New Exige

£55,000 and it's not even supercharged. No doubt that will be an option down the line on the V6. 400bhp anyone? :D

What engine is it anyway? Lotus' own or bought from someone else?
 
Toyota V6, same as used in the Evora.

They've supercharged the Evora so I guess a Exige V6 SC is on the cards for in a year or two as well... although I guess it depends whether it will fit. Cramming a V6 into the Elise chassis is hard enough as it is!
 
Spunkey said:
£55k?? I assume this is the top-spec model?

Looks great, but way overpriced.
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Will Gill said:
seems heavy for what it is, and crazily expensive, GTR territory
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Realistically it's going to be £60k specced up but let's be realistic and look at the competition.....

Exige V6 - 345bhp - ~1100kg - ~£55000
New 911 - 350bhp - ~1400kg - ~£72000
Cayman R - 330bhp - ~1350kg - ~£52000
BMW M3 - 420bhp - ~1700kg - ~£55000
Nissan GTR - ~530bhp - ~1750kg - £72000


I'll happily admit that some people would consider the Evora to be better competition for the likes of the 911 or M3 and that the Exige V6 is not going to be everyones cup of tea but it doesn't strike me as particularly overpriced given the initial performance figures for 0-100kph & 0-160kph look very impressive....

0-100 km/h: ~3.8s
0-160 km/h: 7.9s
 
This one is supercharged, hence being the Exige S...

Engine guff sent to me by my friend:

Mid-mounted, transverse, 3456 cm3, 2GR-FE engine, aluminium lightweight and compact construction, V6 24 valve, water cooled, supercharged with double overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, 4 valves per cylinder, Dual-Variable Valve Timing – intelligent, direct ignition system, electronic throttle control system-intelligent
Harrop HTV 1320 supercharger assembly (utilising Eaton Twin Vortex Series (TVS) Technology ™)
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Really liking this, I hope lotus can also sort itself out in f1 too!

edit: For about the same price as a cayman and m3, i mean, abit too much track car for every day use, so I really hope it can shoiw its worth, most probably at the 'ring :)
 
Just a quick thought, this will probably be the first car to *ahem* benefit from Lotus' new test track. Which means it is likely to be sprung seriously hard. It's be magnificent on track, but on the roads.

The old track was why the cars drove so well on the road. It was terribly quality. :D Rutted, ripples, breaking up, different surfaces. It was wonderful. Earlier this year it was all ripped up and replaced with a single piece of smooth, GT track quality tarmac. Spoke to a couple of the test drivers a while ago and they were gutted about it being destroyed.

I'm not sure if the names of the corners are remaining though. I also want to know what happened to the F1 tyre crash barriers that were around the track...

Group want to hold GT racing there in the future... Having seen what happened to the A11 when Lotus were holding their 60th birthday party there - for GT events it'd be impossible to get there.
 
I had that thought too about the new test track :(

Does seem as though the new Lotus cars are just going to be bland Italian esque pieces of lard with rock hard suspension for no other reason than because bitumen was too readily available.

They should have bought some of the nearby farmland to build their proper "race track", and left the legendary "test track" as it was. But I think with all the new money swirling around they just couldn't bear to stare any longer at the ugliness of all the weeds, cracks and old tyre barriers.

The guys that do all the suspension and setup tuning must be gutted. It's going to make their job 10x harder now. It's basically setting them up to fail. And we will know because the motoring press tend to shout pretty loudly if Lotus ever gets it wrong on the handling front. Remember the whole Elise S2 "understeer zomg" affair?
 
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NathanE said:
I had that thought too about the new test track :(

Does seem as though the new Lotus cars are just going to be bland Italian esque pieces of lard with rock hard suspension for no other reason than because bitumen was too readily available.

They should have bought some of the nearby farmland to build their proper "race track", and left the legendary "test track" as it was. But I think with all the new money swirling around they just couldn't bear to stare any longer at the ugliness of all the weeds, cracks and old tyre barriers.

