RE: Lotus: The perils of a hands-on CEO
Discussion
A small, highly strung, in house V8 would be an absolutely amazing thing to behold but I’m not sure it will be the way they go. I don’t think they are big enough or have strong enough foundations to go down the route of their own engine but also the entire world is steadily moving down to Lotus’ traditional sphere of small, fewer cylinder engines. I would suspect that now all the larger competitors offer 4 and 6 pot high performance engines where once they were 6, 8 and even 12 will mean Lotus stick with both the smallest engine possible but also a well proven unit from someone else. Especially as they are going to be very cost conscious.
Will they even be considering a hybrid drivetrain so as to not alienate important potential customers in those global cities that are legislating against pure ICE? Could they not be contemplating something akin to the i8 type of product?
Will they even be considering a hybrid drivetrain so as to not alienate important potential customers in those global cities that are legislating against pure ICE? Could they not be contemplating something akin to the i8 type of product?
Who do Geely own other than Volvo? I wonder if Geely would want Lotus to transfer their engine sourcing to an 'in house' brand. There would even be potential for Lotus branded versions of the engines. AFAIK Volvo only produce 4 cylinder petrol engines.
Of course if they stick with Toyota there are some lovely V8s in production. If you wanted a real halo car they could ask Toyota to dust off the plans for either the V12 from the big limo thing (Crown perhaps) or that rather nice v10 from the LFA. I have no idea if those engines would pass current regulations but the v10 in particular would make for an awesome halo product.
Whilst I'm at it some comments have been made about Lotus not making their own engines. I would imagine that this trend will continue. It is becoming quite common for high end marques to buy in engines in some form. Aston are doing so. Pagani don't seem to have suffered from having Mercedes engines. Even Porsche have a history of using 'lessor' marques engines in their cars. AFAIK Porsche's best selling models are platform shared with VW/Audi and that doesn't seem to hurt their sales figures.
Of course if they stick with Toyota there are some lovely V8s in production. If you wanted a real halo car they could ask Toyota to dust off the plans for either the V12 from the big limo thing (Crown perhaps) or that rather nice v10 from the LFA. I have no idea if those engines would pass current regulations but the v10 in particular would make for an awesome halo product.
Whilst I'm at it some comments have been made about Lotus not making their own engines. I would imagine that this trend will continue. It is becoming quite common for high end marques to buy in engines in some form. Aston are doing so. Pagani don't seem to have suffered from having Mercedes engines. Even Porsche have a history of using 'lessor' marques engines in their cars. AFAIK Porsche's best selling models are platform shared with VW/Audi and that doesn't seem to hurt their sales figures.
And it’s what Lotus have really always done. There are probably lots of very solid, small engines that could be ‘Lotused’ as before. It probably boils down to ensuring the right brand message if it’s going to be powering a car that is intended to break through the pricing ceiling as much as anything.
Clearly they'll move to Geely engines and electronics which will hopefully allow the spend to be focussed on the specific features of each new model.
As a side note, I wonder if Volvo have any of those lovely Yamaha V8s out of the old S90 lying around?! An Evora V8 would be a wonderful way to bow the model out before everything gets a turbo 2.0.
As a side note, I wonder if Volvo have any of those lovely Yamaha V8s out of the old S90 lying around?! An Evora V8 would be a wonderful way to bow the model out before everything gets a turbo 2.0.
Hitch said:
Clearly they'll move to Geely engines and electronics which will hopefully allow the spend to be focussed on the specific features of each new model.
As a side note, I wonder if Volvo have any of those lovely Yamaha V8s out of the old S90 lying around?! An Evora V8 would be a wonderful way to bow the model out before everything gets a turbo 2.0.
That was a very nice engine. Wasn’t it a derivative of that that the Noble uses?As a side note, I wonder if Volvo have any of those lovely Yamaha V8s out of the old S90 lying around?! An Evora V8 would be a wonderful way to bow the model out before everything gets a turbo 2.0.
It would seem logical that they’d turn to Volvo for an engine if they do end up changing supplier. I just suspect it’ll be a smaller one than the V8?
Hitch said:
I wonder if Volvo have any of those lovely Yamaha V8s out of the old S90 lying around?! An Evora V8 would be a wonderful way to bow the model out before everything gets a turbo 2.0.
The old 960/S90/V90 had a straight six. The V8 you're thinking of was in the XC90 and S80. We know that there's a transaxle available for that engine in longitudinal configuration, given Noble have used it...rockin said:
AW111 said:
Toyota make some pretty good quad-cam v8's...
Lotus designed one as well, but never used it themselves. Under GM ownership Lotus designed the LT-5 engine for use in Corvette ZR-1. The engines ended up being built by Mercury Marine in North America. In 1990 the first ZR-1 put down 375 horsepower and 370 pound-feet of torque to its rear wheels - big numbers nearly 30 years ago. I anticipate the torque from this engine would have eaten alive any transaxle available to Lotus at that time. The back end of Esprit was always restricted by this issue. Lotus own V8 (the 918) is said to have been detuned from a potential 500 hp to prevent gearbox damage.
RoverP6B said:
One problem with that - it used a bog standard Chev 350 block and it was heavy as you-know-what! The modern equivalent would be the Mercury SB4 - a quad-cam LS7 with 750bhp @ 7500rpm (8000rpm redline), naturally-aspirated, and far lighter... and it sounds like rolling thunder.
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