While a majority of automakers are bailing out of the Tokyo Motor Show, it is nice to see that there will indeed be a few new models to look at when it comes to be show time. One such vehicle will be a special edition sports car from he light weight English race car builders at Lotus. While the boffins from across the pond have already engineered every unnecessary ounce out of the Exige in the hopes of creating a hard core driving experience, this particularly dark model focuses on making the little Lotus as sinister looking as it is lethal. The special edition Tokyo Motor Show Lotus Exige is named the Scura, which is the Italian word for dark, due to its dramatic black bodywork and a GT3 inspired rear end.
Priced at around $75,000 the Exige Scura features a trio of Phantom Black stripes to break up the large panels of matte black paint, however the carbon fiber bits and suede wrapped racing buckets go a bit further towards showing off the Scura’s true purpose of being an all out competition vehicle. Only now instead of laughing at bright orange bodywork, other drivers will stay out of this Lotus’ way. Like all Exige models the Scura is powered by a supercharged four cylinder engine that delivers a maximum output of 257 HP 174 lb-ft of torque, while it can sprint from 0 to 60 MPH in only 4 seconds and reach a top speed of 152 MPH.
Stay tuned for the high res images!
Press release after the jump.
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Back in 2008 the lightweight English sports car manufacturers from Lotus released a very fast version of their fixed roof Elise roadster, the Exige Sport 240. The special edition Exige offered owners a very street able sports car while on track the 240 was capable of some incredible things. For 2010, the Exige S240 has received a slightly restyled front end, a new rear wing and the same combination of exceptional performance and usability, all starting at $65,690.
The S240’s front bumper gets a larger set of air intakes in the front bumper as well as larger vents in the hood in order to flow more air across the sports car’s cooling elements like the twin oil coolers ahead of the front wheels. This reduces the operating temperature of the high revving Toyota sourced four cylinder engine and further enhances the engine’s efficiency. This aerodynamically improved small super car is exactly what you will need to be able to run lap after lap at your local racetrack whenever you decide to take your new toy out to stretch its legs.
Under the rear decklid of the mid engine Lotus Exige S240 is an intercooled and supercharged 1.8 Liter Toyota 2ZZ-GE with the automaker’s Variable Valve Timing with Inteligence and tuned by Lotus to produce a maximum output of 240 HP at a screaming 8,000 RPM and 170 lb-ft of torque from 5,500 RPM. Tipping the scales at just over 2,000 pounds, the Exige Sport 240 is able to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in a blistering 4.1 seconds and reach the 100 MPH mark just 10 seconds after takeoff. The S240 can reach a top speed of 150 MPH and thanks to the drag reducing front end is able to get an EPA estimated 20 MPG around town and as much as 26 MPG on the highway.
Press release after the jump.
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Like almost all Lotus built vehicles, the new Evora is going racing. From their initial design stages, the lightweight English automaker intended for the Evora to be competitive on the track as well as a road going super car, so when Lotus released the Evora 124 endurance race car it was only the next logical step for Colin Chapman’s car company. The Endurance racing Evora maintains the same lines and body panels as the road car with the addition of a ground effects kit that gets the Evora to stick to the racing surface.
In order to make the Evora even more competitive, the mid mounted Toyota V6 has been upgraded from the standard 280 HP to a tire shredding 400 HP in unrestricted trim, while the meticulous design team has managed to shed another 400 pounds from the already lightweight sports car. Lotus has also found room for a six speed sequential gearbox for lightning fast shifts, a full roll cage for safety as well as the obligatory fuel cell and fire extinguisher system. Of course what race car would be complete with a GT spec rear wing made from carbon fiber to compliment the ground effects kit made up of the rear diffuser and front splitter.
Keeping the car on track is a set of 18 inch rims wrapped in Pirelli racing slicks and a set of AP Racing 6 piston calipers underneath, while the suspension has been redesigned for increased adjustability. According to Luke Bennett, Director of Lotus Cars Limited, “Motorsport has been in our blood ever since our founder, Colin Chapman, built the first Lotus back in 1948. We are proud of our motorsport history, which includes victories in Formula One, Le Mans, saloon car, rally car and sportscar racing around the world; more recently, we won the British GT3 Championship in 2006 with the Lotus Exige. The Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racecar is from the same unique stable and we expect it to be a competitive racecar when we enter various endurance races next year.” You can expect to see the new Lotus Evora 124 competing at 24 hour endurance races at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Silverstone and even in Dubai.
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Fresh off the heels of delivering their first truly all new car in years, the Evora, and the release of a hard core track tuned Lotus Exige Cup, the lightweight English sports car builder has just revealed another version of their compact thrill machine. The Lotus Elise Club Racer is a very simple and straightforward sports car that borrows a few shades of paint from Colin Chapman’s personal pallet from the 1960s, colors like Elite Yellow, Carbon Grey, Sky Blue and Old English White.
According to the Director of Lotus Cars, Luke Bennett, "Special Editions of the award winning Elise have always proved popular with our customers around the world, and I expect the Elise Club Racer to be no different. We have taken colour schemes from our past, used on the Elite and Elan in the 1960s and cleverly brought them up to date with a modern feel to the interior. The whole design package is modern with a classic twist, which of course matches the peerless ride and handling of a Lotus and the convertible experience of the Elise perfectly."
