Lotus Exige Cup 430 is the fastest Lotus ever

Lotus founder Colin Chapman was guided by a simple principle in designing cars, according to which you first need to reduce the weight of the car, and then increase the power of its engine. He summed it up figuratively in two sentences: “Adding power makes you faster in a straight line. Losing weight makes you faster everywhere."

According to the above recipe, among others, the well-known Lotus 7, produced in 1957-1973. Then many of its clones were created, produced by more than 160 companies from around the world, and the most famous of them is still being produced. Caterham 7. This is a simple, brilliant and correct approach. Colin Chapman Car design has been the philosophy of the Norfolk company from 1952 to the present day.

I mention all this in order to better understand what is behind the latest work. Lotus. Exige Cup 430 and proof that Hethel engineers are already slowly hitting the proverbial wall when it comes to weight reduction, so now they've started to increase the power. According to the British brand, it should be "The most extreme Exige ever created" and knowing the Norfolk Company, I have no doubt about it. Moreover, this year there is a series of news and records from Lotus.

It all started at the end of March with the presentation of the Elise Sprint, which was the lightest Elise of the current generation (798 kg). A month later, the Exige Cup 380 saw the light, a "lighter" version of the Exige Sport 380, released in a limited edition of 60 pieces. At the end of May, the Elise Cup 250 was introduced, the lightest and most powerful version of the Elise. Less than two months later, the Evora GT430 arrived, claiming the title of the most powerful Lotus in the history of the brand (430 hp). At the end of October, the Elise Cup 260 was introduced, which in the Elise family raised the bar to a new, even higher level, with a total of 30 units produced. And now? And now we have the Exige Cup 430, which combines the lightness of the Elise Sprint with the power of the Evora GT430. Effect? There can be only one - a hell of a fast car, the fastest road Lotus. But more on that later…

Let's start with the weight, which, depending on the options chosen, can reach a maximum of 1,093 kg or drop to 1,059 kg, and if you additionally try to abandon the airbag, the weight will drop to 1,056 kg - I will only add that it is less than that of the Cup 380. But… in fact, the Cup 430 has gained in weight in relation to its weaker brother. The largest amount of mass was absorbed by the increased compressor and engine cooling system (+15 kg), additional kilograms came from a new clutch, increased by 12 mm, with a diameter of 240 mm (+0.8 kg) and thicker brakes. disks (+1.2 kg) - a total of 17 kg of excess weight, but not in vain, because they should help tame the improved parameters of the power unit. However, Lotus engineers love to fight with kilos. The "slimming cure" program includes increased use of carbon fiber, aluminum and other lightweight materials, as well as, including front and rear body modifications (-6.8 kg), seat belt attachments (-1.2 kg), rear diffuser aluminum (-1 kg), a titanium exhaust system with improved sound (-10 kg) and interior elements such as seats and their rails (-2.5 kg), which saves a total of 29 kg. Simple calculations show that the total weight of the Cup 430 was 12 kg compared to the Cup 380 - with such a low starting weight, these 12 kg are a commendable result.

Disc source Exige Cup 430 is a 3.5-liter V6 engine with an Edelbrock cooled compressor that develops 430 hp. at 7000 rpm and a torque of 440 Nm in the range from 2600 to 6800 rpm - by 55 hp and 30 Nm more than the Cup 380. Drive is a short 6-speed manual transmission to the rear wheels. These parameters may not be impressive compared to cars like the Ferrari 488, but we are talking about a car that weighs almost 40 kg less than the base Seat Ibiza and has almost 6 times more power. And here the most important thing is the specific power, which is the case Exige Cup 430 is 407 km / ton - for comparison, the Ferrari 488 has 433 km / ton, and the Cup 380 has 355 km / ton. This can be a sign of only one thing - excellent work. Moving the speedometer needle from 0 to 100 km / h takes 3.3 seconds, and the maximum value that it can show is 290 km / h - which is 0.3 seconds less and 8 km / h more than the Cup 380, respectively.

However, the changes to the new Exige are not limited to its weight and power. Cup 430 It boasts the largest of any Lotus road model, 4-piston calipers and 332mm front and rear brake discs signed by AP Racing. The new fully adjustable Nitro suspension and Eibach anti-roll bars, also adjustable, are responsible for the correct handling of the car. To improve handling at higher speeds, the carbon fiber front splitter and flaps covering the front air intakes and rear spoiler have been modified to increase downforce without increasing the drag coefficient. The maximum downforce of the car is 20 kg more compared to the Cup 380, for a total of 220 kg, of which 100 kg is at the front (an increase of 28 kg) and 120 kg (a decrease of 8 kg) at the rear axle. This balancing of downforce by increasing it on the front axle should, above all, ensure more efficient cornering at high speeds.

Okay, and how will this affect the actual performance of the car? The best way to test this is "in combat", which Lotus did at its factory test site in Hethel (3540 m long). So far, the road version of the Lotus 3-Eleven, a rather extreme “car” without a windshield with a power of 410 hp, has shown the best time. and weighing 925 kg, which rounded the track in 1 minute 26 seconds. . This result was only matched by the Exige Cup 380. As you might have guessed by now, the Cup 430 version did a better job and completed the lap in 1 minute 24.8 seconds, setting the record for a homologated road Lotus.

No wonder the new Lotus Exige Cup 430 is proud of the president of the company, Gina-Mark Welsh:

“This is the car we've always wanted to build and I'm sure all Lotus fans will be thrilled with the end result. In addition to a significant increase in power, the Cup 430 has been developed in every way, rooted in the Lotus DNA, to ensure that we fully utilize the incredible potential of the Exige chassis. This car has no competition - both in its price range and beyond - and it's not an exaggeration to say that nothing can keep up with this Exige on the road and on the track."

Finally, two messages. The first - very good - is that, unlike the Cup 380, the 430 version will not be limited in number. The second one is a little worse as it concerns the price, which starts at 99 pounds in the UK market and reaches 800 euros in our western neighbors, that is, from 127 to 500 zlotys. On the one hand, this is not enough, and on the other hand, comparable competition is at least twice as expensive. Moreover, this is an opportunity to communicate with a dying type of car, those "analog", purely mechanical, without extra screens, without an excess of electronic "boosters", where the driver has the opportunity to check the capabilities of the car, how he can drive it, and not a computer that corrects car. Wrong trajectory at every turn. This is a representative of a species focused on low weight, on "tightness", and not on powerful engines that set in motion "fat" bodies. It is a car that the driver is connected to, inextricably linked to, and simply gives him pure and unadulterated driving pleasure. And it costs more than half a million zlotys, really priceless ...