the recalled trucks will have the defect. No accidents or injuries have been reported as a result of the issue, which Ford started investigating in July.Owners can look for signs of trouble including a loose insulator under the vehicle or a “rattling, clicking, or clunking noise” that indicates an insulator touching the driveshaft. Ford stopped making trucks with the offending insulator by mid-November, according to the recall report filed with NHTSA.Ford has started notifying dealers and will send letters to owners of the recalled trucks beginning January 31. In the meantime, owners can check with the NHTSA recalls website to see if their vehicle is affected.

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Lotus said an official farewell to its Exige, Elise, and Evora sports cars in a grand photo op at the specialty automaker’s Hethel, England, factory.The three cars were responsible for almost half of all Lotuses ever sold.But the future looks bright, with new sports cars, sedans, and SUVs coming.Lotus rolled out the final three examples of a trio of cars that represent almost half the company’s total production ever: the Elise, Exige, and Evora. Together they made up 51,738 sales and kept the company going through good times and bad. But the three will be no more, Lotus says, as the company plunges ahead into an electric future.

Well, electric except for the mid-engine Emira, which is based on a modified version of the same platform and will be powered by a familiar Toyota-based 3.5-liter gasoline engine or an AMG 2.0-liter four. That comes out next spring, followed by the all-electric Evija hypercar. More on those at a later date. Right now we come not to bury the Es, but to praise them.The Elise, Exige, and Evora were built over the course of 26 years in Hethel, U.K. The Elise and Exige shared the same “small car platform” that carried the Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 and the very first Tesla Roadsters, of which 2005 were built between 2007 and 2012. So it was a big day in Hethel. The Evora was on the Big Car Platform.As with any photo op, every executive in the building came out and made a speech. Here are a few excerpts.”First of all, I would like to thank the Lotus team who have worked on the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the years and who are now transferring to Emira and Evija manufacturing,” said Managing Director of Lotus Cars Matt Windle. “I would also like to convey enormous gratitude to all the customers of the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the last 26 years for their passion, enthusiasm, and support.”That would be you, dear customer, because only Lotus loyalists would be reading this article past the first executive quote. He continued:”These customers have given our ‘three Es’ true cult status—usually reserved for long-out-of-production classics.”Russell Carr, design director at Lotus Cars, added a personal note, saying: “These iconic cars have not only played a huge role in Lotus’s 73-year history but have also been ever-present in my daily life. Together with the Lotus design team, I have lived and breathed these cars for over 26 years. We will miss them, but a bit like Christmas, once it’s over, the excitement for the next one starts to build—and that’s what’s happening now at Lotus with the Evija, Emira, and forthcoming Type 132. 2022 is going to be a great year as a new Lotus generation swings into action.”The Type 132 that Carr mentioned is a new electric SUV from Lotus scheduled for a world premiere this spring.

The Lotus Elise was revolutionary in its day with its use of extruded and bonded aluminum.
Lotus

The three Es were important not just because they were fun to drive but for their technological advancements over the years, including an early industry use of extruded and bonded aluminum, parts that were squeezed out and glued together. “The impact of these three cars has been spectacular over the years, technically, structurally, and dynamically,” said Richard Rackham, head of vehicle concepts, who was vehicle architect on the Lotus Elise and part of the team that pioneered the new tech. “But all technologies and innovations move on and, if you had asked me of my proudest moment four years ago, I would have, without hesitation, said the Elise chassis. However, this has been usurped by our new Project LEVA architecture [Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture] for our new range of electric sports cars, starting with the Type 135 in a few years’ time. This is now the zenith of Lotus architectures as it has moved the technology game so much further. There is a lot to look forward to.”The Type 135 he refers to is the closest successor to these three now-retired cars. It is due in 2026 and will ride on Lotus’s new E-Sports architecture that will be shared by all future Lotus sports cars. That architecture will be based around a lightweight rear subframe holding both batteries and motor(s). The structure itself is more than a third lighter than that used for the gasoline-powered Emira. Lightness is essential, given the current weight of battery packs. The one in the coming Evija electric hypercar will tip the scales at more than 1500 pounds. Batteries in coming Lotus EVs can either be piled up vertically, as they will likely be in the sports cars, or laid out under the floor in the longer-wheelbase vehicles. So let’s get our Lotus product plans straight here, in roughly calendar order: Emira mid-engine gasoline-powered sports car, Evija electric hypercar, Type 132 SUV, Type 133 four-door coupe, Type 134 crossover, and Type 135 electric sports car. Maybe. We’ve been promised Lotuses before (cough—Dany Bahar—cough).But we are here to praise the Es: Elise, Exige and Evora.

Here are the three without the supporting cast: Exige, Elise and Evora, left to right.
Lotus

“From 1996 to 2000, the first-generation Elise and Exige sports cars were built in a small assembly hall at Hethel alongside the Lotus Esprit,” Lotus noted. “Those assembly lines, which were installed in 2000, will be dismantled and replaced with all-new state-of-the-art facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory. Full Emira production begins in the spring, after the prototype and test phases currently underway are completed, taking Lotus sports car production into an exciting, high-tech and semi-automated era, and increasing capacity up to 5000 units per year on a single shift pattern.”And those last three Lotuses you see parked above? “The last examples of the Elise, Exige, and Evora models are reserved for Lotus’s growing heritage collection,” Lotus said, adding specifics about the three in the photos. “Joining the collection will be the last Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition finished in Yellow and the last of 35,124 cars; the last Exige, a Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green—number 10,497; and the last Evora—a GT430 Sport finished in Dark Metallic Grey—the last of a production run of 6117.”Farewell, Es, we hardly knew ye. Actually, we knew ye pretty well, and enjoyed each and every mile we put on ye, even though our kidneys and other internal organs may disagree.

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