Tuesday 29th July 2008

Lotus-Based Abarth Sports Car For 2011

New Abarth two-seater could be based on next Lotus Elise

---

A new Abarth sports car could be based on the next Lotus Elise, it has emerged. A source close to the company has told PistonHeads that an Abarth two-seater has been given the green light and is already being developed by the company.

But now Autocar reports that the car will be unveiled in 2011 and could use Lotus underpinnings. The car will be more than just a rebadge of the Elise and the insider told PH early models look similar to the now defunct Smart Roadster, albeit bigger.

The car will also use a different engine with Abarth opting for the Fiat Group's new-generation of turbo-charged, direct-injection, air-valve four-cylinder engines, which promise high torque, high power and low emissions, reports leftlanenews.com. The car is expected to have around 240bhp from the mid-mounted four-cylinder and the car will weigh no more than 900kg.

At the recent Abarth 500 launch, Abarth CEO Luca de Meo said that he dreamed of a stand-alone Abarth but denied there were firm plans to produce one. 'Maybe one day we can develop a model that is just an Abarth for Abarth,' he said. 'We might have this one day, but we don’t have the in-house resources to do that today.'

 

 

[scotty_917]

Why?

[900T-R]

Why not?

[Frimley111R]

Wouldn't this be like Lotus making a car to compete with its own? And yes I know they did it with the VX200 but it still doesn't make too much sense to me unless it was significantly different.

[havoc]

Frimley111R said:

Wouldn't this be like Lotus making a car to compete with its own? And yes I know they did it with the VX200 but it still doesn't make too much sense to me unless it was significantly different.

New body and new engine (as in the VX220), and I suspect it'll be less hardcore (as was the VX220). So in reality they're just replacing the VX220...and I don't doubt they're making a profit on every tub they ship...

[chickensoup]

Could be really good - add the style and looks of the Italians to Elise

Wonder how it would sit in the range - Abarth Grande Punto being the same under the skin as the MiTo

Baby Alfa 8c

[Mclovin]

Good news for a change. Fed up with constant previews of lard ass cars.

[bigbadbikercats]

Frimley111R said:

Wouldn't this be like Lotus making a car to compete with its own?

That would kind of depend where it's going to be sold, how strong Lotus sales are in that territory, how strong the "alternative" brand was in that territory, and how much money is on the table. If someone's willing to front up lots of money for development and then commit to taking a significant number of cars at a decent price in a country where Lotus don't have much of a presence[1] it would be silly to turn them away!

[1] So, how many cars do Lotus sell in Italy?

--
JG

[900T-R]

Mclovin said:

Good news for a change. Fed up with constant previews of lard ass cars.

Yes, that's the stance I'm adapting preliminary to further details about the mooted cooperation.

[pbarlow0032]

Sounds perfect to me!!! Great handling, light, and presumably reasonably economical for 240bhp. It should feel like a rocket ship!! Don't Elises currently make do with about 160bhp?

[TTwiggy]

Lotus sell very few cars in Europe I think (certainly my elise stopped traffic in France - it was like they'd never seen one) so I would guess it makes sense. Not keen on the idea of a turbo'd engine though - doesn't suit this sort of car IMHO

[fuoriserie]

Old renderings from students of the IED design school in Turin, based on the Smart roadster chassis and dimensions, clearly visible in the sketches......

I think the Elise chassis, is way better for a new Abarth.....

Edited by fuoriserie on Tuesday 29th July 13:14

[900T-R]

That's fapping cool nonetheless. If it weren't for the 'no convertibles' in most company car regs I could see myself driving that every day.

[Stu_00]

I would put my name down

[dxg]

The rumours of this have been going around for a while now.

It has been suggested that this will be a revisited X1/9 - meaning that it will *definitely* have a targa roof. Whether that will constrain the proportions as in the case of the X1/9 remains to be seen.

Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Could bring me back to Fiat.

[900T-R]

So good it had to be posted twice.

[edit - whoa that was quick!]

Edited by 900T-R on Tuesday 29th July 13:14

[Horse_Apple]

Lotus is making a very good name for itself as being the goto specialist for another manufacturer to work with and quite frankly this is excellent.

If Lotus can supply a chassis and some know-how to get exposure to a market in which they are currently as good as nonexistant then it's a good move. The Elise is old news and sales of the real product must have tailed off, so maximising returns on the core of the product is to be commended.

It's not as if they are striking deals with small time firms either.

Lotus could do far worse than letting other good companies make use of their chassis technology and there are many companies out there that could do worse than taking this fantastic bit of proven kit and adding their own 'stamp' to it to deliver a new product to their market place.

[havoc]

TTwiggy said:

Not keen on the idea of a turbo'd engine though - doesn't suit this sort of car IMHO

:cough: VX Turbo
:cough: KTM X-Bow
:cough: Ferrari F40

...

The era of laggy turbos is largely over, and while a n/a powerplant would be aesthetically and aurally preferable, a turbo DOES have advantages...

[bencollins]

Looking forward to seeing these "air valves".
Apparently they are going in the 2 cyl 500 too.
Engines otherwise have hardly changed for 100 years.

[alanc5]

havoc said:

TTwiggy said:

Not keen on the idea of a turbo'd engine though - doesn't suit this sort of car IMHO

:cough: VX Turbo
:cough: KTM X-Bow
:cough: Ferrari F40

...

The era of laggy turbos is largely over, and while a n/a powerplant would be aesthetically and aurally preferable, a turbo DOES have advantages...

is it just me who like the sound of a good dump?

[Collaudatore]

alanc5 said:

havoc said:

TTwiggy said:

Not keen on the idea of a turbo'd engine though - doesn't suit this sort of car IMHO

:cough: VX Turbo
:cough: KTM X-Bow
:cough: Ferrari F40

...

The era of laggy turbos is largely over, and while a n/a powerplant would be aesthetically and aurally preferable, a turbo DOES have advantages...

is it just me who like the sound of a good dump?

"plop"


there's one on me