Simon Cars - Lotus Excel Type 89

	Invisible container for text
Car Albums
Makers
Models
Lotus Index

Full menu functions for the buttons above are only available if you ALLOW BLOCKED CONTENT. My menu scripts provide drop-down menus that have been tested with the latest Mozilla browsers. If the scripts do not run, limited navigation is given by these buttons

Lotus Excel (Type 89)

Oliver Winterbottom designed the Type 76 Lotus Eclat, which shared its mechanics and most of its body with the Elite. The Eclat and Elite models were replaced by a new Lotus Excel Type 89 in 1982. The lower half of the body stayed the same as the Eclat, with the upper half and the nose revised by Peter Stevens. Toyota had bought shares in Lotus following the death of Colin Chapman, and as part of the deal the Excel used some Toyota Supra parts. Standard power unit was the Lotus 912 2174cc 160bhp dohc engine. The 1985 Excel SE was upgraded to 180bhp. In 1986 the Excel SA was launched with ZF automatic gearbox. The Excel was revised in 1989 and production ended in 1992 after 2159 had b een sold.

Lotus Excel 1987 SA - badge on bonnet. From 1984 to 1986 the traditional round Lotus badge was redesigned to this 'lozenge-haped' design in black. Originally this ommitted the 'ACBC' initials for Antony Colin Bruce Chapman, but in 1986 these were put back. In 1988 a new badge was designed returning to the form and the green/yellow colours of the traditional round badge.	Lotus Excel 1987 SA - badge on rear	Lotus Excel 1990 - badge on rear. The earlier 'printed' badges were replaced in 1989 with more traditional 3D badges	Lotus Excel 1988 SE. The four bonnet louvres were added in 1984 and changed in 1989. The Excel SE had a Lotus 912 engine uprated to 180bhp
Lotus Excel 1987 SA. From 1987 the Excel SA was available with 4-speed ZF automatic gearbox in place of the 5-speed Toyota unit	Lotus Excel 1987 SA. When launched in 1982 the Excel did not have a boot spoiler, this was added in 1984	Lotus Excel 1988. Mechanically the Lotus Excel borrowed much from the outgoing Lotus Elite and Lotus Eclat. Standard power unit was the Lotus 912 2174cc 160bhp dohc engine. This was mated to a Toyota Supra transmission, driveshafts, differential and wheels. Lotus, for their part, assisted Toyota with the engineering of the Toyota Supra	Lotus Excel 1988. In 1982 the Lotus Execel was born out of the Lotus Elite and Lotus Eclat. Peter Stevens designed the bodywork, re-using most of the bottom half of the Eclat but changing the bonnet and the superstructure.
Lotus Excel 1988 SE. The Excel SE dates from October 1985 when the Lotus 912 2174cc dohc engine was upgraded to 180bhp. At the same time the bumpers, wings and interior were revised	Lotus Excel 1990. In late 1989 the Excel was modestly restlyed, gaining a wider central venilation strip to replace the separate left and right strips. The traditional green and yellow round 'Lotus' badge also returned.	Lotus Excel 1990. In late 1989 the Excel was modestly restlyed, which included new more traditional badging in place of the 'printed' badging	Lotus Eclat (Type 76, Type 84)

British Cars

Simon Cars

Images created by Simon GP Geoghegan Email Simon

key text: This is the page introducing Simons love of cars from the website RedSimon which is a series of photo albums of Simon GP Geoghegan.
The names of Pinin, Farina, and Pininfarina are also considered
There are also notes on Pininfarina
as well as the car maker
and links tothat car maker
see also my Picasa car albums
withe even more on RedSimon
Simon is also a contributor to SuperCars.Net
And also to Wikipedia
Photos may be purchased from PhotoBox