A Lotus Exige with a Ferrari 488 GTB V8 engine, tuned to 900 hp, is on the rampage in South Africa (if Enzo and Colin could only see it!).

In the 60s, Lotus and Ferrari were the great rivals in Formula 1. Lotus and the other British manufacturers were the most daring in terms of chassis and aerodynamic design (the rear mid-engine architecture, winglets, pontoons, etc. were introduced by them), while Ferrari, more conservative in this area, compensated with its engine know-how. Ferrari used to make fun of these British craftsmen, whom he scornfully referred to as "garagistes", even though he had the status of a full-fledged manufacturer. Colin Chapman, in 1982, and then Enzo Ferrari, in 1988, left behind them a huge void.

If Ferrari sets new sales recordsWhile the Lotus brand has suffered from a lack of popularity and profitability, it has experienced deeper existential crises, and is now trying to reinvent itself through electric power. In South Africa, a hybrid vehicle between the two brands was developed: one wonders what the reaction of the two sacred monsters would have been to such a creation.

Indeed, hillclimbing is a favorite playground for wizards, thanks to the considerable scope available in certain categories to give free rein to their mechanical wanderings. The most obvious example is the practice of "swapping", i.e. simply changing the engine on the base car, as we saw just recently with the 700 hp Alfa Romeo 4C Picchio.

An engine with a second life

Dawie Joubert started out in motorsport on the drag strip, then in Group N of the South African Production Car Championship. In 2001, he bought his first Lotus: an Elise Motorsport, on which he had begun conversions. His new Exige-based prototype was originally powered by Honda, but in 2020, a Ferrari 488 crashed at Kyalami and an opportunity arose to recover the engine.

This Exige racing car has swapped its original Toyota 4-cylinder engine (which wasn't even the original one) for a 3.9-liter Ferrari F154 twin-turbo V8 from the Ferrari F488 GTB, mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox. In factory configuration, the twin-turbo V8 develops 661 hp at 8,000 rpm and 760 Nm at 3,000 rpm. Here, the engine is upgraded with a few modifications to the IHI turbochargers, a bespoke heat exchanger and revised management: it would develop 765 hp in 2022 and 870 hp in 2023. HillClimb Monsters reports that the engine would develop 925 hp and over 900 Nm of torque in 2024.

To keep the 1025 kg car on the ground, an aerodynamic package designed by Andrew Brilliant at AMB Aero was integrated. As always, the rear spoiler is the most extreme part. As for the wheels, they are 18-inch center-lock Porsche Cup tires fitted with full Michelin slicks, section 245 at the front and section 335 at the rear.

Dawie Joubert won the "King of the Kill" title in his Lotus Exige at the Simola Hillclimb 2024, South Africa's "Pikes Peak", which takes place on a fairly bumpy road that puts the suspensions to the test. Winner of his class, he finished 2nd overall, just 1 second off the time set by a single-seater. Not bad!