Exige 220 S - I drove one, I bought one!!!
Discussion
Well, as per my separate post, I got up bright and early this morning to go up to Merritts Lotus in Amersham to drive the 220S press car that Martin there had managed to blag for the weekend. As I scraped the ice off the windscreen of my own Exige and looked at the fog around I suspected I wasn't going to have ideal conditions for the drive, but hey, at least it was dry (ish).
I arrived at Merritts and there it was, resplendent in Arctic White and I have to say it looked the absolute business. Concerns I had about the colour coding took a back seat as for that particular colour at least, I thought it looked great. Bodywork changes appear to be limited to the aforementioned colour coding and a little add-on scoop bit to the front of the roof intake, presumably to help get more air into the intercooler, which is in the same place as the 240R/Cup. As far as I can tell it is exactly the same intercooler setup i.e. on top of the engine fed from the roof.
Anyway, fast forward to the drive - Any ground frost appeared to have gone but there were lots of damp patches still around so thrashing the thing to within an inch of its life was off the agenda (not really something I'd do on a test drive first time in a car anyway to be honest).
The immediate impressions were just instant throttle response from virtually any revs. Midrange torque seems huge compared to my standard car and where I would normally drop my car down a gear or even two, you can just leave the S in a high gear and surf the wave of torque. The whole thing is accompanied by the fantastic soundtrack of the superchargers's whine. Martin advised you can still fit a performance exhaust but from an initial drive at least, the standard one sounds a lot like the stage one fitted to my car. I'm not too sure you'd want anything louder drowning out the supercharger noise anyway!
Any discernible discontinuity as the cam change over occurs is gone although Martin understands the changeover point has been shifted down the rev range as per the 240R/Cup (though he is still waiting for full details of the S from Lotus). To be honest where the changeover actually occurs now would seem to be academic as there is just seemless torque from sub-3k revs upwards.
With the traction control light flickering on frequently (though its intervention is unobtrusive) I wasn't exactly bouncing the thing of the rev limiter so it is hard to say how much more powerful it is at the top end, but I would have to say it probably doesn't matter that much, what's more important (for me at least) is the way the extra torque just changes the whole character of the car. This has changed the Exige from a quick car when worked hard to one that is just very quick, all the time, everywhere!
I didn't really set out to explore the limits of the handling, first because of the road conditions, and also because everything is pretty much standard Exige fare anyway. If you're one of the people concerned that "having the intercooler on top of the engine might raise the centre of gravity to the detriment of handling" etc, all I would say is everything felt fine to me!
Really the changes are all about the engine - the suspension and brakes are well up to the hike in power.
Other things worth commenting one are some of the new '06 model year changes - the brake pedal has indeed lost that initial bit of travel, the probax seats felt good though not drastically different - Martin reckons it takes a bit of time in them to really feel the benefits. I quite liked the new rev counter with the first couple of thousand revs compressed on the scale. The sunvisors are a bit more substantial than on my car. Err other than that it is business as usual. It goes without saying that the rear view mirror is now completely irrelevant with the ducting to the intercooler filling up the view. Anyone used to an Exige is probably already comfortable relying on the perfectly effective side mirrors by now, so not really an issue.
Bottom line for me was I felt upgrading from a standard Exige to the S is justified and I have ordered one with Sports Pack, Air Con and Lifestyle paint (exact colour to be finalised on Monday following consultation with my other half). I know it would be more sensible to wait 6 to 8 months and buy a second hand one and save myself a few grand but at the end of the day, the thought of this summer going by without an S in my life doesn't bear thinking about now! And anyway you only live once, etc etc (I'm sure I don't have to justify letting my heart rule my mind to people on PH - I'll save my arguments for when I'm trying to explain it to "normal" people)!
I'm third in the queue of orders Martin has taken, so I should see delivery sometime around mid April. I can't wait!!!
Chris
I arrived at Merritts and there it was, resplendent in Arctic White and I have to say it looked the absolute business. Concerns I had about the colour coding took a back seat as for that particular colour at least, I thought it looked great. Bodywork changes appear to be limited to the aforementioned colour coding and a little add-on scoop bit to the front of the roof intake, presumably to help get more air into the intercooler, which is in the same place as the 240R/Cup. As far as I can tell it is exactly the same intercooler setup i.e. on top of the engine fed from the roof.
Anyway, fast forward to the drive - Any ground frost appeared to have gone but there were lots of damp patches still around so thrashing the thing to within an inch of its life was off the agenda (not really something I'd do on a test drive first time in a car anyway to be honest).
