An excellent vlog. Just one omission. It was subsequently learned that when Lando hit the back of Oscars car at the Canadian GP, Oscars car had slowed suddenly. Not by a lot but by enough to result in Lando crashing into Oscar's car as Lando pulled left to attempt a pass. Why did Oscar's car slow? He had depleted the battery staving off Lando down the previous straight where Lando had the DRS to help him get alongside before he had to brake entering the chicane. It ran out or energy just as Lando was about to attempt the pass. Andrea Stella reported this information the day following the GP but very few in the media picked up on it. All credit to Lando for accepting the blame but I have to believe that Oscar felt his car slow when the battery died. The electric motor adds around 150 bhp to the ICE engine. He must have known, and presumably thought he'd got away with it when Lando took the blame. It was his fault as he'd hit Oscar's car, but he wasn't stupid. He ...
Lotus is planning to power the new Esprit with its own design for a V8 engine, company boss Dany Bahar has revealed to Autocar.
The company is currently doing a feasibility on the possibility of an all-new, Hethel-engineered V8 which would appear in the 2012 Esprit and a V6 for the new Elan and other models he admitted.
“We have done three engines for other manufacturers; why not do it ourselves?” he said. “The engine is the heart of a sports car; we should do our own product.”
Lotus engineering chief Wolf Zimmerman also revealed that the planned three-strong family of mid-engined Lotuses that will start with the Esprit will share a common platform, brakes, suspension and electrical systems.
Bahar also revealed that customer reaction to the new Esprit being powered by a Toyota V8, as was originally planned, was behind the decision.
“In the mind of sports-car enthusiasts, Toyota power might not be good enough”
But the final decision on whether Lotus will green light the cash for engine development will be taken at the end of January. “The decision then will be purely financial,” said Bahar.
source: Autocar
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