The guys that do all the suspension and setup tuning must be gutted. It's going to make their job 10x harder now. It's basically setting them up to fail. And we will know because the motoring press tend to shout pretty loudly if Lotus ever gets it wrong on the handling front. Remember the whole Elise S2 "understeer zomg" affair?
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have you looked at the future cars section on the lotus cars website? all the future cars look nice but they feel to me less like lotus cars and more like they are trying to be italianesque as you put it. Also couldnt help but feel that making so much noise about cars that are years away is more about selling danny bahar than lotus cars, given how his name and quotes are all over the future cars pages lol.

I like that exige though, but i do feel its more revolution than evolution of the exige line and not sure its good or not, am still in love with the s1 exige though lol.
 
NathanE said:
I had that thought too about the new test track :(

Does seem as though the new Lotus cars are just going to be bland Italian esque pieces of lard with rock hard suspension for no other reason than because bitumen was too readily available.

They should have bought some of the nearby farmland to build their proper "race track", and left the legendary "test track" as it was. But I think with all the new money swirling around they just couldn't bear to stare any longer at the ugliness of all the weeds, cracks and old tyre barriers.

The guys that do all the suspension and setup tuning must be gutted. It's going to make their job 10x harder now. It's basically setting them up to fail. And we will know because the motoring press tend to shout pretty loudly if Lotus ever gets it wrong on the handling front. Remember the whole Elise S2 "understeer zomg" affair?
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It does mean that there may be more cars upside down in the ditches alongside the B1135. Just like it used to be. ;)

The old track was fantastic because of all the problems with it. But it just doesn't fit with the style icon direction they are taking.

As a Lotus fan, I'm finding it almost impossible to like any of the new models as they are just generic shapes and have none of the lotus design features in them. I certainly wouldn't want to be working there at the moment with the future looking so bleak. £800 million in loans to pay for this new future with no obvious income to justify that amount coming in the near future.

Add to that the ridiculous amount they are spending sponsoring various motorsport teams. The only event they are actually entering themselves is GT with the Evora GTE, and thats with the help of an existing team - Jetalliance.

But it's not the first mistake Lotus have made, won't be the last. M250 should have been released, Europa shouldn't have been *or should have been badged as a Proton*, APX etc... Oh and hiring a rapper to be Vice President of design and marketing or something like that... :rolleyes:

Tony Fernandes may well get his wish in the next few years. Especially with the Esprit being pretty much ready to go, then Bahar comes in and a redesign is done and then the engine plan is dropped for a Lotus built engine. Esprit is now due in 2013 iirc. If Tony does get his hands on Group Lotus, will there be anything left for him? I'd have loved to see Caterham and Lotus being in the same ownership. Caterham producing low volume replicas of the classic Lotus cars, Elan, Europa, 21 etc, and Lotus producing the modern day versions.
 
I loved my s2 exige, but this needs to be faster for me 400bhp at least. Pictures of inside? Looks same as old one. Where air intake gone on roof....

How can a car weight so much, for so little ......
 
Dredd said:
I loved my s2 exige, but this needs to be faster for me 400bhp at least. Pictures of inside? Looks same as old one. Where air intake gone on roof....

How can a car weight so much, for so little ......
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The last of the line of the current Exiges are now past 900kg, so not a huge hike for including a supercharged V6. There are conflicting reports, but the car appears to use the Evora chassis not the old Exige one.
 
It is when a new mx5 weight is also around 1100, that's a cheap construction, with better inside.

It's a massive jump from s1
 
Alibaba99 said:
The last of the line of the current Exiges are now past 900kg, so not a huge hike for including a supercharged V6. There are conflicting reports, but the car appears to use the Evora chassis not the old Exige one.
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I thought that when i first saw it, wondered if it was an evora with different bodyshell rather than a re-engineered elise. Not really sure how i feel about that part of me feels a bit conned regardless of the fact its probably brilliant.
 
Anyone else think this has kind of missed the point of Lotus'?

Dumping a V6 in to give it more power seems the lazy route. And then to price it at £55k seems a bit odd.

But we shall see. I fear Lotus are aiming their cars at companies who are just going to beat them hands down.
 
Putting a V6 in it isn't really a problem - they've kept it light and being mid(ish) engined, a little extra weight on the engine isn't really a huge problem anyway.

What the V6 does do is appeals to those who are not attracted to the "dull" 4 pot. It'll also give it a noise far more fitting for the calibre of car ;)

When you say beat them hands down - in what respect?
 
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