Comments on: Lotus Exige 265E: the world’s fastest ethanol car?

By: dan

dan — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:11:33 +0000

one more stop-gap on the way to electric…
elise/exige

By: Frogger

Frogger — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:49:17 +0000

Okay, I think everyone here needs to lighten up some and realize a few things. I don’t think anyone can or should expect E85 to replace petrol. Most of you are right, the U.S. can’t and never will be able to produce enough of it for that to be viable. I think the greatest perk to having E85 around is as an alternive fuel, alternive in the sence that it is a better performance fuel and cheaper than Race Petrol. Jay you are right about the energy content of ethanol, it is less then Petrol but not by much which it more then makes up for this by being 105 Octane. SO ya I might loose a few miles to the gallon, but it’s cheaper then 91 Octane and will allow for those of us with turbo charged and Super Charged sports cars to have much more Horsepower and Torque, without feeling to bad about destroying the enviroment. All good things I think.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:41:48 +0000

There are a few problems with Ethanol:
-There is not an established system of stations where I can buy it, there are very few gas stations that sell it. Actually I haven’t seen ANY stations with this fuel being sold.
-Lower energy content, and it still contains 15% oil. Also a fact for those greenies, ethanol still makes it’s own pollution, even if it isn’t as bad as gas.
-If we were to convert all the cars in the US, or even half of them, there would not be enough supply of ethanol to supply to the cars. Aside that it’s taking a very long time to establish a supply for ethanol, as I already stated.
-It takes more energy then provided to process ethanol. I can’t tell you that as a fact though, I’ve just heard that from you people on this site.
Anyways there are many ups and down to Ethanol. It is a TEMPORARY solution, but will not be a full term sollution. There just isn’t enough supply, even if theres the demand for it.

By: JRo

JRo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:29:29 +0000

oh, and put me down for the koenigsegg because my 6′2” ass can’t fit in that little thing

By: JRo

JRo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:27:00 +0000

We should invade all the corn fields for their ethanol… oh wait, we have those here. so what if it isn’t as energy-efficient to produce? we don’t have to worry about some random desert monkeys setting ethanol plants on fire. Energy-efficient? or life-efficient? hmmmmmmm…

By: biturbo

biturbo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:05:15 +0000

All prizing the ethanol? Despite being in short supply, not more economical than gasoline and having less energy per volume than gasoline? Octane helps but it’s the energy content that moves the car. Just my 2c…
As for comparing/talking about CCX in this context, that’s far fetched.
Here is your Exige 265E beater: http://teslamotors.com [Lotus manufactured as well].

By: Frogger

Frogger — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:08:15 +0000

Now thats Not fair, all of the big three are making their cars run on E85, not that it’s hard to do. I think personally they are doing for the wrong reasons. The EPA here in the U.S. that dictate emmissions and such only counts the 15% Petrol that is in E85 when doing MPG testing, so an E85 Hummer can do 30+ miles to the gallon, and thus raise the companys Average fuel consumtion numbers to meet federal guide lines. Ya great isn’t it. Well at least they’re trying. And you’re right there is a problem with the supply of E85, there isn’t a lot of it around because it takes a great amount of corn to make ethanol, far too much corn for us to really make this a viable replacement to petrol, at least for the moment. What interests me more is the performance aspect of E85, it’s high octane rating. E85 has the same 100-105 octane rating as race fuel at normal gas pump prices. where I live right now 100 Octane petrol cost well over $4.50 a Gallon. So ya maybe it won’t replace petrol for all of us, but for those of us looking for serious horse power from our turbo and super charged sports cars it’s a gift from the heavans.

By: Big Nick

Big Nick — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 04:47:38 +0000

well atleast we have a automaker that’s attempting to improve the enviornment unlike the big three!!!

By: Thing2

Thing2 — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 03:36:24 +0000

haha, good one Interphase.

By: 2dayBlog - Technology Journal, New Gadget everyday! » Blog Archive » World’s Fastest Ethanol Car - Lotus Exide 265E

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 02:41:53 +0000

[...] [via LeftlaneNews] [...]

