Lotus Says Toyota Power Not Good Enough, Will Design Own V8 Instead

That title is SO unfair !

How? There are clearly saying that the Toyota V8 won't cut it.

What? No BMW I6? This proves Lotus have no clue! :)

I am glad they will make their own engine. So this should make the car fully British! British sports cars are making a comeback. They all have soul Lotus, McLaren, Aston Martin, Ariel, Caparo and are still fully British even though Jaguar, Bentley etc are all sufficiently British and sporty too...

Soul? You sound like a serious Eurofan.

They are screwing up by building they're own engine. They will not be proven. They should try Mercedes or BMW.

Lotus DID have a good relationship with GM for quite a while until y switched from the 2.0T GM engine to the Toyota 1.8 liter 4 cylinder.

The 6.2 liter 430 hp aluminum LS3 or the 7.0 liter 505 hp LS7 would make for excellent light weight power plants (in fitting with the Lotus "Less is more" philosophy. As the Hennessey Venom GT nicely illustrates.

91z4me

6.3L or 7.0L engine in a Lotus ?

Your level of stupidity is freightning.

Lotus build LIGHT, GREAT HANDLING, HIGH REVVING automobiles.

Damn near 1.0L per cylinder engines is not something that will EVER be found in a Lotus unless GM purchases the company.

I95, who is the idiot? The LS7 with its dry sump engine weighs quite little. The fully dressed block will weigh less and take up less space than the Toyota 5.7 DOHC V8.

Just because something has more moving parts, weighs more to assemble, and costs more does not make it better.

The GM OHV V8s are some of the most compact high power engines in the world, with the LS3 fitting into approximately the same space as the 4.0 BMW V8 (or older Lexus 4.0 as well).

Lotus is about light weight, go cart like handling. If you want light weight and V8 the GM V8s are some of the lightest in the world. In a mid engine configuration the handling should still be maintained.

But you aren't basing your deboost and negative comments on these FACTS, you are basing it on your anti-GM bias. Go ahead and spew ignorance.

nonofyobus,

I just looked it up and the series 1 Elise had a 1.8 Rover engine. The Opel Speedster (which shared the Lotus Elise chassis) had the 2.0T GM 4 cylinder. I had my wires crossed.

I guess they just don't like the sound of it. Other than that, using Toyota's V8 is all good imo.
- more efficient to develop
- more cost-effective
- less likely to deal with quality issues
- easier to deal with emissions

Well-They built a V8 and 4 cylinder before. The problem is one of volume but with the prices they want for their vehicles it might be feasable.

Another unnecessary spin by Agent 009. Judging by the quality of the posts, I'm guessing the 009 in his name is his age.

Apparently the Lexus V8 is too heavy especially with a supercharger. On the other hand a Car and Driver article said that Lotus doesn't have the money to develop all of their new concepts or the technology to produce them. It looks like only some of their latest concepts will go into production with outside assistance. But it isn't hard to see why they want to ditch their Elise type vehicles.

a high revving BMW inline 6 would be great. take the old inline 6 from the e34 M5 tweak it to over 400hp (wouldn't be hard with todays technology like variable valve timing and direct injection).

Well the reason I say the S38 is because it will have quite a bit more torque than the S54 and this being their supercar it would need it.