Lotus has unveiled the first glimpse of the technology being utilised for Project Eagle. The company has released pictures of the front module of the chassis, which is shown prior to the full unveiling of Project Eagle at the British Motor Show in July 2008. Project Eagle is the code name for a new model that slots in above the Elise, Exige and Europa in the range. The car will go into production at the beginning of next year.
The Project Eagle chassis is an evolution of the Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) from the Lotus APX concept vehicle previously showcased at Geneva, and allows for the development of a range of vehicles up to a gross vehicle weight of 1,900 kg. The Project Eagle structure also progresses the Lotus bonded technology used in the Elise family of vehicles with unique extrusions and folded panels.
The VVA architecture has been designed so that it can be stretched in width, length and height. The strength and stiffness can be modified cost effectively by varying the wall thickness of the extrusions, without altering the exterior dimensions. Project Eagle will also use a composite roof as a stressed structural member to give an exceptional vehicle stiffness of 26,000 Nm per degree.
The suspension wishbones are forged from aluminium to reduce the unsprung mass. Project Eagle will be using Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs with unique dual path top mounts for optimised vehicle refinement. The high performance bespoke Lotus AP Racing 4 pot callipers work in tandem with ventilated crossdrilled 350mm diameter brake discs. Hydraulically assisted power steering will be employed with a TRW steering rack. Lotus is currently cold weather testing the car as well as fine tuning the ride and handling.
Richard Rackham, Vehicle Architect of Lotus Engineering, said: ‘Producing a bespoke low volume platform using normal methods is uneconomical, whilst sharing a mainstream platform normally results in compromises in performance and design. Traditionally car manufacturers seeking to gain competitive advantage through exciting niche vehicles have to either design a new platform or share one already available. The great advantage of this VVA technology is that it can be used by one car manufacturer looking to develop a range of niche products, or by a group of car manufacturers looking to share investment, but still retain a high degree of end product separation.’
