Review of Lotus Exige 2013
If you're really serious about driving, pure, genuine "feeling to drive", you'll find it hard to ignore the new Lotus Exige S V6 Coupe.
It's a raw experience down to the manual (non-powered) steering, near-solid seats, high-difficulty cockpit access, and tough, racetrack-bred aluminum bodywork.
You can feel every dynamic event that affects the car through the steering wheel, brakes and the seat of your pants. You can hear a buzzing, roaring engine right behind your head.
Value
That's all well and good, but what you really need to appreciate is that all of that superb Porsche performance is available for less than half the price of a German thoroughbred.
The test car (we had expensive option packages) started at a starting price of just under $120 — about half what you'd pay for a Porsche 911 that didn't see where Lotus went.
Back to the $150 Porsche Cayman, and it's the same story. But these two Porsches are far more civilized everyday cars with good seats, light steering, premium audio, luxury goodies and relatively mild manners when compared to the Lotus.
Technologies
This is the latest Exige two-seater, this time powered by a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine from Lotus Evora and before that from Toyota.
Yes, it has the heart of a Toyota Avalon beating amidships, but the engine has been significantly modified from what it was at the beginning of the production of household appliances.
The supercharger is a Harrop 1320 unit neatly mounted on the top right of the compact V6, which is on display under a fastback glass cover.
It drives the rear wheels through a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission after passing a lightweight flywheel and push-button clutch.
Power output is 257 kW at 7000 rpm with 400 Nm of torque available at 4500 rpm. That's enough to get the 1176kg Exige V6 to 0 km/h in 100 seconds, which we actually achieved with the launch control system. Gets 3.8 liters / 10.1 km too.
Design
The aero package includes a flat floor, front splitter, rear wing and rear diffuser, and the ride height is extremely low. The Exige S V6 looks impressive on the road thanks to Lotus Elise elements up front and a bigger Evora in the back.
It's longer and wider than the previous four-cylinder Exige and looks better because of it. Inside, everything is functional and cramped, but there is air conditioning, a cruise, an outlet, a normal audio system and two cup holders.
The dashboard looks like it was taken off a motorcycle, but who cares, because in this car the main thing is drive.
Driving
This car is an ANIMAL. We haven't even had it in race mode and it's intimidatingly fast, downright addictive.
Not only in a straight line, because its cornering, like a big kart, is a little limited by the lack of weight on the front wheels.
Take a look at the Exige spec and you'll see that this is indeed the case from the point of view of performance component vendors. Four-piston AP brakes, Bilstein shocks, Eibach springs, Bosch tuned ECU, Pirelli Trofeo tires 17" front and 18" rear. Aluminum double wishbone suspension at both ends and the car can be tuned within certain parameters. It all looks like it's been carved from a single piece of aluminum covered in a cool fiberglass/plastic bodywork.
We were amazed at how much the Exige has - it's instantly accessible under the right foot. It hits hard right out of the blocks until the 7000rpm redline and then the same thing over and over in every gear. Wow, dizzy.
In addition, the back-up department is an impressive dynamic package that is deceptively comfortable despite the complex setup. The shock absorbers need to have some kind of tricky scavenging system for the hard bumps because the car floats over normally bumpy bumps.
No other road car comes close to this level of driver connection, although we have yet to drive something like the Caterham Seven, which we suspect will be something similar.
Lotus is facilitating this return to the basics of the race car driving experience with a tiny steering wheel, a mechanical shifter, minimal noise cancellation and four-mode dynamic control, including "off" stability control and launch control.
This is a track car that can be easily driven on the road, and not vice versa, which is typical for most competitions. Handcrafted in the UK, striking looks, amazing performance and handling. What more could a car enthusiast want? Lotus free?
