One of South Africa’s finest custom built homes.
In July, the Lotus Emira was introduced to replace three older models by British automaker. The Elise and Exige have been retired. 2021 will be their last year of production. As a final farewell, the Final Edition versions were given to the former two earlier in the year. The power of the Elise or Exige was not available in the very limited final versions.
Cars.co.za met recently with Quentin Boylan who designed and built this yellow Lotus Exige. The video is at the top. The Mercedes-Benz SLSAMG engine that was shipped from The Netherlands to South Africa made this one of the most powerful Lotus cars ever. The original 7-speed dual-clutch transmission was not used to drive the 6.2-liter V8 engine. Instead, the whole powertrain is mounted underneath an Exige.
To accommodate the naturally aspirated unit, however, it required extensive modifications to the chassis. It is a custom mold, which is much longer and wider than the Exige stock Exige in order to allow for the donor engine. It is described by our colleagues as “a yellow-and-black rocket”, and the eight minute clip shows the machine in track action.
The entire project took five years to complete. The owner and creator refused to reveal how much it cost. He is not keeping the number secret but rather because “I don’t know and don’t want to” – this probably speaks of the many zeros in that figure. The same guy and his team also own a Toyota Hilux truck powered by AMG. You can see it in this video.