New Lotus Circuit Car revealed
Exclusive pictures and story of debut at Shelsley Walsh
Lotus Circuit Car prototype at Shelsley Walsh yesterday
Shelsley Walsh, the country's oldest motorsport venue, opened its doors at the weekend for a hillclimb-fest on the occasion of its centenary. Among the runners was a prototype of Lotus' new Circuit Car (not its final name), as well as a number of cars almost as old as the hillclimb. And PistonHeads has some exclusive pictures of it.
 Side view  Yokohama-shod 5-spoke forged wheel  Side air outlet  Rear diffuser  Supercharged Toyota engine (intercooler at bottom of the pic)  Your workspace  At Shelsley Walsh's S bend  Lurking on Stratstone's stand  AM V8 Vantage at the S bend  This BRM V16 made a gorgeous noise! |
Lotus Circuit Car
Based on the Elise's lightweight aluminium chassis, and weighing around 650Kg, the single-seater car has been designed and engineered for track days and club racing. "It's designed for people who want to try their hand at racing in a safe car", said Tony Shute, Lotus' head of product development, and who drove the car yesterday.
The prototype car was designed and built in just 11 weeks and production versions are scheduled to be built from mid-2006.
Power
The prototype is powered by a supercharged version of the familiar Toyota VVTL-i 1.8-litre engine. The Roots-type Eaton M62 supercharger gives a maximum power output of 243bhp at 8,000 rpm and a maximum torque of 174lb-ft at 7,000 rpm. Lotus reckoned that an entry-level, naturally-aspirated version of the production car, will also be available with 190bhp at 8,000 rpm and 138lb-ft at 7,000 rpm.
The power to weight ratio for the supercharged engine is around 373bhp/tonne with a torque to weight ratio of 267lb-ft per tonne. The car's yet to be figured but the 0-100mph dash is estimated to be completed under nine seconds, with 60mph coming up in under four seconds.
Design
The car looks much like a stripped out Elise. It combines a small frontal area with no windscreen and flat, unsculptured sides with no air-intakes for minimal drag. The deep front splitter and a large carbon-fibre rear wing (single plane as standard and dual element as an option) and a rear diffuser aim to provide maximum downforce.
Head of engineering Nick Adams told PistonHeads that the aero system starts to work at speed as low as 40mph. He also said he expects the weight of production cars to come down considerably -- maybe an extra 50Kg -- through the use of lighter and thinner GRP for the bodywork, among other tweaks. For instance, he will be experimenting with improving airflow which may allow the use of a smaller, lighter intercooler.
Adams said that as many of the corner panels as possible are bolted rather than welded on, which means that the inevitable trips into the scenery should be easy to fix and so less expensive.
The bodywork was designed by the Lotus designers led by design head Russell Carr, who said: "The design captures the essence of the other Lotus based products and combines it with a functionally correct bodywork to give a racecar that is not only beautiful to look at but aerodynamically and structurally as effective as it possibly can be."
Underpinnings
Braking is provided by a servo-assisted, track tuned 4-channel Antilock Braking System (ABS) with Lotus/AP-Racing twin-piston fixed aluminium alloy front brake calipers, Brembo single-piston sliding rear calipers and 282 mm diameter, 26 mm thick front and rear, cast-iron ventilated & cross-drilled discs. Suspension and damping is provided by fully independent unequal length wishbones, Eibach coil springs, Ohlins 2-way adjustable dampers and an adjustable front anti-roll bar.
For the Shelsley Walsh Event, the car used Lotus Sport 5 spoke forged wheels shod with very sticky Yokohama A005 Hill Climb specification racing slicks.
Options
The car will be available with a pile of options, many of which have yet to be decided, but Shute said that they will include a sports pack to harden the car's responses, a track pack with a passenger seat and safety equipment, and an SVA pack to make the car road-legal. A race pack will include options to allow the car to adhere to FIA and MSA regulations. Standalone options include a limited slip differential, traction control, a 105dB race exhaust, racing tyres and wheel options, and a protective cover.
"It'll be a much easier car to drive than an out-and-out racer", said Shute. "In a real world situation such as a track day when, in some cars, you can't stay in the narrow power band because of other cars on the track, the fact that our car has lots of torque means you can still have fun."
