A return of the 4 cylinder esprit?

[8-ball]

It will be the LFA V10 (well that's where my money would be.) Dare I say it, prospective Esprit buyers will have the money to put the petrol into it besides, Lotus already have a good line-up of four cylinder fuel efficient sports cars

[gem1138]

Wow! This is a long thread with so much to which I might respond. Where to start?

I don

[Iconic Ride]

A very thorough and thoughtful analysis of (as you say) a very long thread. Welcome to the forum, George!

"I don

[Stefan Ertler]

If Lotus sticks with Toyota for its engines this could be the engine and how it will sound. Also that car may be using a transaxle that would suit.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/VideosWallpapers/...T=V&FLT=34|

A little off topic, but I guess when it comes to exhaust sounds this is the ultimate !! and guess what ? it is also British and it's a V 12

How about something like this in the new esprit ??

[Lowtus]

You can't convince me that high performance by gasoline with large cubic displacement engines isn't on the way out.

I think gas hogs will go the way of genuine fur coats though it make take a few years.

That's what people were saying in 1974 when Jensen Interceptors and E-type Jags became unsaleable. But a few years later big engines were back in fashion and even the Esprit eventually got itself a V8.

Just look on the roads. Almost everyone with money is still buying monsters like the Cayenne, X6, Q7, Range Rover etc. A 4-cylinder Esprit would be the kiss of death. Even a V6 turbo would IMO be highly questionable.

[DanR]

It will never happen but what if the new Esprit had Porsche powertrains from the 911's, both NA and TT. Interesting to speculate on people's acceptance to that, six cylinders and all?

[gem1138]

First off, I can't imagine Porsche selling it's engine's to such a direct competitor. It would be like selling arms to your enemy in the middle of a war. Not that such things don't go on.

Beyond that, a rear engined car has a handicap right off the bat. The marketing department at Porsche knows that the rear engined 911 is invaluable as an icon, thus they continue to develop it and hold the power back on the Cayman and the Boxster to ensure the 911's dominance.

Remember that Lotus did the engineering for the Delorean and strongly urged John Delorean to go with a mid-engined design. This establishes their stand on engine location.

By the way, John Delorean reportedly swore that he would show GM how to build automobiles. I suspect that my car was GM's tit for tat response to their former executive's boast. It's mid-engined of course.

In response to Rich, I don't think gas hogs will ever be as offensive as genuine fur coats.

This question though reminds me of a song by Rush entitled Red Barchetta. It was based on a story published in Road & Track magazine in 1973. In the futuristic story, cars have been banned but the main character's uncle has maintained a Ferrari in secrecy so that he may "commit my weekly crime".

Speaking of Ferrari, Enzo introduced the Dinos with six cylinder engines saying that Ferraris were twelve cylinder automobiles. Of course in 1975 he produced the eight cylinder Ferrari 308s. I guess he couldn't stomach the idea of his name being attached to a car with only 6 cylinders but finally conceded to acceptability of eight.

I recall reading that the Esprit's move to V8s was largely driven by marketing. In the peasant world, Camerys got V6s so Accords had to follow suit with no engineering argument driving the change. I read recently that Porsche at one time built a 1.5liter turbocharged engine cranking out 1000hp so speed is not the issue.

Younger drivers don't seem to share my generations attraction to the sound of an old fashioned, 90 degree crank V8. The lumpy idle and the ferocious roar are intoxicating stimuli for my generation.

I guess I just talked myself into voting for a V8 but I'm not registered to vote in this election.

Edited August 31, 2009 by gem1138

[simonb]

I would not expect long odds on

Esprit having a Lexus V8 - interesting thing will be whether Lotus can get transmission for a longitudinal install.

I cannot see a 4 pot Esprit or Evora, and cannot see a V6 Elise. I think the range will be 4 cylinder Elise, 6 pot Evora, V8 (outside chance of V10) Esprit

Hybrid looks a non starter, as in a Lexus it costs 300Kg, and any new Lotus is unlikely to achieve its target weight in the first place

[Iconic Ride]

Fast forward to 2080:

The Lotus Forums

"Lotus Esprit--The next generation"

"A return of the nuclear engine?"

Iconic Ride's son's post:

I just don't see it happening. It's just not that environmentally friendly. I remember my dad participating years ago on this forum in the debate about (can you believe it?) how many holes to drill into an engine block.

I see the new Esprit using the new antimatter engine. Nuclear is so "yesterday," even with the fuel saving fusion upgrade. Antimatter rules!

[simonb]

I think the Esprit is VERY likely to get a Lexus / Toyota V8 - previous generation.

Longitudinal would make it very interesting

[plumdeplakmuis]

I think the Esprit is VERY likely to get a Lexus / Toyota V8 - previous generation.

Longitudinal would make it very interesting

I hope not the UZ engine, 4.7 V8 with 230hp in low spec, and 4.3 V8 with 300hp in high tune,

Then they'd better get the 4cyl 912 sport 300 engine back.

And for the UR engine, 5.7 liter with 381hp and 222kgs on the scale is not really "ad lightnes"

I only see the UR-FSE engine as an option, but it's to new to be sold by Toyota.

I personally think a Cosworth supplied engine would be nice,

Like the Cosworth/Nissan VQ35DE.

But honestly, as to achieve some scale(cost)advantage, i put my bet in an upgrade of the

current Toyota 6 cylinder.

[gem1138]

I would expect a new Esprit to be in the $100k plus range so it would be competing with the likes of the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Corvette ZR1. Both of these cars have engines that are triumphs of engineering and art, worthy of bragging rights on their own.

Could this be said of any engine coming from Toyota?

It is all about marketing. Supposedly, marketing was the driving force behind the Esprit getting a V8 originally. From an engineering standpoint, a supercharged 4 banger is just fine. From a business stand point, a V6 might do, but it better be one heck of a V6 and not just some hot rodded Camery dynamo.

It is hard to imagine that there are not people employed by Lotus reading our posts, but they also know that few of us here are potential buyers of a brand spanking new Lotus Esprit. Most of us are waiting for it to trickle down to our level of purchasing power years down the road.