Lotus Finds Loophole To Keep Building Combustion Sports Cars

Aug. 22, 2023 8:27 AM ET byRoger Biermann Scoop /10 Comments

If you thought Emira was the last ICE-powered Lotus, you'd be wrong.

Speaking toCarBuzzat a recent motorsport launch event, Lotus Advanced Performance's head of sales and marketing, Simon Croft, confirmed Lotus would continue producing combustion cars, albeit with a twist.

No one expected theLotus Type 66 to be revealedthis past weekend at Monterey Car Week, but that was by design. In 1970, when Type 66 was supposed to compete in the Can-Am series, there wouldn't have been social media teaser campaigns and leaks because social media didn't exist. Instead, reveals happened with a bang at big events.

While the story of Type 66 is incredible - lost drawings of an unproduced sports car leading to it being built 53 years later - what's more poignant is that it's powered by combustion, by an incredible V8 producing 830 horsepower at 8,800 rpm. But wait, didn't Lotus say the Emira would be the automaker's last combustion car?

As it turns out, Lotus is fully invested in exploiting a loophole allowing it to continue producing ICE-powered cars. There's just one caveat: they won't be road legal.

Type 66 is just the tip of the iceberg forLotus Advanced Performance(LAP), a new division launched at the start of 2022 whose purview is bespoke high-end products and experiences. Additionally, its tasked with oversight of the Lotus Evija hypercar.

Type 66 was the first ground-up project for the LAP team, who inherited theEvijaproject rather than conceived it. But according to Croft, there's more to come. The division is still in its infancy, and Type 66 allowed it to make a statement, but Croft tells us LAP hasn't decided on its next dedicated project just yet. However, combustion is part of the plan.

While Europe is effectively banning combustion - save for a tricky synthetic fuel loophole - from 2035, Croft explains the real deadline is 2030 unless an automaker has a hybrid powertrain strategy, which Lotus doesn't have.

But those regulations only pertain to road-legal vehicles, and Croft tells us that the legislation is effectively "tightening the screw on consumers who want combustion sports cars," forcing them to race tracks to enjoy what governments are making a guilty pleasure of.

That's where LAP comes in, building low-volume sports cars with gas-burning engines.

This isn't likely to give rise to an Emira successor. Instead, we expect more cars to come through with historical significance to the brand. Stories like the Type 66 are rare, and we doubt Lotus has a back catalog of car designs that were never built, so the division will need to think of something new.

When asked if LAP will follow the likes of the new Lamborghini Countach and reveal a new version of an old car, Croft tells us, "That's definitely something we can consider," highlighting the history and heritage of the Lotus brand.

But perhaps there's another avenue that can be pursued. While Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Bentley are all producing continuation cars of their great classics, restomod culture has boomed. And this is an avenue Croft admits he'd love to pursue. "For me, there'd be nothing better than a restomod Series 1 Esprit."

Croft's comments support those made by Simon Lane, who heads up LAP, who previouslyhinted at restomodsand what we now know was the Type 66. Lane also confirmed at the time that LAP was "reserving the right to still play with combustion engines."

LAP's scope of operations will extend beyond restomods and special series models, though. TheEmira GT4 racerwas developed by LAP, but the division will also dabble in electrified powertrains, making more hardcore versions of cars like the Evija X (as if 2,012 horsepower wasn't hardcore enough) and other future EVs.

这麦e LAP the Lotus equivalent to Porsche's GT division, AMG, or BMW M? Not quite. Croft explains that "Porsche's GT division still builds core models," whereas LAP's products are targeted at the 0.1% - the elite collector for whom money is no object.

Basically, LAP is Lotus' way of breaking the rules and keeping combustion alive, even if only at private track days.

Lotus Finds Loophole To Keep Building Combustion Sports Cars

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Lotus Finds Loophole To Keep Building Combustion Sports Cars

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