Shute said: "This new product has allowed Lotus to once again apply its key "performance through lightweight" philosophy. This is in order to achieve an innovative product for the track day and club racing Lotus enthusiast whilst staying true to the key design attributes of the Elise and Exige."
Lotus expects to sell about 100 car a year. Its official name and price will be confirmed closer to production, but Adams said that £25,000 would an entry-point to aim at, while a fully-specced car could cost £40,000 or more.
H20 said:The SVA pack (including lights, supplementary wiring loom, etc.) will be supplied, but not fitted by the factory.
hmm road legal
annodomini2 said:May have been disinformation, but I mentioned the rumours of 2+2 to one of the engineers and he said that no, there isn't a 2+2 planned.
Hint at 2+2 coup
dapearson said:Cost! They already have a servo assisted pedal box and abs braking system available straight from the Elise. To remove servo assistance and ABS would actually cost more because it would be unique to this model.
What on earth are they doing fitting ABS to a race car?? And what's wrong with having non-servo'd brakes.
Apparently pictures taken on Monday ended up on the web on Tuesday with people immediately rubbishing them as CGI which they apparently found quite amusing.
Pistonheads said:Ther are air intakes, in fact, there are two on each side, you can see them on the side view photograph, one just behind the front wing and one just behind the driver, both on top of the side panel. I also believe that the standard wing will be GRP not CF.
The car looks much like a stripped out Elise. It combines a small frontal area with no windscreen and flat, unsculptured sides with no air-intakes for minimal drag. The deep front splitter and a large carbon-fibre rear wing (single plane as standard and dual element as an option) and a rear diffuser aim to provide maximum downforce.
Pistonheads said:Apparently there was a bit of a mixup and the composites shop put a layer of CSM inside the cloth layup which wasn't really needed so this should drop the weight of the panels pretty quickly. As for the intercooler, it's already supposedly more efficient than necessary, so the question is - less weight or more power?
He also said he expects the weight of production cars to come down considerably -- maybe an extra 50Kg -- through the use of lighter and thinner GRP for the bodywork, among other tweaks. For instance, he will be experimenting with improving airflow which may allow the use of a smaller, lighter intercooler.
jimmyduk said:
I respect and appreciate Lotus going to effort to make a track car, but what as wrong with the S1?
Hmm Echoed from here I think.... perhaps tha "sport 190 version of the S1 with the Toyota engine and blower would be an attractive proposition.... given that the fastest track Lotus I've ever seen was a tweaked-up Honda-powered S1 with about 280bhp (250+ at wheels) which managed to be about the ultimate trackday machine whilst still retaining a soft top, windscreen, heater, lights etc and being a perfectly usable daily driver..... I don't think the question was ever that the Elise chassis was light enough or competent enough, it just needed some more power and the suspension/braking tweaks to ensure it's all done safely...... personally I think teh 340R came closer to what Lotus were trying to hit than this.... this is moving more into the territory of the Atom / Radical / Westfield.... that is to say a trackday special... I don't think the Elise platform is the most cost-effective way to do this... you're always going to be able to find a smaller, lighter car that does it just as well......
..... having said that.... do I like it and would I have one? Yes and I'd seriously consider it if I had the wedge.
jimmyduk said:
I probably would rather spend my money on an Atom.
If, as I think, Lotus are marketing this as a club racer then I think they have hit the nail on the head. What national race series could you enter an Atom in (apart from maybe an Atom one make series)? I see this more as a competitor to the Radical.
Being supercharged means either not permitted or a massive capacity class penalty which would most likely put this car in a class where it can't compete.
Secondly, the ABS would have to go. I disagree that Lotus would have to dignificatnly retool - they've built 1,000's and 1,000's of elises without a servo or ABS.
I'd like to see it on track against some of the radicals but I have this feeling that the aerodynamics (not to mention the lighter weight) on the radical would give it more than a minor edge.
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Regards, Tim
would have been intersting in 1997 when trackdays started to really kick off but now against a backdrop of Sr3s, sr4's, cheap club and propsports, SLR's, CSR's, 300bhp atoms, and last but not last Lotuses very own trail of one off elise specials (Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) i cant help thinking 'whats the point'. I mean, its certainly not going to crack and lap records is it ! Added to that, i'd take teh K20a, a tuned 2.3 duratec or even the recalcitrant VAG engine over a blown toyota any day of the week.
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