11:15am (CET) Tuesday 6th March saw Group Lotus
- helped by none other than F1 World Champion
Kimi Raikkonen - present two new and extreme
models: the Exige S Roadster and an exclusive
Lotus F1 Team edition Evora GTE. Plus we showed
off our latest racing car – the Lotus LMP2 –
and, this being Switzerland, a stunning time
piece also had a part to play.
Hardcore soft-top:
More raw than a Japanese tasting menu, the Lotus
Exige S Roadster combines its coupé twin’s
mesmerizing grunt and handling with an open air
experience that makes the driver feel all the
more at one with the road. It’s the first time
an Exige model has been offered with a
factory-fitted soft top roof, one which is
typically lightweight and easy to put up and
take down. In true Lotus fashion the finely
tuned suspension delivers a responsive ride and
sublimely agile handling, whilst the
supercharged 3.5 V6 engine with race-derived
technologies delivers stunning performance.
Reaching 100 kph from standing in a
neck-snapping 4 seconds (0 – 60 mph in 3.8
seconds) and 0 – 160 kph (0 – 100 mph) in 8.5
seconds this little roadster packs a punch both
on and off the track. The Roadster comes with a
six-speed manual gearbox, but will also be
available with Lotus’ Serial Precision Shift (SPS),
a paddle-operated automated manual transmission,
which makes life more relaxed in the city and
more F1-like when it’s let off the leash.
Kimi some lovin’:
Our favourite Finn introduced a very special
version of an already limited edition – the
Lotus F1 Team Evora GTE is about as exclusive as
a sports car can get. Kimi returns to Formula
One with Lotus in 2012, and what better way to
celebrate the return of the former world
champion than by creating a special F1 edition?
Unique F1 and Kimi-inspired touches include: An
unpainted high-gloss carbon-fibre body, carbon
interior with copper inlays, gold-piped black
leather bucket seats, and Lotus F1 Team Limited
Edition badging. The GTE, expected to be
homologated for EU markets by May 2012, is the
most powerful Lotus road car ever: 444
horsepower from a 3.5 V6, and with over a 100 kg
sheered from the standard Evora it boasts a
better power-to-weight ratio than most machines
this side of Kimi’s office. What’s not to love?
Discovering the car today Kimi said: “If the
Lotus F1 Team Evora GTE is as quick as it looks
then it is going to be absolutely incredible. I
would love to have this as my company car! I
like its aggressive shape and the carbon-fibre
finish makes it stand out even more – I can’t
wait to drive it. It’s great to be back in
Formula One and I’m really looking forward to my
first race with Lotus next week in Australia.”
The evolution of endurance – Lotus style:
Lotus is competing in the 2012 World Endurance
Championship with a Lotus V8-powered
Lola-designed LMP2 prototype racer. The team,
which is run by former F1 principal Colin Kolles
and his Kodewa squad, kicks things off at
Sebring on March 17.
This partnership is ideal for Lotus as it climbs
the endurance racing ladder, having returned to
the GT class last year with the Evora. Though
hugely important in themselves, the build-up
races of the season are really an amuse bouche
for arguably the greatest motor race in the
world – the Le Mans 24 Hours – and our LMP2
should be right in the thick of the action.
Journe Alesi:
This May, Formula One legend and Group Lotus
ambassador Jean Alesi is taking on a stirring
new challenge – to race in the Indianapolis 500.
Lotus, of course, has a glorious history at the
500 having won it with Jim Clark in 1965. His
Lotus 38 was the first mid-engined car to ever
triumph at the Brickyard. Lotus returned to
IndyCar last year and has stepped up its
involvement in 2012 by manufacturing its own
engine and powering no less then five cars.
Innovation has always been key to Lotus’ DNA,
and it’s something shared by Lotus’ newest
partner, Swiss watchmaker F.P. Journe. The
shared values help to explain why the exclusive
watchmaker’s decided to support Lotus and Jean
with his first Indy outing. In addition to
partnering with Lotus for the Indy 500, Jean
will be wearing an F.P. Journe Centigraphe Sport
watch, the first all-aluminium mechanical
wristwatch. At just 55 grams, its lightweight
philosophy is perfectly in line with Lotus, and
its high-tech aluminium alloy is normally found
in aeronautical engineering and Lotus’ acclaimed
chassis technology.
And there’s more:
Road cars
The Elise S is all torque and all action. Its
1.8 supercharged engine delivers a
buttock-clenching 220 PS, which means more
speed, more versatility, and more efficiency. It
results in lower fuel consumption and emissions
than the previous Elise SC, which the S replaced
last year.
Following its debut in Frankfurt, the new
Roadster’s brother, the Exige S in its coupe
version, makes another appearance – the ultimate
closed-cockpit road-faring missile that will
make a mess of the competition but not your hair.
And if you missed it in Frankfurt then now’s
your chance to see the Evora S with IPS gearbox,
the paddle-shift variant of Lotus’ current
premium model. Its supercharged 3.5 V6 pumps out
350 PS, which the acclaimed chassis fully
exploits. The Intelligent Precision Shift allows
a high and even level of power transfer as well
as quick, smooth shifts. It allows for more
comfort in the city, better fuel efficiency and
lots of fun when it comes to the fast stuff.
Motorsport
Lotus is turning up the heat in Formula One this
year. World champion Kimi Raikkonen is back in
the driving seat alongside a very promising
youngster, GP2 champion Romain Grosjean. The
Lotus F1 Team’s E20 has been impressive in
pre-season tests. While the team is hard at work,
we have one of our black-and-gold F1 machines on
the stand in Geneva.
We’ve also got our F1-inspired customer
single-seater, the Type 125, a car so extreme
that everything about it gets the heart racing.
Now at the end of its extensive development
program, the car has spent the winter with our
F1 team in Enstone and has been tested by Romain
Grosjean in Portimao. The result is a racing car
that can lick F1’s performance envelope, yet is
easier to drive, more accommodating, and doesn’t
need a 20-man pit crew to run it. Ultimate
driver thrills are yours at the touch of a
button.
The Evora’s race debut went well last year and
we’re looking forward to building on this in
2012. The Evora managed to complete all 24 hours
of a punishing Le Mans in June and finished
seventh in the GTE-Pro class, which was no mean
feat given the programme’s infancy. Meanwhile,
the Lotus Sport UK team took three fantastic
wins in the British GT Championship’s GT4
category. At Geneva, we have a special
gold-and-black Evora GT4 for you to get your
paws on.
Lotus Engineering showcased a number of
technologies, all of which point the way for the
future of sustainable, efficient transport with
ultra low well-to-wheel carbon emissions.
Leading the Lotus Engineering presence was the
Lotus Evora 414E Range Extender Hybrid,
developed as part of the UK’s Technology
Strategy Board’s REEV project. Under the skin of
this innovative technical demonstrator is an
electric drivetrain with two electric motors
giving 800Nm of torque and 414 PS, linked to the
Lotus’ 1.2 litre, 35 kW range extender engine.
Additional exhibits from Lotus Engineering
included key components from the Active Valve
Train technology, now developed to run at up to
8000 rpm, and the Omnivore engine which can run
efficiently and optimally on almost any type of
liquid fuel (including petrol, alcohol, diesel,
aviation fuel and paraffin) and as such could
lead the way in how engines will be designed in
the future. |
