For those who don’t find the Elise hardcore enough, Lotus now offers the Exige—a road car that barely masks the track-day beast within.

by Greg N. Brown
Photography courtesy Lotus

The automobile is a controlled act of violence, but most cars mask the havoc with craftily formed chunks of metal alloys and complex polymers, compliant coils of steel, layers of insulation and thick plates of glass. If those methods fail, there’s always a 12-speaker stereo to hide the ferocity of exploding gasses and vaporizing rubber.

Then there is Lotus. “We wanted the car to tell the truth,” explained Nick Adams, leader of the mad dogs and Englishmen who crafted the new Lotus Exige. And the truth, in Lotus speak, means an almost complete disdain for masking the sweet violence created by a high-performance sports car.

Even the name, which is French and means “demanding,” represents an essential truth of the Exige. If you plan on using it for anything other than blasting along favorite winding roads or racing on the weekends, buy something more sensible, like a Carrera GT or McLaren SLR, cream puffs compared to the Exige. If your grocery list is longer than a six-pack and the latest SCI, rent a stretch limo for runs to the store. Far more practical.

Because the Exige is less than four feet tall and has broad side members, just climbing in and out presents challenges to both spine and dignity. It assaults the ears, too, with resounding blats from the mid-mounted 1.8-liter four, which at certain rpm makes your head feel like it’s being used as a motor mount. No matter. Noise-cancelling earphones can be employed for long trips without shame. The inner ear is also captive to the Exige’s insistence on telling it like it is. Even at moderate speeds, the low center of gravity and phenomenal grip amplify the forces of gravity, and the rapidly shifting tides of motion leave the human body’s balancing fluids in a merry fizz.

However, the only truth that really matters, to Lotus and to us, is that the two-seat, rear-drive Exige is one of the most exhilarating cars ever to be unleashed onto public roads and racetracks alike. Not since the Ferrari F40 have I driven a street car that felt so eager to be let loose on a closed circuit and was so comfortable meeting the challenge. Even better, the Exige is available for far less than the cool million the F40 traded hands for back in the day. At just $50,990, the Exige will make many of us reconsider how to spend that second mortgage.

Based on the same 150-pound extruded and bonded aluminum chassis under the wildly successful Lotus Elise, the Exige wears different bodywork for good reasons. Not only does it look like a race car that somehow got a DMV exemption, it boasts greatly increased downforce, which is key to a stable high-speed track car. Just compare the numbers: The Elise creates 8.6 pounds of downforce in front and 4.4 at the rear. The Exige generates 42.3 pounds at the front and 48.2 at the rear.

The additional stability and grip were clearly revealed during a hugely entertaining afternoon of lapping the Exige and Elise at Virginia International Raceway. Back-to-back laps of an Elise, an Elise with the optional Sport Pack gear that comes standard on the Exige and a new Exige with the hardcore Track Pack options transported me from delight to joy to ecstasy as I moved through distinctively better stages of pureblooded sports-car performance.

The new Elise ($42,990) will be detailed another time, but many of the improvements and upgrades made to the ’06 model also have been incorporated into the Exige. These include a pedal cluster revised for easier heel-and-toe shifting and reduced brake effort (by a significant 30 percent), an electronic throttle for better response, rear LED taillights, daytime running lights, an updated instrument panel for better clarity with a tell-tale indicator for the optional traction-control system and redesigned padding and stitching for the sports seats.

The two cars share chassis and powertrain, but outside, only the doors are identical. The Exige is put together on a separate production line and the body panels are hand-laid. Because of the limited numbers—only 300 are coming to the U.S. in this first run—it made better sense to use the human touch. Unique to the Exige are a front splitter, removable hardtop roof (which contributes basically nothing to the car’s structural rigidity), smoothened rear bodywork, a rear wing canted at 11.5 degrees (said by Lotus to provide an ideal balance of downforce and drag), a flat-panel underbody and a rear diffuser. The splitter, wing, diffuser, side scoops, front wheel arch brake vents and wheels all are in black, accentuating the time the Exige’s panels spent being honed in the wind tunnel and providing aesthetic contrast to the choice of 20 exterior colors.

