[Cardinal]

I've been curious about something for a while. Lots of people like Ronin and others spent a lot of time and money back in the day developing a FI option for the Elise when there was none. Fast forward a few years, now Lotus offers a SC right out of the box. Now, did Lotus go out and do all the R&D they would have done if nobody had attempted a SC before, or did they just scoop up other peoples' work and sell it as their own?

 

[Bavarian Motorist]

Ronin and others are merely individuals or small companies. They don't have the means Lotus does -- engineers, money, equipment, other resources. For them to complete the same project probably wasn't nearly as difficult.

 

[wallabyguy]

Lotus did their own thing. They developed a new solution that is different from the third party systems. Most of the aftermarket kits are based, in part, on the Exige S set up while the Lotus system utilizes entirely different hardware.

 

[Randy Chase]

Didn't Lotus offer a supercharged option for the Exige years ago?

 

[Bender Rodríguez]

The depth of R&D an oem will do vs. an individual is way different. The oem will worry about things like ease of manufacturing, stack up of tolerance and lots of long term high mileage testing for warranty. Typically new powertrain products will be validated by driving a handful of car to over 100k miles each.

 

[Patricko]

Thou shall not take the name of Ronin in vain

Thou shall not take the name of Ronin in vain

Having said that Lotus Sport introduced the Exige 240R in the UK in 2005.

As far as I know they were the first to put a Supercharger on an Elise or Exige.

I know for a fact that Frank/Ronin/God was after the 240R :wave:


:shift:

 

[Randy Chase]

And not to take away from all the people that have been doing R and D on the cars, Frank included. But some people are far more public than others and it can give the appearance that they are the only ones doing stuff. Specially if they keep telling you they are the only ones. A large number of people have been working on various solutions and improvements, some more successful than others. But failure also adds to knowledge base.

On the other hand, Lotus was working on various SC solutions without much fanfare. So it seems that "all of a sudden" they released something.

 

[tommyc]

I will 100% put my BWR s/c against a lotus engineered s/c any day especially with a charlie tune!

 

[Cardinal]

OK so Lotus did their own thing. That's what I was after. Thanks.