Lotus Boss Reveals Plans For In-House Designed V-8

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Lotus Boss Reveals Plans For In-House Designed V-8

By Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Editor

December 15th, 2010

Right up until August of this year there were reports claiming Lotus would continue to rely on Toyota for its future powertrains, including the use bespoke V-8 and V-10 engines from Toyota’s upmarket Lexus division for a new range of high-end models such as the Esprit supercar and new Elite grand tourer.

That won’t occur, according to Lotus boss Dany Bahar who revealed to Autocar that the automaker’s own engineers in Hethel, England were working on feasibility plans for new V-8 and V-6 powerplants for its future range of cars.

As Bahar pointed out, Lotus has built engines for other automakers in the past, including the more recent three-cylinder electric vehicle range-extender, so there’s no reason Lotus can’t engineer some of its own.

“We have done three engines for other manufacturers; why not do it ourselves?” he explained. “The engine is the heart of a sports car; we should do our own product.”

There’s also the issue of customer requirements. The common response at September’s unveiling of the Esprit supercar concept was that the car should feature its own bespoke engine rather than a Toyota V-8, as was originally been planned.

All is still unconfirmed, however, as a final decision is not expected until the end of January, Bahar said, adding that “the decision then will be purely financial”.

In the meantime, check out our previews of the 2013-2015 Elan, Esprit, Eterne, Elite, and Elise.

link:

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1052594_lotus-boss-reveals-plans-for-in-house-designed-v-8

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Lotus planning to build V8 in-house?

by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) on Dec 16th 2010 at 10:58AM

Might Lotus, in its unerring though recently intensified quest to take on Ferrari, develop its own V8 engine for use in the promised-before-2013 Esprit? According to company head Dany Bahar, it's a distinct possibility.

It should be mentioned that Lotus is quite the well-sorted engineering firm. In fact, the British automaker has designed three complete engines for other manufacturers and last produced its own V8 engine from 1996 through 2004 in the then-current Esprit.

If it does indeed develop its own engine architecture, Autocar suggests it will be seen in V8 form in the Esprit and V6 form in the Elan, which is slated to follow about six months after the Esprit. And what of the Toyota-sourced powerplants – currently seen in the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora and shown off in the five conceptual new sports cars recently unveiled at the Paris Motor Show – we've come to expect from Lotus?

"In the mind of sports-car enthusiasts, Toyota power might not be good enough," admitted Bahar. In the end, though, the decision may come down to simple dollars and cents, and we're certainly looking forward to seeing how it all plays out in the coming few years.

link:

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/16/lotus-planning-to-build-v8-in-house/

[JBsZ06]

personally I think this is a mistake...

Lotus thinks its the V6 from toyota thats killing the sales of the evora..and its only partially true..

If the V6 made tons of hp and torque no one would care where it comes from..

Its the fact it only has 276 hp and lotus is trying to charge...70 grand for it..

Its a lame duck..

The V8 from the ISF should just be dropped into the evora and the dam thing would sell..

Also it should have a Dual clutch automatic and not a torque convertor automatic ...

Two big mistakes on the evora..and it was where the engine came from but rather the engine that was chosen.