[Auto Blog]Green Speed: the Lotus Exige 265E

News Bot · August 24, 2006

Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrids/Alternative, Sports/GTs, Lotus

The mad scientists at Lotus Engineering have not only come up with an environmentally-friendly version of the Lotus Exige, but at the same time made the most powerful Exige ever! The Exige 265E gets the '265' from the car's 265 hp (25 hp more than the Sport Exige 240R), and the letter 'E' from the E85 bio-ethanol fuel that powers the lightweight sportscar.

The 265E is powered by the VVTL-i supercharged and intercooled 4-cylinder engine from the Exige S, slightly modified to run on E85. The result is supercar-like performance: 0-60 mph in 3.88 seconds and 0-100 mph in 9.2 seconds. Lotus believes that those numbers make the Exige 265E the world's quickest road-legal E85-fuelled car.

Modifications include changes to the fuel system, recalibration of the engine management system, larger fuel injectors, and the addition of two fuel injectors at the supercharger inlet which provide the dual benefit of extra fuel under hard acceleration and cooling of the intake air before combustion.

Geraint Castleton-White, Head of Powertrain for Lotus Engineering says of the Exige 265E research vehicle, "We wanted to prove the point that green sportscars can also be very high performing sportscars." Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, there are no plans for production of the green Exige - yet.

[source: Group Lotus]

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