:D

From Edmund's Inside Line

Lotus to Debut "Circuit Special" This Weekend
Date Posted 08-17-2005

HETHEL, England — Lotus' Circuit Car is due to make its public debut this weekend at the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb Centenary Festival Meeting in England.

Weighing in at just 1,323 pounds, the Circuit Car is basically a stripped-down Elise 340R, weighing 165 pounds less than the road car. It is the lightest production car yet to be spun off the Elise's extruded and bonded aluminum chassis.

Like the 340R, the Circuit Car has no doors or roof. Further weight has been shaved by dispensing with the windshield. The car has a full roll cage, as it is specifically designed for motorsport use. It's powered by either a 189-horsepower normally aspirated or a 243-hp supercharged Toyota four-cylinder engine. Lotus claims the supercharged car will go from zero to 60 mph in under 4 seconds, and to 100 mph in under 9 seconds.

The Circuit Car will come standard with a single seat, although there will be the option of adding a passenger seat, and it will be given a Lotus "E" name or type number before it goes on sale. Only around 100 cars per year are expected to be built, starting mid-2006.

What this means to you: It'd be the ideal car for a one-make racing series, wouldn't it?

 

Well yes and no. Its probably insane fun to drive, but I wouldn't like the thought of wheel to wheel racing with brand new Lotuses. Bodywork is probably mega expensive, not to mention it probably wouldn't take much to deform the frame.

While I'd love to drive one, spec miata seems like a much better one-make series in the sense that parts and cars are cheap and plentiful.