whose slant 4 block forms the basis of the Lotus 907 Engine?

[TimHaydnJones]

The 2 litre and 2.2 litre Type 907 engine fitted to the old Eclat/Elite and Esprit is a slant 4 all ally block, but whose is it? I have heard some rumours that it was a Vauxhall VX4/90 or something like that. Does anyone know?

[Ferg]

I've heard various claims, certainly some prototypes were built with Vauxhall blocks, but I believe that it was actually a Ricardo design.

[TimHaydnJones]

What or who is Ricardo? Are you saying that Lotus cast their own proprietary block?

[Ferg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_plc


Yes, Lotus had their own blocks. The Lotus engines are ally blocks, the Vauxhall slant four is iron, I believe.

[Yuxi]

It was cast especialy for them, to their design. It was cast by Zues I think. And it changed a few times through its life.

[TimHaydnJones]

Cheers guys - according to

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EHistory/Lotusownp...

Lotus just used the cast-iron Vauxhall block to allow them to speed up the development of their aluminium head, but production cars did use the Lotus manufactured block - I'd heard before that the 907 engine almost bankrupted Jenson because the early ones (fitted to the Jenson Healey) weren't ready yet

[LuS1fer]

It's still only half a V8 though.

[TimHaydnJones]

Yo Lu51fer - have you seen the new pics on Facebook?
Polished one of the wheels - cam up lovely - need to get to the rest now

[LuS1fer]

TimHaydnJones said:

Yo Lu51fer - have you seen the new pics on Facebook?
Polished one of the wheels - cam up lovely - need to get to the rest now

Yes, very nice but you know, they're so common round here....

[anonymous-user]

Yes, it was the last (only?) genuine Lotus 4-pot engine before they swiched to Isuzu/Rover K/Toyota.

I think very early Europas used a Renault engine, later changed to Ford. Original Elan = Ford.

There's a Coventry Climax somewhere in Lotus history too.

The only V8 they used at the end of Esprit run was their own, built in tiny numbers. Separately they had a significant role in the OHC V8 adaptation of Corvette ZR-1 in late 1980s (built by Mercury Marine).

[Yuxi]

5 USA said:

Separately they had a significant role in the OHC V8 adaptation of Corvette ZR-1 in late 1980s (built by Mercury Marine).

The LT5, I machined the seats and guides for the prototypes