Thursday 20th April 2017

Lotus Exige Cup 380

If you want the ultimate road and track Exige - for now at least - then the Cup 380 is the car for you!

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Should have seen it coming really. It's been more than a month since Lotus last gave us a new car in the Elise Sprint, so here's the latest: the Exige Cup 380. Wonder what May will bring...

We're joking, don't worry. More Lotuses sounds like more good news, particularly given how richly talented the most recent models have been. Indeed it only sounds like bad news if you're a buyer, content that you have the best variant only to find it superseded a few months later. See the Exige Sport 350, for example.

Wonder what it'll do at the 'ring?

This new car is the Exige Cup 380, said by Hethel to be "the perfect balance between fully type approved road car and genuine race car to deliver ultimate track-and-back street-legal Lotus." Quite a claim.

To that end the aero has been heavily overhauled for this Exige, with power untouched from the Sport 380. Entirely new body parts - see the front louvres, the cut-outs between the rear wheels and the aero blades either side of the diffuser - have contributed to a 43 per cent improvement in top speed downforce, now 200kg.

Carbon is used extensively, as you might have expected, with the front splitter, rear wing, side skirts, side scoops, roof and boot lid made of it. With the optional titanium exhaust fitted as well, Lotus claims a dry weight of 1,057kg for the Cup 380.

Less weight of course means improved performance, and this Exige doesn't disappoint. 0-60mph takes 3.4 seconds (62mph takes another couple of tenths), while the Hethel lap time is 1min 26sec - half a second faster than the Sport 380, and three seconds in front of a Sport 350. Contributing to this in conjunction with the aero upgrades are wider Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, now 285 section at the back (215s remain on the front).

As is the Cup tradition, the car's dynamic set up is finely tweakable by the driver. Standard equipment includes two-way adjustable Nitron dampers, adjustable Eibach anti-roll bars front and rear plus a new six-mode traction control in addition to the four ESP modes. The system varies the target wheel slip from one to 12 per cent according to the positioning of the dial, with the sixth position fully off. The dial is located beneath the indicator stalk, but don't worry - there's a display in the dials so you're not checking around the steering column for the TC setting.

Function before form, right?

Also included in the Cup 380 package are a steel roll cage, a front tow eye and a rear tow strap. It can be made fully race compliant in fact, with further options including harnesses, an electrical cut-off, an extinguisher, an FIA spec roll cage and a non-airbag wheel. Just in case the car wasn't serious enough!

Just 60 Exige Cup 380s will be made, offered in five colours: Essex Blue, then white, silver, grey and black. Red highlights are standard on all cars and there are some new badges and... you want to know the price, don't you? It's £83,000. A fair chunk for an Exige, but then very good value given the performance. And if you're thinking what a good comparison it might be with a new manual GT3, you're not alone...

[suffolk009]

Lovely looking thing. But I think if I was spending my own money, then I'd be happy with the bottom of the range Exige 350 L.

ETA: But only because I don't do track days any more.

Edited by suffolk009 on Thursday 20th April 16:30

[suffolk009]

But would you have the SSC or KomoTec upgrade?

[suffolk009]

^^ I get your point about wet vs dry weights. But the problem is that most people will make comparisons without knowing the difference. And when your "thing" is lightweight, why give away an advantage to the competition. You have to level the playing field.

[suffolk009]

I rather like the dash in the exige. I'm not at all keen on the new generation of flat screen dashboards that most supercars now seem to have. I like a dial.

I'm not sure that the new "only two lights" rear end works as well as the old one. I know, weight, cost, but I find it less atrractive.

I'm also unconvinced about all the little aero addenda. The dive planes, the splitter, the skirts, the big wing. It seems most cars get this stuff added as the model moves into middle age. Just look at an early Pagani Zonda S. No extras, just a simple beautiful line. Does anybody really think that a late winged and arched Countach is better looking than an early Periscope?

[suffolk009]

DonkeyApple said:

suffolk009 said:

I rather like the dash in the exige. I'm not at all keen on the new generation of flat screen dashboards that most supercars now seem to have. I like a dial.

That's just the binnacle though. Or rather the contents of the binnacle. It's the whole dash section that is beginning to look a little bit of a weak point when the price tag is £80k+

I see your point, but I still quite like it.

Mind you, I'd order black crackle paint instead of carbon-fibre every time. I concede I'm probably not a typical customer.

[suffolk009]

But that smiley grill - a sort of D on it's side) was just about the only constant on all Lotus Cars since the first Elite. It was even on the Esprit and the 340R.