Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dr. Kill
Ack, I didn't have enough coffee this morning. Please disregard my deleted post.
What was the FWD Lotus? I am unaware of it.
|
Hi,
The M100 (new Elan). Produced jointly by Lotus, GM, and Isuzu when the General owned them both. It was the last project (X100) that Colin Chapman had a direct hand in, albeit slight, as he died in late 1983.
It was a hand-made low production two seater. While it never really caught on, it was a pretty nice car. Very reliable and easy to maintain.
Had an initial issue with the CAS (Cam Angle Sensor), but these were corrected on production models and through recall. The only other real issue was that the top tended to leak, not a lot, but annoyingly so, drivers used to drape a towel across their lap because the leak was at the winshield header - known as
Wet Thigh Syndrome.
It was a front mid-engine design, transverse DOC in-line turbocharged 1.6L 4 cyl. producing 162BHP and 148 ft.lbs. of torque, with a maximum boost of 9.7PSI or 0.65BAR. It was also available as an NA model to ROW, not the US. The block was from Isuzu, but Lotus created a special twin cam head, crank, pistons, intake (using the same technology they (Lotus) developed for their creation of the Corvette ZR-1 Motor - LT5 for GM) and exhaust.
With a Curb Weight of 2,422lbs., the Elan went from 0-60 in 6.2 sec. and a Top Speed of 137 MPH (220KPH).
Lotus produced 3,855 M100 Elans in total with only 539 being imported to the US (117 of these in California Spec) between January 1990 and July 1992. Later, Bugatti bought the rights to the design, after purchasing a Lotus Factory warehouse and finding 1,200 Isuzu 1.6L Crate engines inside. They produced another 1,100 Gen II M100s from July 1994 to August 1995, though none of these were imported to the US.
I actually looked for one instead of the Boxster, but it sold out from under me and so I went ahead with the Porsche. To me, they were same-same with the M100 having a slight edge because it handles much better than the Boxster, lighter, more nimble...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99