When we attended a Lotus event last month, the theme was Lotus' New Era. A New Era of cars and a New Era of profitability. Lotus has approximately $1.2 billion to spend on this turnaround and with cars costing about $240 million to develop from the ground up and with a headquarters, works and F1-approved artefact in Hethel to build, well, you can see that money's a bit tight.

So when Lotus said that they were extending their partnership with Toyota everyone said, "Ok, they've got solid engines. Some good V6s and the sweet 5.0-liter from the IS-F and maybe that 4.8-liter V10 sitting around from the LF-A. Yeah, using those would save them a ton of RnD. This might work."

But then Lotus CEO Danny Bahar spoke with Autocar….

"In the mind of sports-car enthusiasts, Toyota power might not be good enough,"

Lotus has certainly done engines in the past, but on a shoestring (for a carmaker) budget, ditching proven engines from a serious carmaker seems foolish. Sure, your supercar being powered by a Toyota is a little lame but: A) The engines aren't the problem with Toyota's image. The 3.5 in the Rav 4 is shit good AND gets good fuel economy. It's far too good to be wasted in that CUV. As for the V8s, well, again, the engine isn't the problem. And B) If you can manage a turnaround and have more than just-barely-enough money, then you can build your own engine.

( Autocar )