The 7 Hottest Cars Of The 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show

Rimac Concept One

This year’s show had no shortage of high performing e-vehicles to satiate eco-enthusiasts appetites. But no company made larger claims about their prototype than the lesser-known Croatian newcomer, Rimac Automobili. According to Rimac, the custom electric motors on the Concept One will be able to produce a mind-boggling 1,072 hp and 2,803 lb/ft of combined torque—with aims of propelling the 3,638 lb car from 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Limited at 198 mph and able to traverse 373 miles on a single charge, the Concept One sticks its nose up at previous EV speed records, and rightfully so. Up until now, these were numbers that existed far outside the reach of the EV. Rimac is moving ahead with their production plans and hopes to have 88 vehicles churned out in 2013.

Lotus Exige S

Lotus’ heavily redesigned Exige S is a special little speedster for the British company, as it stands as the last Exige model to be sold in the US until 2015. In 2005, Congress, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), passed a law mandating all new vehicles be equipped with smart airbags (the kind that regulate their force of deployment based on the speed of impact). So seeing how the Exige lacks the safety precaution, and its grace period has expired, the company has decided not to silently withdraw its high-speed offering from the US, but instead release TWO vehicles on the market: Exige S260 Final Edition and Exige Matte Black Final Edition. That’s a boss move right now. Built for “the adrenaline hungry sports car aficionado,” only 55 of the 3.5-liter direct-injected supercharged V6 packing roadsters will be shipped to the states and Canada. However, they’ll be readily available elsewhere. It’s sad to see them go, but at least Lotus is going out in fashion.