Lotus Exige S

[TomB 0]

What an astonishing piece of kit!

Went to a track day yesterday with a friend who has one of these, and I'm still gobsmacked. I've driven it on the road and been a passenger in it on the road, but NOTHING compares to what it's capable of on the track. In all honesty, I didn't think we were going to clear some of the corners, but it just kept gripping and gripping. The only things that were catching us where the Atoms & a couple of Caterhams.

As to keeping up with him on the way to the track, well, good luck with that! 220hp & 4-odd seconds to 60.

 

/Awestruck groupie. :D

 

P.S True to form though, it did break down!

 

Cheers,

T

[was8v 0]

Yeah they are insane! Obscenely quick through the corners on track!

 

Even a well set up elise can take corners at unbelievable speeds, great cars.

[marcus 0]

spooky that youve put a review up of an Exige as I was looking at them at the weekend LOL. Nice to hear you had fun mate and that u rate them highly. I didnt realise they had major unreliability issues though :confused4: ..thats depressed me :sad: .

 

So how much qicker than the caterhams are they?

[dinkus 10]

I would freaking love an Exige. I've had a few blats out on airfield days in Elises and a blat around a track in an Exige and they really are awesome.

 

I think they're probably a bit too hardcore for the daily drive, but they're amazing on track as well as looking fantastic too.

 

The S2s with the Toyota engines are supposed to be much more reliable than the old K-Series ones which have a bit of a habit of munching head gaskets if you look at them a bit funny.

 

I do keep thinking about getting one, but there's no way I could afford one and I've already got 2 Corrados that I don't have a garage for. An Exige as well would just be stupid :lol:

 

I've also just seen pics of the Lotus Evora which is actually sex on wheels, although even more out of my price-range at £50k or so :(

 

And they're very similar handling wise to the Caterhams, but with better aerodynamics. That's a bit like saying Corrados handle similarly to Golfs though... it depends very much on how mentally modified the Golf is. The Caterhams are hugely variable in the size and type of engines that people put in them and the Exiges aren't really all that fast in a straight line.

[TomB 0]

spooky that youve put a review up of an Exige as I was looking at them at the weekend LOL. Nice to hear you had fun mate and that u rate them highly. I didnt realise they had major unreliability issues though :confused4: ..thats depressed me :sad: .

 

So how much qicker than the caterhams are they?

 

Well, the breaking down was something that could have happened to any car, it just munched through the last of one of its brake pads, and would have started scoring the disk if driven much further. Not much you can do about that at 5pm on a Sunday! Everying else, brakes, transmission, engine performed flawlessly despite the fact it was a hot day out on track. The 2.3l Cosworth engined Caterhams were catching us, but you'd probably have the edge over the older 1.6l Crossflow engined ones!

The top speed is just over 130mph, but it doesn't stop pulling until it gets there. The acceleration and handling are just something else.

My friend uses it as his daily driver :D

Cheers,

T

[corrado_sunderland 0]

me bro had 2 elises a race tuned s1 and an s2 and i loved driving both of them, handling was awesome, anyone who says they dont like em is just jelious im my opinion he used his as daily drivers and they were mint on petrol as there so light

[bjc388 0]

it's horses for courses really like most things in life. If you get a chance to sample an Exige or any Elise then do it - they are great fun. Even better, if you get the chance to sample one with either an Audi 20v turbo installation or a s/c honda in it then I can tell you that 300bhp+ in a 750kg car is pretty intense :shock: :cuckoo: :nuts: :grin:

[bigrichi 0]

spooky that youve put a review up of an Exige as I was looking at them at the weekend LOL. Nice to hear you had fun mate and that u rate them highly. I didnt realise they had major unreliability issues though :confused4: ..thats depressed me :sad: .

 

So how much qicker than the caterhams are they?

 

Well, the breaking down was something that could have happened to any car, it just munched through the last of one of its brake pads, and would have started scoring the disk if driven much further. Not much you can do about that at 5pm on a Sunday! Everying else, brakes, transmission, engine performed flawlessly despite the fact it was a hot day out on track. The 2.3l Cosworth engined Caterhams were catching us, but you'd probably have the edge over the older 1.6l Crossflow engined ones!

The top speed is just over 130mph, but it doesn't stop pulling until it gets there. The acceleration and handling are just something else.

My friend uses it as his daily driver :D

Cheers,

T

 

 

think 130mph top end is a bit conservative for an Exige S,

before the corrado i had a 111R elise and that would easily see over 130mph (on track of course) :norty:

 

that was with 30 BHP less

[Vmax 0]

:wave: The S is a great car, but there's not a huge difference on track between it and the N/A, it's on the road where the extra torque makes the difference. I've used my N/A as (almost) a daily driver last summer and this summer, even without the touring pack it's still perfectly usable and comfortable. Needs a decent exhaust though as the standard one is far too quiet

 

On track it's just awesome, so much grip and huge fun. The S2s are pretty reliable, the 'Yota is a decent engine but you do have to rev the nuts off it for the best performance, not a hardship when it's so much fun :grin:

 

I've had 130mph + out of mine on track at Bedford, an S should still be pulling whereas mine starts running out of steam not much after 120. They're quick, but not that quick, a basic Caterham will keep up with one round most tracks, but they're almost half the weight. At least I can drive home from trackdays in some comfort, stereo on, aircon blasting out :camp:

[Pau1 0]

These are truely great cars. Im so wanting a S1 Elise to do a Supercharged Honda conversion or a 1.8T VAG conversion. Theres very little on a track that will touch these. Wouldn't mind a Noble either.