Lotus Esprit V8 GT

About the Lotus Esprit V8 GT

n 1996, Lotus launched the Esprit V8. The car came equipped with Lotus' own Type 918 V8 engine. The engine is an all-aluminium 90° DOHC 4 valves per cylinder with a flat-plane crankshaft and two Garrett AiResearch T25/60 turbochargers but no Chargecooler. The transaxle used was the same Renault unit as before but upgraded by Lotus racing driver Derek Bell with a much thicker single piece input shaft. Despite having a modified transaxle, the Type 918 engine was detuned from a potential 507 PS (373 kW; 500 hp) to 355 PS (261 kW; 350 hp) to prevent gearbox damage. In period tests, acceleration from 0–97 km/h (60 mph) was achieved in 4.4 seconds and a top speed of over 282 km/h (175 mph) was achieved.