Called the Elise Club Racer, the new lightweight English sports car is based on the 134 HP version of the Lotus Elise S and is scheduled to arrive in showrooms on September 15th and go on sale for around $40,000. The car makes use of silver and black highlights in the interior as well as an anthracite anodized gear knob and handbrake with the Club Racer "CR" logo embroidered everywhere. The Lotus engineers even saw fit to incorporate a smaller diameter steering wheel and a set of lightweight six spoke alloys for that extra sporty look and feel.
Press release after the jump.
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The lightweight English sports car builder Lotus has just unleashed a whole new type of animal onto the performance car market, taking Colin Chapman’s original philosophy to a whole new level in order to create a 257 HP supercharged hard top Lotus Elise that can go from 0 to 60 MPH in only 4 seconds. By using items like a lightweight ’motorsport’ battery, ultra-light five spoke forged alloy wheels, revised rear engine subframe with lightweight coating, lightweight fly wheel, lightweight composite bulkhead panel replaces rear window as well as alloy supercharger U-bend pipes; and by deleting unnecessary items like carpets, front mud flaps, battery cover, interior mirror, sunvisors, rear tailgate gas strut the Lotus design team has been able to shed almost 250 pounds from the compact sports car.
Although the 1.8 Liter Toyota four cylinder still makes the same 257 HP and 174 lb-ft of torque thanks to a supercharger, the Lotus Exige Cup 260 is highlighted by an extensive use of carbon fiber, motorsport lightweight wheels, Ohlins 2-way adjustable dampers
and rear chassis stiffness increased by 30%. The Cup car for the streets also comes with race equipment like a redesigned front end and GT3 inspired wing out back with a set of HANS device ready racing buckets inside. However this is a true track day special and the when you come to think of it $80,000 is a lot to pay for a lot of discomfort however air conditioning and an interior noise reduction pack are available at the owners request, For some owners that is only a small sacrifice to endure and a smaller price to pay for such a visceral driving experience.
Press release after the jump.
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The world’s oldest retailer of the lightweight English sports cars, Bell & Colvill Lotus are offering some very reasonable special edition of the automaker’s Elise model. The new Elise Black & White Editions are available in both the R or SC spec and offer quite a bit of kit for the money. The more sinister Lotus Sport Black version and comes with a trio of Phantom Black stripes running the length of the car, while the Aspen White version wears the same stripes in Ice White. One would think that the combination of choice would be white with black stripes or black with white stripes, but the black on black and white on white treatment sets these Elises further apart from the Lotus crowd.
The interior features a microfiber trimmed dash and similar treatment on the sport bucket seats and door skins. The value package also adds a set of black forged wheels wrapped in ultra sticky rubber while out back there is an all new diffuser. Other additions are traction control, air conditioning and a compulsory option for the Lotus Sport base paint. The retailer sells this package for about a $3,000 premium over a standard Elise R or SC, but I all the options were added individually, the sum would be closer to $8,200. Whether you choose Black or White, these dealer direct special edition Elises are a tremendous savings over buying the options one by one. Bell & Colvil are now taking orders.
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After the recent success of the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel at the Shanghai Motor Show, Youngman Auto, the lightweight English sports car builder’s Chinese partner has submitted a request that the concept go into production, at least for the Chinese market by the end of this year. The alternatively fueled Lotus made its debut at Geneva in 2008, and what set the car apart from normal flex fuel vehicles that can run on a blend of gasoline and ethanol, the Exige 270E adds methanol into the mix. It is no surprise that the Chinese are so interested in the Tri-Fuel, because back in 2007 China became the world’s largest producer and consumer of methanol. In 2008 nearly 1 Billion gallons of the alternative fuel was blended with gasoline in the panda loving country, and mixtures of methanol/gasoline are already available at many gas stations throughout the land.
Check out the diagrams after the jump to see how Tri-Fuel works.
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Lotus revealed the Evora sports car last year at the British Motor Show. Today in Geneva it added a new version to the line-up: the 2+2 version.
The Evora 2+2 is powered by a 3.5-litre V6 engine producing 280 hp; add that to a weight of only 1350 kg and you will get a sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 5 seconds, while top speed goes up to 161 mph.
With the Evora 2+2, Lotus becomes the only maker in the world that has a production midengined 2+2.
Lotus will start Evora deliveries in May and prices for Germany for the 2+2 version starts at 63.500 euro (or $80,000 at the current rates).
Press release after the jump.
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The 2010MY Exige S made its world debut today at the Geneva Motor Show. The sportscar comes with a newly designed front end, a new rear wing and improved fuel economy.
The Exige S is being offered in a choice of three different packs: Touring, Sport and Performance. For the last one the power is raised to 239 hp at 8000 rpm courtesy of a Magnuson/Eaton M62 supercharger, new faster flowing injectors and higher torque clutch system and an upsized roof scoop to feed more air to the supercharger intercooler system.
The Exige S makes the 0 – 100 km/h sprint in 4.77 secs, but in the same time has a fuel economy of 33.2 mpg.
Press release after the jump.
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Lotus Sport revealed today the 2-Eleven GT4 Supersport race car that will compete in the European SRO GT4 Supersports category. It comes with a lightweight composite body, full rollcage, an advanced aerodynamic package, and increased power.
The four-cylinder engine is increased from the standard 255 hp and 179 lb-ft. engine to 270 hp and 182 lb-ft. The increases in power and torque have been gained through improved induction and exhaust systems, and with a high ratio supercharger drive system for increased levels of boost. To maximize the upgrades to the engine the engine management system has been remapped and optimized. The engine is mated to a six-speed racing sequential gearbox.
There no announced plans of getting this car on U.S. tracks yet.
Press release after the jump.
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