Bear Dalton, general manager of Lotus New London, just sold a car for $271,000.

And it’s not even street legal. In fact, anyone driving this baby on the streets of New London, or anywhere else, would face a $35,000 fine.

You see, the Lotus Emira GT4 in his Broad Street showroom this month, with a top speed of 180 mph, is intended to be raced on a closed track by a professional driver for its new owner, Mark Klenin, in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS Division racing series. Klenin Performance Racing, based in Colorado, has been a regular competitor in the race series for years, and has made the change from racing AMG cars to the Lotus GT4, according to Dalton.

“He decided to switch over to Lotus because of the the racing heritage that Lotus is known for,” Dalton said when I visited with him March 1. “He heard by word of mouth in the racing community and exotic car community that we are the dealership to go with.”

Lotus New London is the only Lotus dealer in Connecticut and one of only three in New England. The location previously had been known as Secor Lotus for 14 years but recently underwent a branding change required by the car manufacturer.

Lotus has not been delivering cars in the United States for several years as it struggled to comply with federal and California emissions requirements. But Dalton said he believes the compliance issues are now largely in the rear-view mirror.

“There’s only a handful made for the whole world,” Dalton said of the GT4. “All orders are presold. Once they come in, they go out.”

Dalton estimated only about 15 of these cars will be sold in the United States this year. The total sales worldwide will be somewhere in the mid-30s, he added. The car in Dalton’s showroom had to be pushed into place as its battery had been disabled prior to being shipped off to New London. Next week, it will be sent off by container shipment to Colorado.

Lotus has a storied history going back to the 1940s when co-founder Colin Chapman started making high-performance cars in England. The car company soon began competing in Formula One racing, capturing seven world championships from 1958-1994, according to online sources.

Lotus, now majority owned by a Chinese company called Geely, hadn’t officially competed in high-level racing since 2015. The Pirelli series holds races all over the world.

Well, the Lotus starting this year is back on the racing scene, and now firmly connected to New London, of all places. And perhaps we owe it to drivers who compete at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, because Mark Klenin reportedly told the local dealer that he decided to buy one of the most expensive cars in the world right here because he had heard such good things about Lotus New London.

Klenin is well known to have frequented Lime Rock, where many Speedbowl drivers also compete.

“It’s unlike any other exotic sports car you’ve driven,” Dalton said. “It’s not so stiff that it’s not compliant with the road. ... It handles phenomenally.”

The Lotus GT4 that I saw has a Toyota power plant and can go from 0-60 mph in under 4.5 seconds with its 455 horsepower engine. It is highly modified to Klenin’s racing specifications, including a roll cage and an air jack system, and because it is an off-the-road vehicle it doesn’t have to go through emissions compliance.

While this is the most expensive model available, there are street-legal Lotus Emiras starting at $110,000 also sold out of New London. Dalton said he expects to sell about 60 Lotuses this year.

And the local dealership also services what it sells.

“We have one of leading Lotus techs in the nation,” Dalton said.

Dalton is clearly proud of being associated with one of car racing’s fabled names. But Lotus New London now is going one step further as Klenin promised to place the brand name on his new racing car.

“Pretty sweet,” Dalton said. “All that exposure, from all the videos and stuff, from the (nationally televised) races. I think it’ll be pretty awesome.”

Lee Howard is The Day’s business editor. To reach him, email l.howard@theday.com.