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INDYCAR: Lotus Engine Sparks To Life In DW12 Test Car
IndyCar engine manufacturer Lotus is almost ready to join Chevrolet and Honda on the testing trail after its engine fired up in the back of its Dallara DW12.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted December 23, 2011  
Lotus, the third and final engine manufacturer to sign on for the 2012 season, is almost ready to start track testing. (Photo: Group Lotus)
Lotus reached another milestone just before Christmas when its new 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engine came to life in the back of its Dallara DW12 test car on Thursday.

Designed and built by its partners at Engine Developments, Ltd., the new-for-2012 powerplant spent the better part of a month on EDL's dyno in England before one of the units was shipped to Dallara's base in Italy for installation.

With the Dallara DW12-Lotus almost ready to be crated and sent to HVM Racing in Indianapolis, Group Lotus Director of Motorsport Claudio Berro oversaw the final round of activities at Dallara.

“The fire up in the car went really well, there were no nasty surprises and I think our partners are going to be very happy with the results," he said.

"It was only October last year that we announced that we would become an IndyCar engine supplier and just 12 months on, we had an all new Lotus engine and three teams signed up--Bryan Herta Autosport, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, and HVM Racing. We’ve still got a lot of work to do ahead of the start of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar season but so far I’m very encouraged by what I see."

Facing a testing blackout after engine manufacturer track testing concluded on December 15th, Lotus and its partner teams will have to wait until the middle of January for the engine to turn its first laps in anger.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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