Owning and Exige S....
Discussion
Hi All
I've never owned a Lotus before, really quite like the Exige S, is it a pure weekend toy or can it be used to commute to and from work daily? I work 10 miles from work and i live in Aberdeen so have some nice roads to and from work.
I'm looking to buy a newish one from 08 onwards. Anyone recommend a spec to go for, i do fancy the 240PP in white
I've never owned a Lotus before, really quite like the Exige S, is it a pure weekend toy or can it be used to commute to and from work daily? I work 10 miles from work and i live in Aberdeen so have some nice roads to and from work.
I'm looking to buy a newish one from 08 onwards. Anyone recommend a spec to go for, i do fancy the 240PP in white
I have an Exige S and use it every day for a similar distance commute - unless you are intending to track the car, I would recommend fitting some road orientated tyres (T1-R's, Yoko Advans etc) as the track rubber (AO48's, R888's) can prove to be a bit harsh over bumps/potholes and is relatively unpredictable in the wet.
Don't know your personal circumstances, but I do have to have a more practical car in the household for getting things around in, the boot on the Exige is only good for a rucksack and I can just about squeeze a guitar into the passenger seat/footwell - so not all that practical!
Don't know your personal circumstances, but I do have to have a more practical car in the household for getting things around in, the boot on the Exige is only good for a rucksack and I can just about squeeze a guitar into the passenger seat/footwell - so not all that practical!
It's a perfectly practical daily car IMO as long as two criteria are applied - one that you travel fairly light (i.e. commuting with a laptop, coat and briefcase is fine, whereas a stepladder, 20 cans of paint and a copy of the Sun is not), and secondly that you swap to sensible tyres in the winter months.
My Exige S lives outdoors, I drive it all year round, and I have 'proper' winter tyres for winter. Yes, it means that in the rare days of snow, I can blast around making 4x4s look silly (well, the 4x4s on fat summer tyres, at least)
But it's not about the snow, it's about aquaplaning, which is easy to induce in a lightweight like the Lotus and equally hard to control if you're not dead straight when it happens (low polar moment of inertia and all that). Winter tyres have very deep tread and disperse water incredibly well. And Britain is often a very wet place.
Anyway with my regular winter-tyre rant out of the way, here's another possibility. Keep the A048Rs for the track, and switch to something like the Toyo T1-R as a 'regular' all-season tyre (yes, Yokohama make a sticky 'treaded' tyre for Lotus but it costs a fortune and wears out as fast as A048Rs, being effectively a racing wet). I absolutely love the trackday stickies and run them (out of preference) on the road during the better half of the year. However the Yoko tyre has a *very* stiff sidewall, and it appears I've already knackered one wheel due to the vast number of potholes and appalling road surface (as per my other thread)... the sidewalls are stiff enough to transmit most of the force to the wheel, by the looks of things.
There are plenty of people who keep the stickies on all year round, but they tend not to use the car as a daily driver. Yes, you *can* drive an Exige on stickies in heavy rain, and in icy / snowy conditions, but it's bloody risky and you'll be going incredibly slowly and concentrating like your life depends on it. If you're commuting to work in the car, you may as well put on something more appropriate.
Less focused tyres (esp. my winter rubber) are more flexible, making the car even more comfortable to drive - it reduces a lot of the harshness.
Other than that, the only thing I'd immediately point out about daily driving an S is the lack of rear visibility - the intercooler blocks the rear view mirror. You get used to it (and you will *very* quickly if you commute in it) but it's just something to be aware of. If you really don't like that, then an Elise SC with a hardtop could substitute, I suppose.
I say go for it. They're lovely cars.
My Exige S lives outdoors, I drive it all year round, and I have 'proper' winter tyres for winter. Yes, it means that in the rare days of snow, I can blast around making 4x4s look silly (well, the 4x4s on fat summer tyres, at least)
But it's not about the snow, it's about aquaplaning, which is easy to induce in a lightweight like the Lotus and equally hard to control if you're not dead straight when it happens (low polar moment of inertia and all that). Winter tyres have very deep tread and disperse water incredibly well. And Britain is often a very wet place.Anyway with my regular winter-tyre rant out of the way, here's another possibility. Keep the A048Rs for the track, and switch to something like the Toyo T1-R as a 'regular' all-season tyre (yes, Yokohama make a sticky 'treaded' tyre for Lotus but it costs a fortune and wears out as fast as A048Rs, being effectively a racing wet). I absolutely love the trackday stickies and run them (out of preference) on the road during the better half of the year. However the Yoko tyre has a *very* stiff sidewall, and it appears I've already knackered one wheel due to the vast number of potholes and appalling road surface (as per my other thread)... the sidewalls are stiff enough to transmit most of the force to the wheel, by the looks of things.
There are plenty of people who keep the stickies on all year round, but they tend not to use the car as a daily driver. Yes, you *can* drive an Exige on stickies in heavy rain, and in icy / snowy conditions, but it's bloody risky and you'll be going incredibly slowly and concentrating like your life depends on it. If you're commuting to work in the car, you may as well put on something more appropriate.
Less focused tyres (esp. my winter rubber) are more flexible, making the car even more comfortable to drive - it reduces a lot of the harshness.
Other than that, the only thing I'd immediately point out about daily driving an S is the lack of rear visibility - the intercooler blocks the rear view mirror. You get used to it (and you will *very* quickly if you commute in it) but it's just something to be aware of. If you really don't like that, then an Elise SC with a hardtop could substitute, I suppose.
I say go for it. They're lovely cars.
I have a 240 PP Exige S in white, work 10 miles away, used everyday.
Get a/c, lightweight alloys and harness accepting seats with the holes in, as they are far superior to the regular pro bax seats in my old sports racer.
Also upgrade exhaust to a larini set up.
See my car in my profile. Get one mate
Get a/c, lightweight alloys and harness accepting seats with the holes in, as they are far superior to the regular pro bax seats in my old sports racer.
Also upgrade exhaust to a larini set up.
See my car in my profile. Get one mate
i did >20k miles, mainly commuting, over the last year in my S.
i also did about 10 trackdays.
i used the yoko a048s and pagid rs42 pads for all the above but that's only because i never got my act together to get a set of road wheels with cheapo tyres - it's a waste running the a048's on the road. per earlier posts it's not entirely sensible in the worst of winter either. not the best on snow, ice or mud. but if you have any bit of cop on, it's not dangerous.
other than that the car is a perfectly good daily driver.
i also did about 10 trackdays.
i used the yoko a048s and pagid rs42 pads for all the above but that's only because i never got my act together to get a set of road wheels with cheapo tyres - it's a waste running the a048's on the road. per earlier posts it's not entirely sensible in the worst of winter either. not the best on snow, ice or mud. but if you have any bit of cop on, it's not dangerous.
other than that the car is a perfectly good daily driver.
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