Friday 7th October 2005

Lotus' new GT confirmed

It will be called the Europa and will be FQ

---

The last Europa: 1965-72

Car magazine brings us a few more snippets about the Lotus Europa -- the Proton-owned company's forthcoming Elise-based GT car.

It's been confirmed that it will house the Vauxhall Astra's turbocharged 2.0-litre engine, and will be based on the Elise's aluminium bonded chassis, but won't share any body panels. It'll weigh around 920Kg, only about 60Kg more than an Elise 111R, giving it a power to weight ratio of 214bhp/tonne.

This means the motor's 197bhp and 184lb-ft of torque will rocket the pocket GT to 60mph in some five seconds. However, as Clive Dopson told PistonHeads at Shelsley Walsh, though a more relaxed car, it's still a driver's car.

It looks nothing like the Elise, having a more flat-fronted nose, possibly mandated by pedestrian safety legislation, punctuated by three gaping airscoops. The headlamps are inset but a totally different shape, while the coupé shell provides 30mm more headroom, and as a result has a 911-ish shape to it. There's an overhang at the rear to create a luggage space.

The price looks to be around £30,000, putting it squarely in competition with the Nissan 350Z, Porsche Cayman and BMW's Z4 Coupé.

Only 450 will be made and you can expect to see it next June. We can't wait...

• Previous story

[GTRene]

can't wait to see how that car will look...
the engine can be oké if they change the motormanagment! I've had an Speedster Turbo but those managments are flaw? when you let the gaspedal free, it takes some time to react! afterburning fuel they say? but its not direct so not nice...hope they change that, and put a few hp more in it.
René

>> Edited by GTRene on Friday 7th October 10:33

[bertie]

I saw a couple of them testing at Milbrook during a Maserati driving day a few weeks ago.

Looked just like the pic in CAR.

[GTRene]

So it will look like this?
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3372346a30,00.html
Then I'm gona like it...

>> Edited by GTRene on Friday 7th October 11:28

[mybrainhurts]

Lotus Euro Pah, eh?

Glad to see the lads shunning the single currency....

[Marki]

GTRene said:

So it will look like this? www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3372346a30,00.html Then I'm gona like it... >> Edited by GTRene on Friday 7th October 11:28

That looks great

[Dommo]

If it's competing with the Z4 and boxter why only make 450? Surely they could sell shed loads more than that?

[135sport]

Any idea why only 450 will be made?

Is that total or just the first year?

[bilton_d]

i would love to see what they are going to be like but a real shame there won't be a tuned V6

[r988]

bilton_d said:

i would love to see what they are going to be like but a real shame there won't be a tuned V6

yet....

[silver993tt]

A Lotus should have a Lotus engine not a Vauxhall, Toyota or whatever.

[cirks]

Ted said:

power to weight ratio of 214Kg/tonne.

Ah, not only shunning the Euro but also redefining metric weights

[omohat]

silver993tt said:

A Lotus should have a Lotus engine not a Vauxhall, Toyota or whatever.

Like the Elise?

[monkey boy 1]

omohat said:

silver993tt said: A Lotus should have a Lotus engine not a Vauxhall, Toyota or whatever. Like the Elise?

[scuffham]

omohat said:

silver993tt said: A Lotus should have a Lotus engine not a Vauxhall, Toyota or whatever. Like the Elise?

or just about *every* other Lotus model ever made....

if you actually add them up, I can only think of 4 Lotus that had Lotus engines..

Elite II
Esprit
Eclat
Excel

might be wrong, but all the rest had Ford/Gm/Renault/Isusu/Coventry Climax/Rover/Toyota/etc engined

[arcbeer]

Pic looks like the Farboud www.farboudsportscars.com/farboud.htm

[richb]

silver993tt said:

A Lotus should have a Lotus engine not a Vauxhall, Toyota or whatever.

Since when did a Lotus ever have a Lotus engine

[richb]

Elite II, Esprit, Eclat, Excel - all ran a Vauxhall 2.2 engine with Lotus heads didn't they? Rich...

[boggy]

Hi all,

I love it and I'm seriously thinking of buying one, but 450 is a mistake 4500 is more like it

Boggy

[cross-eyed-twit]

Yeah, sort of. The patent for the engine was bought from Vauxhall, I believe, but they heavily modified it to suit the Esprit etc. not only the heads, the whole package so that it didn't really relate to the original except in shape, ie slant four cylinders. The engine was part of an early VVA type thing but with engines, not chassis. They were experimenting with sticking another set of pistons and head on the other side to make it a V8, hence the heavy duty crank, if you can picture the idea.

[pss1]

450 units? I might be wrong, but didn't they originally say a similar thing before the Elise came out. Something about it being a 'limited run, specialist car'.

Sounds like a trick to get a good order book started. Surely they'd never make their development costs back on just 450 units?