I was gutted, too! Even had a deposit with the local dealer on the expectation it would be made in 2003. Think the story was that VW commercial was at odds with VW car division over who would be in charge of the project. Wasn’t there a smaller concept version floating around a few years back?
Oddly enough as I was cycling home from work earlier a Chrysler Prowler passed me – surely the definition of a concept car that actually made production?
New Renault Alpine coming next year, I think they’re showing it soon, but there’s spy shots on the web that look like your concept pic.
Don’t think it’s got any Lotus involvement though, they worked with Caterham for a couple of years on it, but the partnership broke down and they scraped the idea and started afresh.