Lotus to join WRC circus

Lotus has released pictures of the Exige R-GT the company has homologated for competition in the FIA GT category of the World Rally Championship.

As we reported earlier, the Exige R-GT's development for the WRC was announced at the Frankfurt motor show. Based on the Exige S revealed for the first time in Frankfurt, the Exige R-GT will be campaigned in the Monte Carlo, Tour de Corse and San Remo bitumen rallies.

“My motorsport career started in rally, in fact, I even took part in the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus’ Italian Rally championship winning a race in San Marino back in 1981 so this is a very nostalgic moment for me," Lotus spokesman Claudio Berro was quoted as saying in a press release issued today. As Director of Motorsport at Lotus, Berro is the principal driver of the new motor sport campaign.

“As we unveiled the car in Frankfurt, alongside the original championship winning car, I had the chance to get back inside and the smell was exactly the same – it brought back many happy memories for me. With the new R-GT rules in rally, it’s a very interesting time for us to return to the sport. Naturally our approach this time around will be different to when we won the championship with Talbot three decades ago but I think our philosophy is definitely the same, we want to compete and ultimately we want to win. Our new rally car, the Exige R-GT is a dream come true for those who are passionate about GT racing – this will be their car.”

Lotus has developed the R-GT in parallel with the Exige S and claims that while the rally car will meet the necessary technical standards for competition, it gives away nothing in the way of fun factor or driving ease.

“We have learnt a great deal from working with the Evora and creating various race derivatives over the past 18 months particularly how best to adapt a road car for the track and competitive racing," Berro explained. 

"We were able to put this learning to good use with the Exige project. In my mind rally is probably the ultimate motorsport, it combines the excitement of track racing with the specialist skills needed for road racing – we really believe it’s one of the best and most straight forward ways to demonstrate the capabilities of our products.”

While the Exige R-GT won't deviate from the 3.5-litre V6 engine that powers the Exige S, the rally car will feature a revised transmission and restrictions on the engine's output.

Lotus is generally associated with track racing rather than rallying, but in the past the company has placed its name on rally cars fielded by other manufacturers — notably the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus and the Ford Lotus Cortina.

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