Lotus has decided to build its own range of V6 and V8 engines after it decided to delay the introduction of the new Elan. Lotus boss Dany Bahar recently stated that the mid-engined 450-hp Elan was too close to the new Esprit. So the Elan will not be released until near the end of the Esprit’s product lifecycle.
Since Lotus has decided to delay the Elan, the budget that was allocated to the Elan will now be used to create a new modular engine family.
“This is a big [financial] hit because it’s expensive to do an engine,’ says Bahar. “But because the Elan is not happening now we have got capital expenditure headroom for engine development.”
According to Autocar, work on the new engines began late last year, with the first prototype V8 expected in July. The V8 engine is expected to put out between 550-570 horsepower. The current plan is to develop a 4-cyl engine from the new V8, but if that fails, Lotus will continue to use a Toyota sourced 4-cyl.
Full Story: Autocar
