There's A New Lotus For America – And You Can't Drive It!
With the demise of the Lotus Elise and Exige, the lineup is looking pretty barren these days. Only the Evora exists for those looking to simplify and add lightness. The Los Angeles Auto Show saw the introduction of the formerly-forbidden Exige V6 Cup, but unlike our world market friends, this one is not street legal.
With a 345 horsepower supercharged V6 and a curb weight of just under 2,500 lbs, the Exige V6 has the kind of power to weight ratio that would give modern supercars a fright. But the only place you’ll be able to drive it is on a racetrack. The Exige V6 Cup will be sold only as a trackday car not intended for road use. Our own EIC pro tem has driven the car, and will be back to contribute his thoughts in the near future.
More by Derek Kreindler
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OK, Whynot (and Others making fun): I have big shoulders (and, pf course, big ideas), so I can take it, but please give me the time of day as no one here has that I can see. First off, the DEMF is a conceptual dream, not a product. Also, I dd confine my discussing it to relative topics. However, I am certain that it is absolutely the wave of the future and, as you might gather, I am extremely excited about the idea. Moreover, there is nothing even remotely close to its potential performance or fuel economy, for that matter, in either EVs, Diesel or Gasoline Hybrids (or any combination of them) in automotive discussion anywhere and I challenge anyone to compare them. My friend Gary, a retired Ford drive-train/ chassis engineer is helping me fine tune the concept (and he is brilliant beyond words). We came up with the Methane Hydride Diesel idea together after several hours of batting ideas around on the phone. Since we initiated the concept, interestingly, two manufacturers have built concept cars that include discreet novel components of the overall idea: For instance, Mazda’s Methane Diesel written about here (ours is Methane Hydride Hybrid but that is picky) and the BladeGlider (also written about here) that has independent Electric drive motors. Also, the DEMF will absolutely work right now and some day, if funds allow, I plan to.build a prototype of it. There is no question that this drive-line and power train would smoke any car on the road today on acceleration if done as I outline. It would out-turn anything on a dry or wet road, by definition, and the fuel use (however you measure it) would be a small fraction of even a Tesla, because the drive-line losses would be lower and it would be self-replicating and self-restoring, so its range would nearly be unlimited, unlike a Tesla’s measly 200 mile range. Finally, it would out corner any car in the world because of the traction bias and flywheel/gyro. Finally, as a long-time architect, I believe that the home interface is totally doable and needed. We need to get some control of utility coasts and gain some independence from the grid. Respectfully, it does not sound like you have read what you are complaining about or I would be expecting replies about the idea. This not about hawking a product it is about discussing an idea relative to this forum. Finally, I reference The Truth About Cars back to here in my blog each time, so I don't see where anyone here would be bent out of shape over it. This has become a favorite place to read about current technology and beats MotorTrend and the other blogs by miles IMHO and I have been through a pile of them. Please read the blog and “then” complain if you believe the DEMF is flawed. That is what I want... Objective criticism from intelligent Gear Heads. Am I passionate about cars? Right now, I own and drive seven: 2 early Miatas, two VW TDI.’s for highway, am ‘83 cherry RX7 (w/40k miles, an F-150 300 CI, an ‘02 Legacy w/45k miles..
V6 Exige is pretty much the perfect car, aside from its looks. It's what the Cayman should be.