New Lotus = bigger engines .. Why?

[clemo]

I would have thought in a time where the Lotus moto of less is more , that the elan m100 would be a perfect model of what a modern sports car should be.
Petrol prices going through the roof means smaller engines would be the way forward . not some aging old v6 camary engine shoehorned into the drivetrain chassis and then bolt a pretty tub on top.

I think they have really missed a trick. 1600 turbo yes , v6 , v8 ... not in this day and age.

[rip]

I know what you mean. Lotus have always been synonymous with light & agile.

I believe safety regulations are dominating design more & more which is why most cars designed in the last 10 years are too fat & lardy.
There also seems to be a desire for hitting magic numbers with horsepower.

The powers that be at Lotus also seem to be trying to move into a different market from where they have been since Chapman started the company.

[daveiow]

Could not agree more! If you take a look at the forthcoming Toyota GT86 they have opted out of the HP race and instead gone for 2 litre capacity with very entertaining handling
On a slightly different note(and i'm sure Dani and his mates would reject this) is there a top monetary value above which the AVERAGE buyer of sporting cars will not accept anything other than steel/ally/carbon fibe construction? I love the Evora and would opt for one over a Cayman/TT RS/M series anyday but when you get up to £80-90k+ would you really reject the proven reliability/low deprication of the Vantage/911/R8 's for his version of our marque's future?
Have we not been here before in 1990?

daveiow

[clemo]

i guess Mike Kimberly followed Colin Chapmans Lotus Ethos to the letter Where as Dani has a carbon copy of the Ferrari Ethos .

[jimptyreman]

I also agree that it should have been unnecessary to fit a 3.5 engine into this beautiful car to make it a class leader.
Surely a a 2 ltr with twin turbo chargers could have given enough oomph and also, possibly allow the the engine to sit lower with less weight over the rear axle. This would have given them the opportunity to fit a larger letter box for a rear window.
Having said all that, the fuel economy of the Evora is excellent for an engine of this size, and having looked at one today as a replacement for my Porsche 911 turbo I came away very impressed. The only reason for not buying one is that the roof does not come off (targa style).
Jim

[DeanG]

Two things unfortunately. It is tough to build a light car in today's regulatory environment. Mandated steel beams in the doors, backup cameras, ABS, Traction Control, air bags... all required or soon to be required make cars heavy. Also few people in the USA want cars without air conditioning... Heavy cars need more power. Second, the amount of testing and certification required makes it difficult to build small batch cars of cars. Cars have to be more mainstream (not the kits like the Caterham, Atom, Noble) to generate the volumes that are economically sustainable.

We Mericans like big cars with big engines. Everyone says that stoplight racing is the big thing here but that is not true. The roll on without down shifting is the mark of a good car over here.

I'm afraid that this is not good news for the traditional Lotus.