The Lotus Elise and Exige will soon be a thing of the past for North American fans of the brand (though both cars will continue to be offered in other markets), but if our spies prove to be right, the British firm is already cooking up a replacement, at least for the Exige coupe.
Our man with the long lens snagged these pictures of a mid-engined Lotus prototype during testing. But how can we be sure that this the Exige, we hear some of you ask?
Well, the test car does not bear any resemblance to the recent Lotus concept models shown in Paris last year so given the prototype's shape and size, the most plausible explanation is a replacement for the Exige.
Moreover, earlier this year, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar hinted that the company was working a new Exige.
The pictures suggest that the new Exige (bear in mind, we don't know if Lotus will hang onto the name) sports a slightly longer rear overhang than the current model and a cleaner profile with sharper lines.
Our spies also reported that the test mule was wearing a V6 engine, possibly sourced from the Evora. The latter is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 unit churning out 280-horses in standard trim and 350HP when paired to a supercharger in the S model.
However, we'll have to wait and see if they're right or if Lotus will stay with a four-cylinder option for its mid-engined sports coupe. In any case, we'll keep you updated for any new developments.
2 Comments:
I Don't understand why Lotus would put such a large engine in such a small car, unless it's all aluminum it must be significantly heavier and is going to make it really ass heavy. A small high revving V6 would be nice but there is no reason to put anything bigger than a 2.6 L in this car which they could easily get 300-400 hp with twin turbos.
I've heard of guys running evos and getting 500-600hp with 2.5L cranker kits. Of course, they also had to modify a large portion of the internals, but still. 500-600 out of a 2.5L 4 cylinder would be epic.
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