Lotus is a world-renown maker of lightweight performance cars. The UK-based company has been making efforts to create more environmentally friendly vehicles using more environmentally friendly methods. For instance, a plan was created to erect a wind turbine grid in the centre of their test track, which could provide power to the nearby assembly plant. Their latest work on the green front is embodied in a machine called the Exige 265E--a specialized model which is developed to run on a mixture of fuels from 100% gasoline to E85 BioEthanol (15% gasoline).
Visitors to the Japanese Society of Automotive Engineers Show in Yokohama will be the first outside the UK to see the unique flex-fuel technology demonstrator which will be on display this month.It's said to be one of the fastest road-legal BioEthanol-powered cars available. The 265E's supercharged and intercooled 4-cylinder engine comes from the Exige S model and is capable of catapulting the 930-kg car to 60 in around 4 seconds with a 254 km/h top speed. The engine is modified to run on the new fuel mixture, with a sensor in the fuel tank monitoring the real-time bio-ethanol/gasoline mix. Accordingly, the ECU adapts the engine fuelling, timing, cam-switching and ignition patterns as needed.
photo: Lotus