Any word/speculation on the powerplant for the new Esprit?

[bigtony]

Has there been any official (or unofficial > word on the engine for the coming Esprit? In a article here on pistonheads they said ~maybe~ a TT BMW V8. If not that, I think maybe an LS2/7 would do the trick quite handily...but that's wishful thinking

[cross-eyed-twit]

rumour has it that its a BMW normally aspirated V8 although there is a fair bit of specualtion and noone at Lotus has confirmed this.

[peter450]

i heard one of the reason's for the delay was to re engineer the car to take a differant powerplant, how true this is i dont know, but i doubt bmw would be very keen to allow lotus to change the specs of there motors without extensive testing, to ensure bmw's rep doesnt suffer if they start blowing up, an should lotus want to uprate the v8 it would no doubt be very expensive, then theres the power issue 350bhp is only gonna work if the car comes in under 1300kg, anymore and its performance wont be strong enough to get people out of ultra reliable 911's or classy vantages, at 80K lotus will need a car that sets the performance benchmark for that sector, as it's unlikely the build quality will be up to the competion, an lotus while being a prestige badge has a reputation (maybe no longer deserved) for not being the most reliable or well put together cars