I'm driving an Exige 220 S on Saturday!
Discussion
I stopped by Merritts Lotus in Amersham last weekend and had a chat with Martin there about the new Exige S. He called today to say he has managed to blag Lotus' Press car for the weekend so I have arranged to go and drive it on Saturday.
I'm pretty excited - if I like it enough (and if the deal is right of course, in case Martin lurks here!
) I'd be interested in upgrading.
I'll post my thoughts afterwards.
I'm pretty excited - if I like it enough (and if the deal is right of course, in case Martin lurks here!
) I'd be interested in upgrading. I'll post my thoughts afterwards.

chris_n said:
I stopped by Merritts Lotus in Amersham last weekend and had a chat with Martin there about the new Exige S. He called today to say he has managed to blag Lotus' Press car for the weekend so I have arranged to go and drive it on Saturday.
I'm pretty excited - if I like it enough (and if the deal is right of course, in case Martin lurks here!) I'd be interested in upgrading.
I'll post my thoughts afterwards.
Looks like you might have a few jealous SELOCers joining you as well. Have fun!
I have an Exige S on order, i am expecting it in April.
I would be very grateful if you could post some pics of the main areas where the car you will see on saturday differs from the Std Exige.
Especially the roof intake(to see if it is different as Lotus said in the press release), the exhaust, some general shots to see how the body coloured spoiler,vents and wing look (i am expecting this to look pants) and very interesting for me would be some shots of the supercharger installation to see if it is in fact the same installation as in the 240r or if it differs in some way.
If you could manage this i am sure it would be interesting for a lot of us.
Ian
I would be very grateful if you could post some pics of the main areas where the car you will see on saturday differs from the Std Exige.
Especially the roof intake(to see if it is different as Lotus said in the press release), the exhaust, some general shots to see how the body coloured spoiler,vents and wing look (i am expecting this to look pants) and very interesting for me would be some shots of the supercharger installation to see if it is in fact the same installation as in the 240r or if it differs in some way.
If you could manage this i am sure it would be interesting for a lot of us.
Ian
It would also be nice to see how fast it is in the real world...and then also get in the "standard 192" Exige/Elise and the 240R and the 240cup to compete on the track and 0 to 60 and 0 to 100 and 70 to 120? all on the same day, same conditions, and same tires, on a dry day with around 13 degrees celsius and "standard" suspension, the way it came on the market.
I think a lot(of)us would know...I know I will
GTRene
>> Edited by GTRene on Friday 17th February 11:59
I think a lot(of)us would know...I know I will
GTRene
>> Edited by GTRene on Friday 17th February 11:59
shot2bits said:
Are there any official figures for the Exige S? Would be good to know how it compares to my 111R in terms of 0-100 etc as Rene says...
Aye, there are. I got my figures off Lotus:
www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=139447&Lotus
Hope that helps.
Ciao
Zak
bruh_la said:
I have an Exige S on order, i am expecting it in April.
I would be very grateful if you could post some pics of the main areas where the car you will see on saturday differs from the Std Exige.
Especially the roof intake(to see if it is different as Lotus said in the press release), the exhaust, some general shots to see how the body coloured spoiler,vents and wing look (i am expecting this to look pants) and very interesting for me would be some shots of the supercharger installation to see if it is in fact the same installation as in the 240r or if it differs in some way.
If you could manage this i am sure it would be interesting for a lot of us.
Ian
I will take my digi camera and see what I can do. Agree with your thoughts on the colour coding. It would be nice if there was a delete option. I reckon it will suit some colours more than others, what colour are you going for? I guess ultimately you could buy standard unpainted Exige bits to fit and store the colour coded bits until resale time.
Weather forecast is dry for the morning at the moment which is good!
Chris
I have an Exige S on order which the dealer tells me arrives in March, so am waiting expectantly on your feedback on how it drives.
I made the same point to the dealer about the body coloured bits as on the Lotus website, the orange car looks more discrete and boring than the standard Exige. The car (from the picture) just seems to have less presence and given that it is meant to be a step up from the standard car, this seems pretty daft to me. I have ordered it in Storm Titanium. Franky, if it looks pants when I get it, I will swap the bits back to black (or at least try to get to the dealer to do it), as the standard Exige in that colour looks fab.
Apart from colour coded placky bits and the different exhaust and air intake, are there any other visual differences?
BTW, I got a great deal on the car as a straight cash purchase. Could not believe how easy it was to get them to shed ££££s (try that with a Porsche dealer on a new model)!
I made the same point to the dealer about the body coloured bits as on the Lotus website, the orange car looks more discrete and boring than the standard Exige. The car (from the picture) just seems to have less presence and given that it is meant to be a step up from the standard car, this seems pretty daft to me. I have ordered it in Storm Titanium. Franky, if it looks pants when I get it, I will swap the bits back to black (or at least try to get to the dealer to do it), as the standard Exige in that colour looks fab.
Apart from colour coded placky bits and the different exhaust and air intake, are there any other visual differences?
BTW, I got a great deal on the car as a straight cash purchase. Could not believe how easy it was to get them to shed ££££s (try that with a Porsche dealer on a new model)!
zaktoo said:
shot2bits said:
Are there any official figures for the Exige S? Would be good to know how it compares to my 111R in terms of 0-100 etc as Rene says...
