Lotus Testing Exige R-GT at Tarmac of St Remo Rally

Lotus has begun testing an Exige R-GT rally car that will debut at the Rally 1000 Miglia in Italy with drivers Bernardo Sousa and Luca Rossetti.

The team tested 85km on Tuesday and 75km on Wednesday at the Tarmac of St. Remo Rally and experienced a minor problem with the supercharged that was fixed by replacing the compressor belt. It will test again before the the car's competition debut on April 19-21 in the FIA European Rally Championship. 

"The Lotus Exige R-GT's development continues to go to plan and we were satisfied with the performance, mileage and data we got from the car and drivers. We did a lot of work on set-up, and we should be perfectly prepared with a final two day test, schedule within the next ten days. Next week we'll be having a visit from the FIA to homologate the car, so things are coming together quickly. It's really exciting," said Director of Lotus Racing Claudio Berro. 

Lotus has been having racing success worldwide this season. In Formula 1 Romain Grosjean has been consistently fast in qualifying, if unable to bring that success to the finish line. Kimi Raikkonen managed a fifth place finish in Malaysia, though. 

Indycar recently started its season in the US, and Lotus now is an engine supplier in the sport. Three of the five Lotus-powered cars failed to finish. The best placing Lotus was Alex Tagliani in 15th place. However, Sebastian Bourdais was in the top five for part of the race, and Lotus thinks that the their engines will be more competitive in the future.