Geneva Preview: Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel

[maateuszz89]

Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel runs on gas, bioethanol and methanol

Lotus Engineering, a division of Lotus, will unveil its latest creation at the 78th Geneva Motor Show next week. The new Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel is a study of Lotus? research for a transition from today?s standard fuels to the sustainable, synthetic fuels of the future.

Running on any mixture of gasoline, bioethanol and methanol, the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel is powered by a 1.8 liter 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i engine with a supercharger and intercooler package from the Exige S. The car produces an output of 270hp with a peak torque of 184 lb-ft, an increase of 51hp and 25 lb-ft over the standard gasoline Exige S. 0-60 comes in at 3.88 seconds with a top speed of 158 mph.

Full article

0-60 comes in at 3.88 seconds

These stripes look just gorgeous!

 

[Blind_Io]

Ethanol is a poor solution. Anyone who thinks burning food as fuel is a good idea needs to have his head examined.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Well, now, E85 as an octane-boosted fuel in racing situations is hardly something to sniff at. I seriously doubt that Lotus, of all companies, is serious about ethanol as anything but a higher-octane alternative to pump gas. Besides, a gallon of fuel burned by a car is a gallon of fuel not burned by a tractor, and just think of the fuel for food tradeoff there!

 

[thedguy]

Ethanol is a poor solution. Anyone who thinks burning food as fuel is a good idea needs to have his head examined.

If it's made from sugar it's actually not a bad idea. We could try methanol from wood ships, but then that is not exactly environmentally friendly in any way shape or form, but it rocks for forced induced cars.

 

[Armunn]

Ethanol is a poor solution. Anyone who thinks burning food as fuel is a good idea needs to have his head examined.

Blame your corn industry lobbyists for the use of food crops in US ethanol. Seriously the rest of the world knows that using food crops for fuel is a very poor solution, in fact it would be better sticking with dino-fuel than corn as to get a gallon of ethanol you use more than a gallon of dino-fuel. Actually blame your corn lobby for a lot of things as they want to get corn into everything.

There are much better crops for ethanol or bio-diesel including rapeseed, sugar cane etc. Also there is a lot of research into algae and other crops to produce ethanol or bio-diesel.

 

[thedguy]

Blame your corn industry lobbyists for the use of food crops in US ethanol. Seriously the rest of the world knows that using food crops for fuel is a very poor solution, in fact it would be better sticking with dino-fuel than corn as to get a gallon of ethanol you use more than a gallon of dino-fuel. Actually blame your corn lobby for a lot of things as they want to get corn into everything.

There are much better crops for ethanol or bio-diesel including rapeseed, sugar cane etc. Also there is a lot of research into algae and other crops to produce ethanol or bio-diesel.

Funny thing is, even Bush knows that using food crops for ethanol is dumb. The whole idea is that we use land otherwise not suitable for food crop could grow switch grass and use it for ethanol.

 

[powah]

Me likes it

 

[amdforever]

https://pic.armedcats.net/2008/03/03/2219431793cb223ff9bb.jpg

 

[Shawn]

Why are alternative fuel versions of any car always decked out with additional stripes and stickers? Do you need to advertise that you're driving a 'green' car?

 

[AiR]

Why are alternative fuel versions of any car always decked out with additional stripes and stickers? Do you need to advertise that you're driving a 'green' car?

Thats the point yes. Conventional cars earn you money, green cars earns you image.

 

[Hercules286]

Thats the point yes. Conventional cars earn you money, green cars earns you image.

Just hope the Hippies don't realize a supercharger is ungreen.

BTW, yesterday I found that even a base Elise gets surprisingly poor mileage for its power and weight. I'm guessing it's the engine is at fault, as the last Celica had this same problem. Do they intend on replacing it any time soon?

 

[rskrobot]

Regardless of what it runs, I want one.