Lotus made a press release today detailing their prototype motor, the Omnivore. Titled "Omnivore", or creatures that eat both animals and plants, the Lotus motor is capable of running on different types of fuel.
It is a two stroke single cylinder design, much like an old dirt bike motor, but FAR more technically advanced. It utilizes direct fuel injection and variable compression ratios. These technologies allow the motor to run on ethanol, any octane of gas, and although Lotus did not mention it, possibly diesel.
The lack of poppet valves allows the block to not require a seperate head, or head gasket, making it more durable and efficient.
Another plus, is that because it is a two stroke, it has twice as many power strokes compared to a four stroke. This means more power, and requires less cylinders to achieve similar power of its four cycle kin.
In today's fuel efficient, and environmentally conscience society, this motor could prove to be quite the notch in motor engineering history. You can run it on just about any form of combustible liquid, and theoretically it would work. As far as environmentally sound, two strokes havn't had the best rep for being clean, but Lotus claims, because it runs higher compressions, it should burn fuel much more efficiently.
You could run all sorts of fuels, and it should be clean, too. This motor is the future of combustible engine transportation!
But it's not. You see, back in 1957, Felix Wankel created the first running prototype of the Wankel Rotary motor. In the late 60's, Mazda utilized this motor in their Cosmos, and later in their RX-series of cars. I remember my neighbor once telling me, when he first heard about those motors, he thought they were going to be the motor everyone was going to be using in the future.
Forty years later, and Mazda is still the only production car company using a Rotary. Perhaps, Lotus will make it their signature motor, but I just can't help being skeptical about this motors' success.
For photos, and the press release, you can go here:http://jalopnik.com/tag/lotus-omnivore/?id=5160933
Wow, this is the first time me hearing about this. Although, this new hybrid motor seems like the real deal, it also seems expensive. Like the lotus doesn't put out a pricey car already, this new engine just might put them in the farrari/lamborghini category. Regardless of the price though, it's nice to see that this company is contributing something to the technological advancement of vehicles. Toyota and Honda has been doing most of the work, so far. But, who knows, this new motor might put England on the map, as far as car makers.
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