Lotus Exige goes methanol!
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 23 April 2008
Yes – Lotus goes methanol! As opposed to menthol, which would make for a better headline and environmentally – by solely emitting minty-ness - would prove very popular with planet-savers.But it's not. It's methanol, and the Lotus Exige Trifuel 270E concept car is in the thick of the action.Whilst Lotus' might be owned by Proton, Lotus Engineering – which does all the fiddly bits with the power plant – is resolutely British to the core. Which on today - St. George's Day - is worth reiterating in a non-jingoistic manner. That said, it's tinkered with a Toyota engine in this instance, but that's made in Britain so we're fine. Or North Wales to be precise. Which is still the UK. Technically.Anyway, the Lotus Exige Trifuel 270E is the most powerful road version of an Exige yet and people should be officially pardoned for thinking that it runs on rocket fuel as it hurtles toward the 62mph-approaching horizon in under four seconds with what appears to be dragon-esque flames emerging from its backside.266bhp ensures that the Trifuel Exige is good for 158mph and revs freely to 8,000rpm, when occupants are said to experience the sonic boom. OK. Maybe not, but poor story-telling aside, what really grabs the Trifuel Exige its share of the automotive headlines is in no small part thanks to the trick Lotus running on a heady mix of gasoline, bioethanol and methanol. Or, as it's otherwise symbolically known – CH30H.And just in case your GCSE in Combined Sciences slipped you by, this means that the Trifuel Exige's motion-lotion can be made synthetically from two naturally-occurring gaseous substances. CO2 – which is extracted from the atmosphere – and hydrogen, one of which, perversely, is accountable for global warming in the first place. Pah!So Lotus Engineering buried its head under weighty tomes for a while to work out just how an alcohol fuel such as methanol might be best utilized in cars internal combustion engines and now thinks it may have cracked it.However the slightly negative news is that Lotus Engineering can't see it being viably and commercially used before 2012. Which isn't actually that bad compared to learning that an infrastructure based on government and fuel company investments probably wouldn't take shape for another 15 – 20 years. And that somewhere down the line prospective donor cars would have to have seals and pumps adapted to ward off the corrosive agents prevalent in alcohol-based fuels.
Lotus Engineering have ripped out the Toyota block from its health-defying standard Exige and modified it to run on these three different fuels. Or any permutation of. Either way, Lotus Engineering universally agree that the Exige only requires the one tank. And temperatures aren't a headache as methanol is present in liquid form at room temperature as it happens, unlike all these hydrogen-powered vehicles other manufacturers are busying themselves with, which has to be stored at very high pressure. Or at altitude perhaps.What's more – and as testified in the above tech spec - bearing properties better suited to an internal combustion engine mean the Lotus Exige Trifuel's performance - as well as its eco-sensitivity - is improved too. With power output boosted from 237 to 266bhp as a result of this methanol oiling and massaging all its vital cogs.The Lotus Exige Trifuel 270E isn't for sale, as Lotus Engineering is simply using it as a glorified demonstrator to flaunt its eco-friendly future credentials.
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