Here’s a slick compact sports coupe with the performance of a much bigger supercar. With a supercharged engine and light weight, the Lotus Exige S takes Lotus back into the supercar class. It sprints to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, gets to 100 mph in 9.98 seconds and has a top speed of 148 mph.
It sits between the Elise and the standard Exige at one end, and the forthcoming Europa S at the other.
The car has the familiar shape of the Exige, essentially a coupe version of the Elise, which means it is very low and compact.
Almost as fast to 100 mph as a Gallardo
A top speed of 148 mph may not seem spectacular –faster than you can go in most places even at the dead of night these days – but driving fast is all about acceleration, braking, steering, and cornering. These areas the Exige S will be near the top of the pack. And the acceleration is phenomenal.
Look, the Lotus Exige S gets to 60 mph quicker than an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, Porsche 911 Carrera S, or a 911 Turbo. It can hold its own to 100 mph with many very fast cars, being just 0.18 seconds slower than the superb Lamborghini Gallardo.
As with all Lotus cars, the exceptional performance comes from a combination of very light weight, low frontal area and a small but powerful engine – in this case a a slightly detuned version of the Roots blown Toyota 1.8 liter unit in the Lotus Sport Exige 240R.
Downforce at high speeds
There are some changes to improve aerodynamics, which play an important part in the performance of the Lotus Exige S. At the front is a deep splitter, and at the rear a diffuser reduces underbody drag, and there is a fixed wing to give downforce.
The result of these changes is that at 100 mph the car generates 90 lb downforce at the front and 48 lb at the rear. The balance of front-to-rear downforce is maintained up to the maximum speed.
To ensure the intercooler cools efficiently in all conditions there is a slightly revised roof air intake. At the rear, the car can be identified by a single oval exhaust pipe.
Mechanically, the Exige S is similar to the Elise, with the same aluminum extruded frame, double wishbone suspension and rack and pinion steering. All track tested for optimum performance. The frame weighs just 150 lb.
The light weight extends through the whole car, the Exige S weighing just 2,057 lb (935 kg). The supercharged and intercooled engine develops 218 bhp at 7,800 rpm, with torque of 158 lb ft (215 Nm) at 5,500 rpm. This is based on Toyota’s litre 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i, which is mounted across the rear of the car and is in unit with a six-speed close ratio box.
Lotus says that 80% of maximum torque is produced at just over 2,000 rpm. This means that the engine has been tuned to give good mid-range performance. Yet maximum engine speed is a sustained 8,000 rpm, but you can go up to 8,500 rpm for up to 2 seconds.
Power-to-weight ratio equals Porsche 911 Carrera
This small car can accelerates very quickly because it has a high power-to-weight ratio of 230 bhp per tonne, which is on a par with that of the Porsche 911 Carrera. The very low frontal area, weight and good traction all help the car accelerate very fast at almost any speed up to over 100 mph.
On the other hand, the low top speed results from the not very slippery shape of the Exige, as more emphasis was placed on downforce. The Cd is a high 0.434 – these days you would be aiming for 0.30-0.35, which would increase top speed quite a lot, not that matters much.
Inside, you can choose between the Touring, Super Touring or Sport pack depending on how you will use the car. In all cases, Lotus’s newly developed Probax seats, designed to improve posture while holding the driver during cornering at more than 1.0 g, are specified.
Sports package
Handling is up to Lotus standards on all variants, since the wishbone suspension is similar to that of the Elise and other Exige models. The Sports pack which comes with a traction control, lightweight forged wheels, Eibach springs, Bilstein adjustable dampers, and an adjustable front anti-roll bar. These combine to give sharper handling but a firmer ride. The car is equipped with Yokohama A048 tires on 16 inch front and 17 inch rear wheels. By supercar standards, the tires are quite tall - 195/50s at the front and 225/45s at the rear.
The Touring pack includes carpets, sound deadening, electric window winders and a CD/MP3 player. If you want dual airbags you will need to specify the Super Touring package.
Whichever package you choose, you will get a compact, high-performance supercar with the fuel consumption of a compact sedan. The Exige S is available in the UK, Europe and Japan.
