17 Apr 07
Despite having many of the same components as the Elise and looking very much like it, the coupe-bodied Exige somehow feels different. It's edgier, sharper, more like a race track refugee. Hence its popularity with the trackday fraternity.
As with the Elise, the more basic your Exige the more sense it makes, though again make sure you tick the air-con box on the options sheet. Basic in this instance means the 189bhp plain old ordinary Exige, which for £30,945 provides as much raw performance as most of us could reasonably use: 0-60mph in 4.9 seconds, 147mph. You can order the same bunch of option packs as the Elise - Touring, Super Touring, Sport and Super Sport - but have a long, hard think about how you'll use your Exige before splashing out the extra cash.
The same applies to the Exige S, the 218bhp supercharged derivative that pitches its base price at £34,945 and pelts from standstill to 60mph in 4.1 seconds and shrieks on to 148mph. In base trim it has all the essentials, but if you fancy more gizmos check out the classifieds - you might find an '06 model with a Touring pack and only 2,000 miles on the odometer for £33,995, which is less money than the basic S, better equipped and practically new.
Lotus Sport, the company's motorsport division, will take your newly made Exige and prepare it for serious track action. The Exige Cup, for example, is based on the standard non-supercharged car, to which is added adjustable suspension, a limited-slip differential, switchable traction control, fuel and ignition kill switches inside and out, and a roll cage. There's also the even more extreme Exige Cup 240 that has all that motorsport gubbins, and also has its supercharged engine uprated to 243bhp and boasts race-spec twin oil coolers, high-performance clutch and a 'track use only' exhaust system. Both the Cup cars are 'price on application' specials.
