Thursday 19th September 2002

Diesel VX220 Coupe

Surprise concept at Paris Show

---

[stevenrt]

Shouldn't Lotus be innovating like this?

[Captain Muppet]

If Lotus had the same problems GM have shifting the VX220 they'd probably have to innovate more.

Besides, I bet that they don't launch a production version - this is just a marketing exercise for the new diesel engines.

Look at all the extra boot space from the longer tail, I wonder how many cup holders it has...

[danmangt40]

hey, I think it looks pretty good... someone will call it butt ugly very soon though, I'm sure

[danmangt40]

about that extended boot... thats probably to break up turbulence passing off of the end of the car, not to create greater luggage space. (cd=.20!)

[Podie]

Looks more like an Exige version of the VX220...?

[hansgerd]

That's quite impressive, but why two exhaust pipes for a 1.3L engine I don't quite understand.

[Gargamel]

erm as I recall lotus did trail a concept model of the ecos about 5 months ago as a test mule for this very technology... it was on PH

so lotus are innovating - but they don't have the budget to get volumes of cars through the type approval - hence they let gm go first... possibly

[Bodo]

Apart from the typical VX220/Speedster elements, the basic body line looks stunning!
Especially the tail reminds me on 70s Porsche GTs

[mondeoman]

Quite an attractive lookin car..... nice wheels! lol

Get used to it - the future is diesels til an alternative comes along. Everyone will be doing high performance diesels soon.

Mind you, the 'box will have to be pretty trick to allow you to use the performance, unless they've found a way to increase the rev limit about about 5k.....

[Bonce]

Excellent car! I wonder if Lotus had anything to do with it? 660Kg is pretty bloody good too, I'm sure Chapman would approve.

[FourWheelDrift]

quote:
hey, I think it looks pretty good... someone will call it butt ugly very soon though, I'm sure

.....it's butt ugly.

[Beast]

Absolutely stunning looking.

[PetrolTed]

Tail lights look a bit dodgy but forwards of there it looks great.

[smeagol]

It does look excellent, but I notice that a lot of these diesel manufacteres fail to mention acceleration in their figures. The 0-60, and even better 40-80 figure is far more important to me than its top speed. "155mph in a week" is useless.

[mondeoman]

quote:
It does look excellent, but I notice that a lot of these diesel manufacteres fail to mention acceleration in their figures. The 0-60, and even better 40-80 figure is far more important to me than its top speed. "155mph in a week" is useless.

The 40-80 should be pretty impressive.... thats where turbo diesels win out, mid-range punch.

[joe90]

I agree with Muppet, it's obviously just to get publicity (working though, even PH is talking about it!).

If a company has cash to spare, irrelevant concepts are a good way of grabbing media space and a lot cheaper than paying for commercial time which everybody ignores anyway.

I seem to remember Westfield did a diesel demonstrator a few years ago. Anyone shed any light?

[Podie]

It may currently be a marketing exercise, but with the right interest that could change.

VW raced a diesel car - with some success... and with the latest round of tax regs, it seems that diesels are a more viable option. One of the reasons attributed to the Jag X-Type production slowdown is due to the lack of a diesel variant... why cut out some 60% of the company car market?

What about the Peugeots that were shown - the Diamonds and Spades IIRC... out of the two I'd have gone for the diesel - same power as the petrol motor, but over twice the torque!

With plod getting ever more anal about speeding, you've got to have fun in the limits... go for torque, be daring and go for a diesel.

PS if any car companies want me to do long term evaluations of "sporting diesels"...

[peteox]

Is this the eco2s lotus was to give us? the numbers seem very similar to the eco2s.

[Bombjack]

When does the MPV version come out?

[ErnestM]

quote:
Is this the eco2s lotus was to give us? the numbers seem very similar to the eco2s.

Probably. Letting GM test the waters. However, I think the Lotus variant would look nicer, towit:

www.pistonheads.com/lotus/default.asp?storyId=5130

ErnestM