Standard Exige running gear is front 195/50R16s on 6.5 x 16 forged alloys and rear 225/45R17s on 7.5 x 17 forged alloys. The tires are Yokohama Advan A048s, specially developed with Lotus for the car. The suspension calibrations for the Bilstein monotube shocks and Eibach coaxial coil springs are about 10 percent stiffer than in the Elise. Twin oil coolers are also fitted to handle track-day temperatures.

A Touring Package ($1,350) adds black leather seats and door panels, full carpeting, additional sound insulation and an upgraded stereo. The Track Pack ($2,495) offers 3-way adjustable Bilstein shocks with threaded spring perches, an adjustable front anti-roll bar and a rear track link. For hardcore autocrossers, there’s an optional limited-slip differential; traction control, which limits wheelspin over 5 mph by cutting out individual cylinders to reduce power, is also available (combined, the LSD and traction control cost $1,790). To add lightness, the air-conditioning can be deleted; it costs $250 but saves 22 pounds.

The driver’s view back through the inside mirror is spectacular, the mesh engine covers and wing gorgeous reminders of the car’s high-tech bloodlines. Even with all that architecture in view, the rear sight lines are fairly good if the side mirrors are constantly consulted. In fact, for such a small thing, the Exige’s ergonomics are quite good, and the seating, shift lever, steering wheel and pedals fit around most drivers like a bespoke suit. Because it’s meant to be used on the track, there’s plenty of room for a helmeted noggin; only the very tall might find the cockpit too low for comfort. My six-foot frame certainly had no problem feeling entirely at home as I lurched the Exige around the track.

VIR is a beautiful complex of racing facilities just across the Virginia line from North Carolina, and it includes the longest road course in North America (4.2 miles) among four possible configurations. Lotus had reserved the 2.25-mile North Course—a frolic of 17 turns and lots of elevation change—for a session of unlimited lapping that ranks as one of the most enjoyable experiences of my driving life.

The Exige outfitted with the Track Pack took to the winding road course like a terrier on a rat, grabbing hold and letting go only when commanded to do so. Because the Exige weighs just 2,015 pounds, its Toyota-sourced, Lotus-modified 190-horsepower engine felt entirely up to the task. Lotus says it’s able to generate a 0-60 mph time of 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 147 mph; no argument there, but it felt much stronger than its 138 lb-ft of torque would indicate. Max torque doesn’t hit until 6,800 rpm and peak horsepower until 7,800, but credit close cooperation between the free-revving engine and close-ratio 6-speed manual gearbox for making the pulling power so accessible. The redline is at 8,000 rpm, and a light flashes on the dash when it has been reached, but short 1.5-second periods at 8,500 are allowed for the overzealous.

Did I want more power? Of course. And the chassis is way understressed, capable of handling a whole bunch more motor. Lotus offers a supercharged Exige for Europe, increasing output to 243 horsepower and torque to 174 lb-ft, thus lowering its 0-60 sprints to under four seconds. Sadly, the chances of it appearing here are nil, at least in this generation of Exige. The aftermarket is ready and willing, though, to fill the gap.

Power figures and test numbers aside, the Exige brews up a heady storm of g forces and sonic resonances that encapsulate the occupants like a form of energy, and the world outside seems to operate in a different time zone. If this prose is slightly purple, it reflects the rosy glow coming from my helmet’s faceplate as I whooped and hollered my way around the track. I was, of course, getting considerably less than the EPA’s 24/29 mpg estimated fuel economy as I worked up to higher speeds.

Not only was driving VIR great fun, but even after several hours of track time, neither the car nor the driver got tired of doing it, over and over again. A good track safety rule is to quit before you’ve had enough, but only darkness made me exit the cockpit of the Exige. Most production cars (and journalists) can tolerate only so much of the torture imposed by a racetrack, but the Exiges on hand, and this writer, never once complained despite the demanding circuit and varied levels of abuse. I only wanted more.

