The Lotus Grand Tourers

It would stop this disappearing into another rich Americans collection. Classic team Lotus should buy it back really.
1984 Lotus Etna | Monterey Jet Center 2025 | Classic Car Auctions | Broad Arrow Auctions | A Hagerty Company https://share.google/dgImHEKDiMDuClcgo

This is the engine that the Elite ( and the rest of us) were supposed to get.

Bash

I would be really curious if this engine had a standardish 4 cylinder crank with two pistons per journal, just like Alan Millyard (genius) does with his v8 bikes. Two blocks welded together anyone (Pete) ?

Bash

bash wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 12:16 I would be really curious if this engine had a standardish 4 cylinder crank with two pistons per journal, just like Alan Millyard (genius) does with his v8 bikes. Two blocks welded together anyone (Pete) ?

Bash

Don't know of any boxer V8's wich would have a journal for every conrod. Flat plane ('4' cyl) and cross plane cranks for 90 degree V8's both have two conrods share a single double wide journal.
Some 90 degree v6's have split journals (google Landrover for sobstories) to even out the firing intervals

Marten wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 13:47 Some 90 degree v6's have split journals (google Landrover for sobstories) to even out the firing intervals

Before I bought a Jaguar XF in 2017, I test drove the new X260 with the 340hp 3.0L Supercharged engine back to back against the X250 with the 385hp 5.0L n/a. The 5.0L just felt much more smooth and refined and especially sounded much better. I really would have preferred to buy a new car at the time, but instead took four months to seek out a low-mileage 2012 XF (last year of the 5.0L n/a engine but first year of the facelift body style). But yeah, a crazy v6, basically the same v8 engine block with some dummy casting in place of two of the cylinders and shorter heads. They even extended the stupid PA66 nylon cooling system pipes from the back of the heads, increasing that risk, so that the connections would still be in the same place by the firewall. Maybe some engineers did win some accolades for that split-pin solution, but doesn't seem to have been the best move, or at least didn't help them much as Jaguar is all but dead now.

Wondering how that came to be in the US???

Lotus sold it off with some other stuff quite a few years ago, the buyer thought it was a styling buck but it turned out to be almost a runner and fitted with one of the only two produced lotus 908 v8 engines, effectively two of our 4 cylinders joined together and the original planned engine for the Elite. The other engine was in the entrance hall of Hethel for years. The guy in the US got it running and I believe it was then sold to a collector on the west coast. It did a demonstration run at Goodwood one year but went back to the States.
This only my recollection, someone else may know more (or correct me ,)

Bash