Race Engine Forum UK

Hello! I have a question for you.
What is the Fiat engine use you in TopGear’s Lada Lotus project?

Hi
I Have a question as well, has any one done any tuning on a lada apart from topgear?

I have said in another post there is a growing car/ street racing scene in Russia that reminds me of the 60s, teenagers and older have a bit of cash in there pockets and what to make there cars go faster.
Another problem is imported cars attract 50% to 100% in import Tax
As Lada are still making about 700 000 cars a year it would be an interesting project (I am thinking)

The Lotus Lada engine spec was:

85mm bore 2 liter Fiat Twin-Cam (re-used and re-ringed TRW flat-top cast pistons already with donor engine)
Block and head refaced, bores micro-honed
9.6/1 CR
OE Volumex head gasket and GC race bolts
Lightened (I think) flywheel, balanced crank /fw assembly
Uprated organic competition clutch
131 Sport 5 speed gearbox
Blueprinted valve seats
Fully gasflowed exhaust ports, inlets partial gasflow.
Production valves 42/36, inlet valve back grind 30 deg
GC 3A rally inlet cam, OE standard ex cam
Gc competition valve springs
GC adjustable camwheels, 1" cam belt
GC offset sidedraft inlet manifold
Sidedraft carbs: 45 DCOE, 36mm chokes, Weber twin cable linkage.
4-1 appr 38mm bore, 33" exhaust, straight thru 2" bore pipe.
GC spec race silencer
Bosch OE type distributor and electronic ignition pack
NGK B9EGV race plugs
Mocal water-cooled oil cooler
2 quart oil pressure accumulator

I don't know the power, it was never dynoed, maybe 155bhp plus, but very fast indeed though, probably from the cam combination that gives a very, very strong torque characteristic across a broad rpm range.

Of course, I never heard from Lada, which was a pity, we could have done something together. Perhaps it was because Top Gear were so disparaging about the standard car. My wife is Russian, so I know a bit about cars in Russia.

GC

This is an amazing car, shame it was so poorly presented by Topgear. I would of liked to have seen a Lada built for someone who would of appreciated it.

Jeremy Clarksons claim that it takes ‚£100,000 to turn a Lada into a drivers car really annoys me.

Who owns the car now? does anybody know?

Paul

Since you mention it, Top Gear love big numbers, bhp or ‚£‚£‚£‚£‚£.

Saying that it cost ‚£100,000 did a number of things.

1. It impressed the Top Gear team if no-one else, gave them something else to brag about, like big kids, and that counts in their book.

2. It was a true reflection of the man-hours that Lotus committed to the project at their commercial rates; to their great credit they took the project with the utmost seriousness, with a reputation to protect, this is hardly suprising. I hve nothing but praise for them.

3. It ensured that I never got a single enquiry for anything similar on the back of that programme, to this day.
Despite the fact that I covered all the engine costs bar ‚£500 towards clutch and carbs, and I spent nearly a week working at Lotus on the installation and vehicle prep as a whole. QED. I should have like to do a few more, for the fun of it and to recover my costs. I'm not bitter, Lotus were very good to me, I enjoyed it.

GC

Here are all the final design schemes - as computer graphics - that Lotus considered for the Lada conversion:

Clean32 wrote:Hi
I Have a question as well, has any one done any tuning on a lada apart from topgear?

I have said in another post there is a growing car/ street racing scene in Russia that reminds me of the 60s, teenagers and older have a bit of cash in there pockets and what to make there cars go faster.
Another problem is imported cars attract 50% to 100% in import Tax
As Lada are still making about 700 000 cars a year it would be an interesting project (I am thinking)

You might find this interesting: Fiat T/C/Lada with suspension modifications explained.

http://www.beardmorebros.co.uk/website%20pages/lada.htm

Errr Guy that statement that you never recieved one enquiry isn't strictly true anymore You finally got that engine order to be deposited in the ultimate replica of that car :)

yes and thanks to you dear Nix!

That was, I should remind you, written in Sep 2006!!!


G