The immediate impressions were just instant throttle response from virtually any revs. Midrange torque seems huge compared to my standard car and where I would normally drop my car down a gear or even two, you can just leave the S in a high gear and surf the wave of torque. The whole thing is accompanied by the fantastic soundtrack of the superchargers's whine. Martin advised you can still fit a performance exhaust but from an initial drive at least, the standard one sounds a lot like the stage one fitted to my car. I'm not too sure you'd want anything louder drowning out the supercharger noise anyway!
Any discernible discontinuity as the cam change over occurs is gone although Martin understands the changeover point has been shifted down the rev range as per the 240R/Cup (though he is still waiting for full details of the S from Lotus). To be honest where the changeover actually occurs now would seem to be academic as there is just seemless torque from sub-3k revs upwards.
With the traction control light flickering on frequently (though its intervention is unobtrusive) I wasn't exactly bouncing the thing of the rev limiter so it is hard to say how much more powerful it is at the top end, but I would have to say it probably doesn't matter that much, what's more important (for me at least) is the way the extra torque just changes the whole character of the car. This has changed the Exige from a quick car when worked hard to one that is just very quick, all the time, everywhere!
I didn't really set out to explore the limits of the handling, first because of the road conditions, and also because everything is pretty much standard Exige fare anyway. If you're one of the people concerned that "having the intercooler on top of the engine might raise the centre of gravity to the detriment of handling" etc, all I would say is everything felt fine to me!
Really the changes are all about the engine - the suspension and brakes are well up to the hike in power. Other things worth commenting one are some of the new '06 model year changes - the brake pedal has indeed lost that initial bit of travel, the probax seats felt good though not drastically different - Martin reckons it takes a bit of time in them to really feel the benefits. I quite liked the new rev counter with the first couple of thousand revs compressed on the scale. The sunvisors are a bit more substantial than on my car. Err other than that it is business as usual. It goes without saying that the rear view mirror is now completely irrelevant with the ducting to the intercooler filling up the view. Anyone used to an Exige is probably already comfortable relying on the perfectly effective side mirrors by now, so not really an issue.
Bottom line for me was I felt upgrading from a standard Exige to the S is justified and I have ordered one with Sports Pack, Air Con and Lifestyle paint (exact colour to be finalised on Monday following consultation with my other half). I know it would be more sensible to wait 6 to 8 months and buy a second hand one and save myself a few grand but at the end of the day, the thought of this summer going by without an S in my life doesn't bear thinking about now! And anyway you only live once, etc etc (I'm sure I don't have to justify letting my heart rule my mind to people on PH - I'll save my arguments for when I'm trying to explain it to "normal" people)!
I'm third in the queue of orders Martin has taken, so I should see delivery sometime around mid April. I can't wait!!!
Chris
[quote=s,one]Did you part ex your existing motor and more to the point did you get a decent deal?. If you don't mind me asking what are you likely to pay for a speced up S.
Cheers
Steve[/quote]
I've agreed a trade in price for my car though if I can sell it for more privately in the meantime I will do that. I'll stick it up on the classifieds here in the next couple of days for what will hopefully be an attractive price and see what happens.
List for the S is a fiver short of £34k and by the time I added sports pack, air con, lifestyle paint you're looking at around an extra four grand. If you went mad and threw all the options at one you could push it well over 40 grand. I committed to Martin I wouldn't post the precise details of the deal we agreed all over the internet, but if you're in the market I'm sure any dealer will be keen to sell a car!
Chris
Cheers
Steve[/quote]
I've agreed a trade in price for my car though if I can sell it for more privately in the meantime I will do that. I'll stick it up on the classifieds here in the next couple of days for what will hopefully be an attractive price and see what happens.
List for the S is a fiver short of £34k and by the time I added sports pack, air con, lifestyle paint you're looking at around an extra four grand. If you went mad and threw all the options at one you could push it well over 40 grand. I committed to Martin I wouldn't post the precise details of the deal we agreed all over the internet, but if you're in the market I'm sure any dealer will be keen to sell a car!
Chris
. They were working yesterday, not sure what has happened. Hopefully they can be viewed by clicking on You went for the white didn't you? I think it looks great in White and am seriously tempted myself (got to confirm paint colour to the dealer this morning and still trying to decide). It's between black, white, and Magnetic blue currently.
I do agree on the colour coding. I could see Reverie or someone doing a good trade in replacement carbon fibre bits! Have to say I thought the roof scoop looks OK.
I'm sure any fit problems with the engine cover on that particular car could be adjusted out. Ultimately if my car came with a major fit issue I would just refuse to accept the car until I was happy.
I do agree on the colour coding. I could see Reverie or someone doing a good trade in replacement carbon fibre bits! Have to say I thought the roof scoop looks OK.
I'm sure any fit problems with the engine cover on that particular car could be adjusted out. Ultimately if my car came with a major fit issue I would just refuse to accept the car until I was happy.
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