Lotus Group
For many years there has been a tendency to think of environmentally friendly cars as a personal compromise in order to benefit the greater good. However, keeping consistent with the forward thinking attitude of Lotus Engineering, a new, more exciting alternative has arrived.
The 265E started off as a production specification Exige S. It then underwent a series of modifications to allow it to run on the E85 fuel.
Four enlarged fuel injectors have been fitted to increase fuel flow into the engine under normal operating conditions. Two additional fuel injectors have been fitted at the supercharger inlet to increase the amount of fuel being injected into the engine under higher engine speeds and loads. This has also enabled the engineering project team to take advantage of ethanol's higher cooling effect to further cool the charge air prior to combustion, which in turn reduces the amount of power required to operate the supercharger.
The Lotus T4e Engine Management System then had to be calibrated to optimise engine performance when running on various mixes of the high-octane bioethanol fuel and gasoline. The re-calibrated EMS coupled with an ethanol sensor in the fuel system provides true flex-fuel capability.