By: Interphase

Interphase — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 23:35:12 +0000

So does this mean that anyone having fun tearing around in one can be arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol?

By: al

al — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:37:41 +0000

cool

By: JC2

JC2 — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:19:26 +0000

Peter I don’t believe it even needs to be tuned to run on E85 it’s listed as being able to run on the stuff… if it does need modification it’s probably just a computer program or something.
And yes Frogger your right, but there is one problem right now… where are you gonna get the stuff?
LOL even if there is a high demand if there’s no supply, then theres NO way your gonna get it unless you make it yourself. Doesn’t it take a large amount of energy to create E85? More than it provides? It seems like I read that somewhere before… tell me if I’m wrong though because I can’t site my sources for that.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:16:11 +0000

my bad peter, swedes is right, the swiss are the bankers, they’d build a car worth 100g’s and try to sell it in veyron waters

By: JC2

JC2 — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:14:57 +0000

Wow… and knowing Exige it will probably be less than a 100,000$… but how much is the koenigsegg compared to the Exige (Exige 240 R= £44,000.00 ‘approximately $76,500 or €65,000′, and the Koenigsegg CCX which will run on biofuel creating 900 hp, is €458,000, or 578,866$. Large price difference for totally different cars. Koenigsegg is alot faster than Exige (Exige 0-60 in 3.9, top speed somewhere around 150 mph, and Koenigsegg 0-60 in I believe 3.2 and top speed 152 mph).
Anyways enough about that. This is a car with a little more than half the hp of the Vette, but goes 0-60 faster! I find that pretty amazing, since all of you people are always talking about how much of a bargain the Vette is. Of course the Vette does have a higher top speed, so theres a trade off sort of.
This is a good idea… only if there was an established and stable supply of ethanol, then we would be seeing more and more cars running on this fuel. Right now I haven’t seen ANY gas stations with a supply of Ethanol in my area. That’s what the government should do, give the big three a head start at ethanol. That will put them ahead of the competition and in the eyes of enviromentalists.

By: Frogger

Frogger — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:07:35 +0000

This is quit a nifty thing, You see the nice thing about E85 is that there is very little you have to do to the engine to run the stuff, you simply have to reprogram the ECU and Make sure all your fuel lines are stainless. And the best part is the octane rating of E85 lets you run much higher boost, or compression. I say this is cool **** and I think we will see the E85 Lotus at dealer show rooms before we see the CCX. Besides that at 4ooK how many CCXs do you think are going to make it state side. Right now there is only one dealer in Las Vegas and he dosn’t even have a floor model. In this regard Lotus is much better off.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:02:53 +0000

I don’t like how this car needs a high RPM for the amount of horsepower it can generate, other than that, not bad.

By: peter

peter — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:55:22 +0000

Yeah, I was being perhaps a bit too sarcastic when I said it was “closer to production” because it is in production and the Lotus is not (though I’m not sure if they truely offer the E85 option).
Also, they’re sweeds, or is it swedes…I’m not spelling master….
That was hilarious when the car ate the tirewall on Top Gear…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:45:27 +0000

Koenisegg close to production?, rather bit faster than the lotus?, the ccx will supposidly blow the veyron outa the water with top speed and handling once it’s released to consumers, it’s already in production, but when you’ve got about 15 swiss engineers working on it, it takes a lil time to make, top gears stig managed to wreck the first one during a test lap, hopefully they keep the small wing on the back in production like top gear suggested

By: peter

peter — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:16:32 +0000

Seems like on Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson mentioned that the Koenisegg CCX can be tuned to run on E85 and that it makes something like 900 bhp in that function (since it’s close to race gas in octane equivalent that wouldn’t be a suprise). I’d venture to guess that such a car is closer to real production than the lotus, and that it’s rather a bit faster than the lotus.
Still, that Lotus is a nice car and that special test engine sounds like fun.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:11:33 +0000

Nice