Green Speed: the Lotus Exige 265E
The mad scientists at Lotus Engineering have not only come up with an environmentally-friendly version of the Lotus Exige, but at the same time made the most powerful Exige ever! The Exige 265E gets the '265' from the car's 265 hp (25 hp more than the Sport Exige 240R), and the letter 'E' from the E85 bio-ethanol fuel that powers the lightweight sportscar.
The 265E is powered by the VVTL-i supercharged and intercooled 4-cylinder engine from the Exige S, slightly modified to run on E85. The result is supercar-like performance: 0-60 mph in 3.88 seconds and 0-100 mph in 9.2 seconds. Lotus believes that those numbers make the Exige 265E the world's quickest road-legal E85-fuelled car.
Modifications include changes to the fuel system, recalibration of the engine management system, larger fuel injectors, and the addition of two fuel injectors at the supercharger inlet which provide the dual benefit of extra fuel under hard acceleration and cooling of the intake air before combustion.
Geraint Castleton-White, Head of Powertrain for Lotus Engineering says of the Exige 265E research vehicle, "We wanted to prove the point that green sportscars can also be very high performing sportscars." Mission accomplished.
Unfortunately, there are no plans for production of the green Exige - yet.
[Source: Group Lotus]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
neox 2:35PM (8/24/2006)
Why am I not impressed?
I mean my RX-7 has more power than that.
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SoloTwo 2:39PM (8/24/2006)
And your RX-7 is slower then that and will break down every other day.
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Travis 2:47PM (8/24/2006)
And does your RX-7 run a 3.88 sec 0-60?
Ah, I thought not.
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DPC car videos 2:50PM (8/24/2006)
Wow 265 horsepower, I remember the 190hp when it just came to the states and it was fast.
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rwdmtparkingonly 2:52PM (8/24/2006)
E85 is over 100 octane, if they're only running that they could turn the boost way up and make much more than 265hp, especially since E85 also has alcohol’s cooling properties. The car would then blow up on regular gas, but if they're not going to make it who cares.
The biggest environmental effect I see is that farmers will have a reduced incentive to sell out to tract housing now that corn is worth more.
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Simon 2:58PM (8/24/2006)
I wonder what does this conversion do the weight?
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Sean 3:02PM (8/24/2006)
The Kroger down the street is selling E85 now. If they built this guy and it was reasonably priced, I could see using it to commute in .
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rwdmtparkingonly 3:02PM (8/24/2006)
Wow, actually the future is already here, GM already has a car that can sense the presence of e85 and make turbo boost higher when it is present, creating more power with e85:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/AutoshowArticles/articleId=108748?imw=Y
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All World Automotive 3:12PM (8/24/2006)
Go E85. Corn growers of America love these stories
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Carchops 3:16PM (8/24/2006)
that thing is hot!
http://www.carchops.com
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Ricky 3:32PM (8/24/2006)
to: neox
Gee, Mack trucks have 300hp and 500lb/ft, I wonder why they dont get the top spot in sport car news.
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UberXY 3:37PM (8/24/2006)
The sooner we get hip to E85 the better. They don't grow corn in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq. The US harvested 74.3 million acres of corn in 2005.
(No, I don't drive a Prius - I drive a 400 HP M5. But we gotta get out of depending on the mid east asap)
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apex 3:50PM (8/24/2006)
To Neox:
Its funny... I once told told someone who knows absolutely nothing about cars about the Exige. The response was very similar to yours..
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Peter 3:52PM (8/24/2006)
It's still 15 percent gasoline. E85 isn't a magic bullet that'll somehow fix the US's dependance on foreign oil. If/when it does catch on, people will be upset when they lose the 51 cent per gallon government subsidy and the price goes up.
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rwdmtparkingonly 3:59PM (8/24/2006)
"But Saab has found a way to take advantage of ethanol's higher-octane rating to improve performance, and the company put that to work on the 9-5 Aero BioPower Concept wagon shown here in L.A. You see, E85 comes in at 104 octane, and this allowed Saab engineers to advance the ignition timing and increase the turbo boost by 20 percent on the Saab 9-5's 2.3-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Hardware modifications include more durable valves and valve seats, and a modified fuel pump, tank and lines.
The result is 310 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque when the 9-5 BioPower runs on E85, compared to 260 hp and 258 lb-ft on gasoline. Additionally, the 9-5 wagon's 0-to-60-mph time drops from 6.9 seconds to 6 seconds flat." If GM enables this technology on the Solstice/Sky Turbo I won't mind getting E85 once and a while.
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jack_brack 4:08PM (8/24/2006)
E85 sux, but that car is HOT! Damn, I want one bad.
Lotus = only respectable car maker left...only cause they're on a mission to get RID of weight unlike every other car company out there that keeps their cars growing infinitely.
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Tim UF 4:28PM (8/24/2006)
jack_brack: i agree with you on the weight savings, though i think the new mini is lighter than the outgoing one... with all the advancements in the light metals (aluminum, magnesium especially) i'm surprised more manufacturers arent using those, or investing in composites...
Is calling ethanol 'bio-ethanol' redundant in a lot of cases?
I mean, all the spirits I can think of (which are all watered down and aged forms of ethanol, save for vodka, which is just watered down) have their beginnings in some sort of plant... vodka is potatoes, Rum is sugarcane or molasses, bourbon and whiskey are grain, tequila is from agave pulp (sometimes other filler starches are used)... etc... even brandy and congac which are distilled wines (grapes)...
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chuck goolsbee 5:28PM (8/24/2006)
I want one (well actually an Elise as I prefer an open topped car) with a TDI engine. PLEASE.
--chuck
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David 1:03PM (8/25/2006)
E85 has a long way to go before it's going to help: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises.html
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