Lotus articles in Oct. 2006 Automotive Engineering

[WVSooner]

An article on performance in green (environmentally friendly, not Kryton)vehicles talks about the Elise / Sport Elise having a 26 mpg fuel economy while producing a 0-60 acceleration time of 4.3 s, compared to the Ferrari F430's 14 mpg and 4.1 s 0-60 time. "While it has always been possible to get good fuel economy, rarely has it been possible in a car that delivers Ferrari-like performance."

But the really cool article was "Lotus Experiments with Alternative Fuels" (which has nothing to do with the Tesla, although it briefly mentions projects are also underway with hybrid and electric vehicles). The 2050 lb. Exige 265E uses a slightly modified Yamaha built Toyota 2ZZ VVTL-i supercharged intercooled engine, which runs on E85 ethanol! Power and torque are 21% and 16% greater than the original all-gasoline Exige S engine. 0-60 time is 3.88s; 0-100 time is 9.2s; top speed is 158mph. "Lotus states that it does not intend to put the 265E into production or sell aftermarket kits."

I'll try and get some scans tonight.