Aye, there are. I got my figures off Lotus:
www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=139447&Lotus
Hope that helps.
Ciao
Zak
9.98 to 100 - thats quite a bit quicker for such a little bhp gain! Sounds tempting to me - need to keep my R for a bit longer though, have lost too much to trade

shot2bits said:
9.98 to 100 - thats quite a bit quicker for such a little bhp gain! Sounds tempting to me - need to keep my R for a bit longer though, have lost too much to trade
Perhaps they have changed the gearing too? It's a popular trick
Edit: Unless they've changed the lower ratios, it would appear not. The final drive is the same. Grippier tyres could account for some more of the difference, although I suspect the addition of the supercharger would have flatened out the torque curve from the lower mid ranges of the rpm band, so maybe that's where the real change has happened... I don't have a graph of either engine's output, unfortunately.
>> Edited by zaktoo on Friday 17th February 14:15
batster said:
I have ordered it in Storm Titanium ...
... as the standard Exige in that colour looks fab.
Couldn't agree more!
Mine is Storm though I am tempted to try something different (not sure what colour yet) if I upgrade to an S. batster said:
BTW, I got a great deal on the car as a straight cash purchase. Could not believe how easy it was to get them to shed ££££s (try that with a Porsche dealer on a new model)!
YHM
Chris
Actually, I think Lotus are smoking their socks with the claims for the Exige S!
They reckon it, with 218 bhp, 935 kg kerb weight and 215 Nm of torque gets from 0-100mph in 9.98 seconds.
They also reckon a 240R, with 243 bhp, 930 kg kerb weight and 236 Nm of torque does 0-100 in 12.7 seconds. Something's not adding up...
Sorry, I retract those Lotus Exige S figures due to huge doubts about their accuracy. Hopefully somone will test it soon & we can get non-fairytale numbers
Ciao
Zak
They reckon it, with 218 bhp, 935 kg kerb weight and 215 Nm of torque gets from 0-100mph in 9.98 seconds.
They also reckon a 240R, with 243 bhp, 930 kg kerb weight and 236 Nm of torque does 0-100 in 12.7 seconds. Something's not adding up...
Sorry, I retract those Lotus Exige S figures due to huge doubts about their accuracy. Hopefully somone will test it soon & we can get non-fairytale numbers
Ciao
Zak
I will take my digi camera and see what I can do. Agree with your thoughts on the colour coding. It would be nice if there was a delete option. I reckon it will suit some colours more than others, what colour are you going for? I guess ultimately you could buy standard unpainted Exige bits to fit and store the colour coded bits until resale time.
Weather forecast is dry for the morning at the moment which is good!
Chris[/quote]
I have ordered Aspen White. The Lamborghini stand at Frankfurt last year had pearl white cars with black wheels and interiors, they looked the buisness, i am hoping it will look like a race car without the stickers, mixed in with a bit of ipod cool
Of course the body colour bits spoil that a bit,
so i will either replace with Carbon bits and keep the white bits for resale, or get the white bits painted black, which is of course the cheapest option, but bothers me coz i would have spent more money to get the car with body coloured bits, then even more money to get them back to black and then just to add insult to injury, i have devalued the car (in the eyes of some people) when it comes to re sale
Don't forget the wing is body colour so it will not be cheap to order splitter, side intakes and rear wing from your Lotus dealer. It would be interesting to know what that lot would cost, just to get the car back to standard. My feeling is it would not be a great deal more to get the carbon bits, at least then the money spent has improved the look of the car instead of making it look like a standard car.
bruh_la said:
Chris
I have ordered Aspen White. The Lamborghini stand at Frankfurt last year had pearl white cars with black wheels and interiors, they looked the buisness, i am hoping it will look like a race car without the stickers, mixed in with a bit of ipod cool
.[/quote]
I have just seen photo's of an Aspen White Exige and it looks fantastic. You will be very pleased with your colour choice.
emenel said:
bruh_la said:
Chris
I have ordered Aspen White. The Lamborghini stand at Frankfurt last year had pearl white cars with black wheels and interiors, they looked the buisness, i am hoping it will look like a race car without the stickers, mixed in with a bit of ipod cool![]()
.
I have just seen photo's of an Aspen White Exige and it looks fantastic. You will be very pleased with your colour choice.[/quote]
Any chance of posting the pics?
Or a mail?
I am hoping it will look great, its a bit of a gamble. My last lotus was titanium and its a great colour no question, its one of the best, it just seems that every second car is silver or a variation of nowadays.
So i decided that this time i wanted something a bit Motorsport, krypton green, orange etc and whilst these look great at a track they may be a bit much for me on a rainy friday night.
So my thinking was White looks a bit racecar at the track and hopefully Lambo cool in the city.
.....if anyone was interested
>> Edited by bruh_la on Friday 17th February 17:02
>> Edited by bruh_la on Friday 17th February 17:02
So i decided that this time i wanted something a bit Motorsport, krypton green, orange etc and whilst these look great at a track they may be a bit much for me on a rainy friday night.
So my thinking was White looks a bit racecar at the track and hopefully Lambo cool in the city.
.....if anyone was interested
>> Edited by bruh_la on Friday 17th February 17:02
>> Edited by bruh_la on Friday 17th February 17:02
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