Lotus Type 131 - The Rumour Mill

[Likuid]

8 hours ago, Wake said:

Car magazine posted this - https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/lotus/global-expansion/

 

It says that the type 131 will use the same Toyota V6 found in the Exige / Evora. 

It says that, but its not clear if the author is just making an assumption or not. Its not a direct quote from Windle as there are not quotes around it. Not sure why Windle would announce that, but keep the I4 a secret.

[Inversed]

7 minutes ago, DarrylV8 said:

No shame it part exchanging the 390 April 2022!

To be honest I don't expect Lotus to make such a silly cars as Elise/Exige were. This Evija design is not my favourite.
It will probably be faster, but I expect them to be a little less spartan and raw and at least 100kg heavier. 
390 FE will be my first Lotus and I think I will enjoy the hell out of it.

[stephenwhyte]

3 hours ago, Likuid said:

It says that, but its not clear if the author is just making an assumption or not. Its not a direct quote from Windle as there are not quotes around it. Not sure why Windle would announce that, but keep the I4 a secret.

Because the Toyota V6 is a known partner.......the mystery of the new 4 cylinder supplier is just that......a Marketing mystery - but all will become clear in good time. We are certainly nearer the end than the start of this new adventure, and I for one can’t wait!

[Likuid]

48 minutes ago, stephenwhyte said:

Because the Toyota V6 is a known partner.......the mystery of the new 4 cylinder supplier is just that......a Marketing mystery - but all will become clear in good time. We are certainly nearer the end than the start of this new adventure, and I for one can’t wait!

You may be right, but seems to me saying "Its the same motor already in our cars" actually hurts marketing more than helps it. Also could be a red herring as well, who knows at this point.

[mdavies]

5 hours ago, stephenwhyte said:

.......the mystery of the new 4 cylinder supplier is just that......a Marketing mystery - but all will become clear in good time. 

What is no mystery is that the 4-cylinder will have the same handicap that has limited the Alpine from being an even greater success: the choice of three pedals as well as two. Those able to stretch to the - I understand - significantly more expensive 6-cylinder initial version won't mind though. Or those that never cared much about driver involvement anyway. "For the Two-pedal Drivers" the PR should say.

[NedaSay]

Smoke and mirrors people, smoke and mirror is a game Lotus is very adept at. if they keep that V6 it means they have unlocked a lot of trickery, it also means Toyota will keep making this engine for the next 5 to 10 years which is a bit hard to believe considering the GR in its FE guys has been around since 2002... And the fact that Toyota is only using said engine on their minivan (Sienna), SUV and light duty pick up trucks on some South East Asian markets and the engine is no longer compliant with stricter emission rules in the EU, US,UK, Japan and even China from 2025 onwards. And I don't really see Toyota MC  keeping said engine in production for a rather small number of engines just for Lotus.

Edited April 14, 2021 by NedaSay

[Woodman]

It says a famous engine manufacturer - Cosworth? Although strange to think they might develop a bespoke engine when electric is going to dominate in a few years time.

 

[TomE]

A Mysterious Giant corporation supplying the engines maybe?  

We'll know on 27th I think

[Bravo73]

4 hours ago, TomE said:

A Mysterious Giant corporation supplying the engines maybe?  

I thought that I should just make it a bit clearer (for those hard of reading). 

[PAR]

What I want to know now is what will the gearbox be. Assuming they can push a Toyota V6 to 500bhp, how do they get that through! I wonder if there will still be stick options. 

[DarrylV8]

Stick options; what like superglue! Must have better plasters for the gearbox after all these years

 

 

 

 

Must remember to keep my jokes to my self 

[PAR]

I guess full credit for being realistic here..

[AK70]

So quiet here.... Given the fact, that the launch is next week, I think some journalist and youtubers should be this week at Lotus and do their initial review of the 131... exciting!  😉

Spy shots?... not bad how Lotus has achieved that nothing came out so far...

 

 

[Bibs]

The launch isn't for a couple of months yet.

[AK70]

But some news will be annouced next week: 

https://drivingtomorrow.lotuscars.com/

 

 

[TomE]

More news next week.  Type 131 launch on 8 July.  Spy shots will be coming - most of them are done as part of a planned teaser campaign.

There was a piece last week about Matt Windle driving the mule cars and also some press interviews with him.  Links on one of the other threads.

[Bibs]

7 minutes ago, TomE said:

Type 131 launch on 8 July. 

Close, really close! That's the public debut at Goodwood

[stephenwhyte]

Jeez - you could cut the sense of new car reveal tension with a knife.....loving it all - can’t wait!😎

[C8RKH]

Latest rendering from Autocar released!   An open top and looks like a Plack straight through exhaust too!!!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

That’s still got a better NCAP safety rating than a Fiat Punto.

[Barrykearley]

3 hours ago, Bibs said:

Close, really close! That's the public debut at Goodwood

What did it drive like when you were there last week?

[exeterjeep]

I see the name of the 131 thread has also now been changed to Emira.

[Likuid]

So looks like first 131 to be announced will be the Emira, which Lotus trademarked back in November. Some people say Emira has no translation, some say it means "Prince" in Arabic. Looks like they trademarked Elevo back in March. Elevo appears to mean in Spanish "I raise". In their teaser image there were 3 cars under covers. All appeared to have slightly different shapes and sizes with different headlight configurations. The smallest car seemed to have headlights that looked like the Evija.

So are all three based on the 131? Are two of them the 131 and the other maybe the Alpine collab car? Maybe only one of them is the 131 and the others are future electric concepts? In the other teaser image that had a car that looked like a mini Evija underneath a cover next to an uncovered Evija. This same car looks lo be the smallest of the 3 cars in the other teaser image (although its hard to know for sure). So if the Emira is the first to be announced, is the smallest (and I assume least powerful) variant of the 131? Or is it solely the 131?

As for the 2 trademarked names Emira and Elevo. Emira sounds good. Elevo sounds like a name for an economy car. In the end I don't care that much about the name if the car is good.

 

[tim_marra]

1 hour ago, Likuid said:

So looks like first 131 to be announced will be the Emira, which Lotus trademarked back in November. Some people say Emira has no translation, some say it means "Prince" in Arabic. Looks like they trademarked Elevo back in March. Elevo appears to mean in Spanish "I raise". In their teaser image there were 3 cars under covers. All appeared to have slightly different shapes and sizes with different headlight configurations. The smallest car seemed to have headlights that looked like the Evija.

So are all three based on the 131? Are two of them the 131 and the other maybe the Alpine collab car? Maybe only one of them is the 131 and the others are future electric concepts? In the other teaser image that had a car that looked like a mini Evija underneath a cover next to an uncovered Evija. This same car looks lo be the smallest of the 3 cars in the other teaser image (although its hard to know for sure). So if the Emira is the first to be announced, is the smallest (and I assume least powerful) variant of the 131? Or is it solely the 131?

As for the 2 trademarked names Emira and Elevo. Emira sounds good. Elevo sounds like a name for an economy car. In the end I don't care that much about the name if the car is good.

 

There are two possible answers to this

1. Yes

2. 42

[JimH]

Times article today.....

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7d86203c-a463-11eb-be8f-c06519de93dd?shareToken=430dcf31e8c318aff16cd70a6c632e73