What does make Lotus so light? and couldnt the company use a more powerful engine to imrpove the acceleration?

Because they use lighter-weight materials.



The lighter a car is, the less weigh the engine has to drag around, and so it doesn't need as much power..... which also saves on fuel, and improves handling %26amp; acceleration.



Weight slows a car down.



It's also why racing go-karts are so fast.... they only have a around a 6horse-power engine... but because they're only propelling a light-weight go-kart (about 400lb's or less)...... they can do nearly 20mph. http://express.howstuffworks.com/ta-kart...



Light-weight is also what made the original Mini from the 1960's get it's reputation for being a bit of a giant killer - the prototype may only have had a 948cc Engine, but it was clocked at over 92mph which was pretty quick for any car back then, never mind a small one. http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/ado15story...



"Performance through Lightness, using ingenious design" was one of the principals of Lotus company founder Colin Chapman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Chapm...

What does make Lotus so light? and couldnt the company use a more powerful engine to imrpove the acceleration?
Its so light cos lotus make it outa carbon fibre which is relly light and strong.



They cant just wack a great big engine in cos they need to kep the cost down. Lotus's are normaly dirty cheap compared to other sportcars so to keep cost down they use rover engines.
Reply:probably the ladder frame I am building a lotus 7 copy and use a suzuki twin cam engine WOW!!!