Were it not for the "oil
crisis" of the 1970s and rising petrol prices, the
Lotus Esprit would have gained the V8 engine that its chassis
was originally designed to accommodate and, indeed, an in-house
designed V8, derived from a doubling up of the slant 4 cylinder
900 series, was developed and reached the test stage but never
put into production
The story of the Lotus designed V8 is told (along with many
other notable triumphs, like the famous BRM V16) in Tony Rudd's
autobiography, "It was fun!"
Tony recalls the original Lotus Project M71 from 1970 (before
the inseption of the Esprit program), when Colin Chapman had
just moved to East Carleton Manor (his purpose built new home
near Hethel & Ketteringham Hall)
Colin outlined his plans for the Lotus model line-up in
the garden. Quoting...
"The programme started with the M50 (the new
Elite), the M51 (an Elite with a 4 litre V8 and the M52 (a
2+2 version of the 4-seat Elite to be known as the Eclat and
later the Excel) . The M53 was the 2+2 with a V8. The M70 'a
wedge theme' mid engine Europa replacement with as many
common parts with the M50 as possible, including the 2 litre
engine. This became the Esprit. The M71 was, of course,
a V8-engined Esprit"
The type 909 is pictured above and on the right - I
actually laid hands on one of the rare examples of this engine
during a visit to the Hethel Lotus factory in the early 90's
..... food for thought!
The photo on the left shows the 909 V8, with a prototype induction plenum for the type, under test in an engine cell
Below Tony Rudd is showing the Duke of Edinburgh a Lotus 907 4 cylinder engine with the induction and cooling modifications that were to be used on the type 909 V8
Not a Lotus engine on the left but the LT5
V8 from the Corvette ZR-1
The induction system bears an uncanny resemblance to the Lotus 909 V8 but then Lotus did a great deal of design development for that too!
The Lotus type 909 V8 was later destined for the ill-fated
Lotus Etna, as shown on the cover of Car
magazine in 1984
Giorgetto Giugiaro's services were once
again used for the styling of this technically advanced concept
car, code name M300, but only one example was ever built
Below the Lotus Etna was exhibited at the 1984
Car Show at the NEC Birmingham but it was actually only a mock
up at the time and not a usable car
Lotus prepared a lengthened Esprit chassis for the Etna and some
employees took the car to the Italdesign studio in Turin
to style the Etna bodywork
Giorgetto Giugiaro had previously, ot course,
designed both the original Esprit S1 and the updated Turbo
Esprit but here the brief was to upstage the supercar market
Looking at the results, it seems that Ital did not disappoint
Click
the logo for the Etna design page at Ital Design
Here is the 909 V8 engine installed in the engine bay of the
Etna
The comparison of the two cars below is quite
revealing though - Above is the Etna, designed by
Giugiaro and made public in 1984 and below is the "Stevens" X180
Esprit launced in 1987 - Perhaps the artist was more than
heavily influenced by his peers!
It's not hard to understand Peter Stevens feelings on meeting
Giugiaro after this work on the X180, as he describes here...
''I was nervous of what
Giugiaro would think,'' says Lotus chief designer Peter
Stevens, reflecting on the reaction to his redesign of the
Esprit. ''
Charmingly, the first time
I met him after its public launch he gave me a big cuddle and
said: 'Ahhh, perrr-fect' - Giorgetto is
obviously a gentleman, as well as a great designer - more about his design of the Lotus Esprit
here
With design, "what goes around, comes around"
and so it is with the original Giugaro lines - read more from the motoring press in
2006
After
the 1984 Car show, news about the Lotus Etna went quiet and
the car was put into storage at the Lotus Factory, remaining
little more than a Lotus Legend and the subject of some
notable motoring books - in 1998 it was auctioned at
Silverstone and was bought by the Lotus dealer Paul Matty
In 2004 the car was bought
by Olav Glasius at a Coys auction and he set about turning the
show car, constructed with wood, clay and fibreglass into a
running machine, as he describes in the video below...
Olav found that, altough the car had no suspension, brakes,
wiring, cooling etc. as he explains in the video above, what it did contain hidden beneath all the
mock up materials, was one Lotus 909 prototype V8 engine - one
of only two ever produced!
Employing the expert help of the Ken Myers and Neil Myers, Lotus
dealers and Alan Nobbs, who worked had responsinility at Lotus
for development of the 909 V8 engine, Olav had the Etna finally
brought into running order for the first time
Interestingly, the 909
suffered problems with the left inlet cam belt drive, which
was unreliable at high revs, as its sprocket only had 5 teeth
of the belt engaged - this was solved with more wrap/tension
and a different, specially engineered crank pulley
The ony exisiting Lotus Etna when sold off at a
Coys auction in 2004
So it was Lot 401 with No Reserve...
Wouldn't it have been
ironic if the 909 V8 wouldn't start and Coys listed it as U/S
or Unservicable... or LOT U/S, which is rumoured to be
the origin of the name of Lotus
itself
