RE: Lotus Exige Cup: Review

[C1RVY]

From pax laps in the CUP & a couple of drives in the V6, it does feel like a modern day Noble.

Much more of a hint of TVR than the 4 cylinder cars - a bit more grown up.

Shame they're not 10 grand cheaper, but still not bad value compared to the competition.

[Shnozz]

JayHeal said:

lotus99t said:

There's something about the way a Lotus drives that no other manufacturer seen to be able to match. For me it's never really been about outright power more about the way it feels. But then I do have a soft spot for Lotus.

Yes a Lotus does handle very well.
But i guess you've never driven a Noble as their handling is amazing.
But then I do have a soft spot for Noble.

I have and agree the Noble handles very well. Very well indeed. I still don't think it equals the handling of an Exige, but it really is splitting hairs at that level.

As for the Exige V6, I am yet to drive one so my opinion is largely irrelevant. A good friend has driven one and knows his onions and happens to own a 280ish bhp S2 Exige. His view was that the Exige V6 would not show a clean pair of heels..

[Ozzie Osmond]

Shnozz said:

As for the Exige V6, I am yet to drive one so my opinion is largely irrelevant. A good friend has driven one and knows his onions and happens to own a 280ish bhp S2 Exige. His view was that the Exige V6 would not show a clean pair of heels..

I've driven Exige S and rate it as absolutely lightning quick. I consider it a track car, which this version obviously emphasises.

Will this car save Lotus? No. At £63,000 they'll sell a few to hardcore racers with money to burn but that's about it. Mind you, Lotus need every sale they can get and this might help - pending some proper new product.

[mgbond]

RobM77 said:

.... The Noble's a matter of taste - the turbo characteristics ruined the M400 for me; good chassis though.

Going off topic a bit but changing the turbos and a re map (no car made std power) then the cars perform like NA cars. Loads are now running 500-700bhp

Watch monkey driving the first 500+ M400 years ago.

http://youtu.be/FZwA-KblalQ

[Shnozz]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Shnozz said:

As for the Exige V6, I am yet to drive one so my opinion is largely irrelevant. A good friend has driven one and knows his onions and happens to own a 280ish bhp S2 Exige. His view was that the Exige V6 would not show a clean pair of heels..

I've driven Exige S and rate it as absolutely lightning quick. I consider it a track car, which this version obviously emphasises.

Will this car save Lotus? No. At £63,000 they'll sell a few to hardcore racers with money to burn but that's about it. Mind you, Lotus need every sale they can get and this might help - pending some proper new product.

How did it compare to a high power S2 Exige in your opinion? I appreciate the 260 cup was the ceiling on the factory cars, but with many cars tweaked to that sort of level, is there a sizeable difference to the V6?

You're right with the price I fear. That said, by the time the S2 reached it's swan song it was how much? £46k or thereabouts?

[kambites]

I'd probably have bought a Noble instead of my Lotus if it wasn't for the engine. I've often wondered if it would be viable to take the turbos off and supercharge that lump.

[Shnozz]

kambites said:

I'd probably have bought a Noble instead of my Lotus if it wasn't for the engine. I've often wondered if it would be viable to take the turbos off and supercharge that lump.

I really enjoyed my test drive of the Noble and in many ways it felt like a grown up Exige. I wasn't so keen on the interior, which felt a bit kit car even alongside the basic interior of the Lotus. It was a little too wide to comfortably fit in my (then) single garage and the lack of any real luggage space for European trips wasn't that appealing. But the thing that really put me off was the power delivery. I'm sure you get used to it, but the way the turbos slugged in mid corner and had little in terms of linear delivery was not particularly comfortable, at least to me. With a background of TVRs and Loti I am used to a bit more progression.

All that said, an utterly awesome car still and I still flick through the classifieds keeping an eye on them....

[RobM77]

mgbond said:

RobM77 said:

.... The Noble's a matter of taste - the turbo characteristics ruined the M400 for me; good chassis though.

Going off topic a bit but changing the turbos and a re map (no car made std power) then the cars perform like NA cars. Loads are now running 500-700bhp

Watch monkey driving the first 500+ M400 years ago.

http://youtu.be/FZwA-KblalQ

Why's that then? Most tuned turbo cars I've driven have even worse turbo characteristics than the standard cars.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Shnozz said:

How did it compare to a high power S2 Exige in your opinion?

Haven't driven that one I'm afraid, but I can tell you Exige S feels much, much quicker than Evora. Absolutely savage performance.

[Ozzie Osmond]

RobM77 said:

Why's that then? Most tuned turbo cars I've driven have even worse turbo characteristics than the standard cars.

Agreed. Although that Noble's engine had been done by Roush who are one of the world's leading performance engine boosters. He said it had two small turbos instead of one big one so they would spool up faster and suppress lag.

http://www.roushperformance.com/engines/

[flatfour]

Shnozz said:

I have and agree the Noble handles very well. Very well indeed. I still don't think it equals the handling of an Exige, but it really is splitting hairs at that level.

As for the Exige V6, I am yet to drive one so my opinion is largely irrelevant. A good friend has driven one and knows his onions and happens to own a 280ish bhp S2 Exige. His view was that the Exige V6 would not show a clean pair of heels..

lets not forget that a 280bhp is S2 Exige is in a fairly high state of tune and the 350bhp Exige V6 is not stretched that far. 450bhp can be achieved with fairly minor modifications... 420bhp is an off the shelf upgrade from Hangar 111.

[Shnozz]

flatfour said:

lets not forget that a 280bhp is S2 Exige is in a fairly high state of tune and the 350bhp Exige V6 is not stretched that far. 450bhp can be achieved with fairly minor modifications... 420bhp is an off the shelf upgrade from Hangar 111.

Very true. I'm comparing apples and oranges really.

[Shnozz]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Shnozz said:

How did it compare to a high power S2 Exige in your opinion?

Haven't driven that one I'm afraid, but I can tell you Exige S feels much, much quicker than Evora. Absolutely savage performance.

To be fair, having test driven an NA Evora my Exige S felt savage when I climbed back in.

[FestivAli]

I thank thee Pistonheads, for producing the best in car video I have every seen. Perfectly shows what a drivers car this thing is.

[zebedee]

shame it wasn't dry on the vid just to show those who still want to whinge about the boring Camry V6 engine how wrong they are, although it still sounds pretty good on the light loads

[bobo]

exige v6....

THE best thing since sliced bread....

[The Pits]

Here's some Exige V6 Cup in the dry (in places) around Hethel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOQZLURppco

Some dry footage at Donington too before the heavens opened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kULvMcStIUY

Then this happened!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5OAeDzU7Ls

[Dan Trent]

Nice work - thanks for sharing!

Dan

[pthelazyjourno]

BBS-LM said:

There is just something wrong with the new look of that LOTUS EXIGE, it just looks bulky and fat. I would have a GT3 over this, any day of the week.

Put it next to a GT3 and then see which one looks bulky and fat - pictures never show how small these cars actually are.

Granted, it's a fair bit longer than the previous Exige, but it's still over 50cm shorter than a 911. Narrower, lower, lighter...

[pthelazyjourno]

Shnozz said:

How did it compare to a high power S2 Exige in your opinion? I appreciate the 260 cup was the ceiling on the factory cars, but with many cars tweaked to that sort of level, is there a sizeable difference to the V6?

You're right with the price I fear. That said, by the time the S2 reached it's swan song it was how much? £46k or thereabouts?

In fairness, some of the special edition S1 Elises were getting on for £40k, let alone the Exige, and that was 13 years ago!