Lotus plans own engines



Lotus Esprit concept

Lotus has kicked off a feasibility study to determine whether to push ahead with its own uniquely designed V6 and V8 engines to power the new Elan, Elise, Esprit, Elite and Eterne – all previewed at the Paris auto show last September.
According to Lotus boss Danny Bahar, poor customer reaction to news it was planning to use Toyota sourced engines in its new models is behind the decision to determine the cost of developing, engineering and producing its own engines.
“We have done three engines for other manufacturers; why not do it ourselves?” Bahar revealed to Autocar magazine.

Lotus Elan concept

The driving force behind the Lotus plans for a unique range of engines is the company’s engineering boss, Wolf Zimmermann. The former engine boss at Mercedes-Benz AMG has extensive experience in high performance powerplants.
Zimmerman, who joined Lotus shortly after developing the plug-in electric Mercedes-Benz SLS E-cell through to road going maturity, is widely credited with the development of German car maker’s supercharged 5.4-litre V8 as used by th SLR-McLaren, the naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 found in the SLS and the 7.3-litre V12 used by Pagani in the Zonda.