Especially impressive was the braking system. The fronts are vented, cross-drilled 11.5-inch rotors gripped by twin-piston Lotus/AP Racing calipers. The rears are Brembo single-piston sliding calipers (to accommodate the emergency brake), with 11.5-inch discs. At the very first part of the session the brakes felt a bit oversensitive, but it didn’t take long before they displayed that “right now!” strength needed on the track. Not once did I feel them fade, and brakes are generally the first component of a street car to fall victim to the higher forces generated on the track. They are power-assisted and aided by ABS, but both have been calibrated to performance standards and are non-intrusive components of the Exige’s fun quotient.

The same can be said of the steering. Its lack of assist is evident only at a slow pace through the tightest of turns, and at high speeds it requires only the lightest of inputs to redirect the nose—or the tail, if that’s how you want to steer. The quick-ratio rack (2.8 turns, lock to lock) is a joy to twist, but my laps behind the wheel were tame excursions through the park compared to rides with Lotus chief development driver and speed maniac Matt Becker. He treated VIR more like a giant skidpad, visiting opposite lock more often than any other steering angle, drifting through the corners with abandoned glee. His skills are particularly astonishing, because Becker has never competed in a race car (he gets his thrills off hours on water skis), though he has had the advantage of logging thousands of hours on numerous racetracks trying to get the Exige just right.

Which I think it is. Lotus has pulled off the perfect blend of race-level technology and street-car comfort. I checked out a standard Exige on the narrow public roads that undulate through the hills of southern Virginia. The street suspension was surprisingly supple over the well-used tarmac, and I could almost see driving it back to California. Almost. The tiny luggage space or eardrum-beating levels of ambient noise wouldn’t be the biggest problem. More troublesome would be the legions of motorists who would get in my way.

Just as a greyhound is unsuited for apartment living, the Exige is a waste of speed and athleticism unless it’s used as Adams and Becker and the rest of the performance-besotted crew of designers and engineers at Lotus intended: at the limit, rubber squealing, steering going from lock to lock, rev needle tickling the redline.

In the Land of the Lotus-Watertown
By: John Torsiello
09/22/2005

What a kick! Bill Reudgen, Lotus brand specialist for Valenti Motors, Inc. of Watertown, and I took a new Exige out for a spin on a nearby highway. Mr. Reudgen smiled and put his foot on the accelerator as we headed up the entrance ramp. Our bodies moved back ever so slightly as the car slid upwards to a speed in the neighborhood of the posted limit of 65 miles an hour.

“Feel that,” Mr. Reudgen said as the full force of the engine kicked in. I sure did. The Lotus moved smoothly into and by the highway traffic, turning heads in the process with its stylish lines and a body that oozes sex appeal. After we exited the highway, I got behind the wheel and we turned onto a winding side road, which the Exige handled flawlessly, attacking each bend with nary a lean.
But what else would one expect from one of the classic cars of automobile history.
Almost from the very day founder Colin Campbell introduced his first design, Lotus has excelled on the track, both in the builder and driver categories. The company, which manufactures its vehicles at a plant in Hethel, Norfolk, England, brought its car to the streets in 1957, with many of its customers building a Lotus from a kit.
Lotuses began showing up on U.S streets in earnest in the 1970s with the Elite and Espirit lines. But the price tag for the Lotus was thought by many to be prohibitive, and the car was reputed to be a bit finicky from time to time, although no one has ever questioned its magnificent styling and performance.
Lotus reinvented itself somewhat two years ago and launched the Elise model in the U.S., compete with a Toyota engine, along with a supremely lightweight frame (slightly less than 2,000 pounds) that features no welds for a more stable ride. And the price tag is a shock of the inverse variety: this hot car only costs around $50,000.
Introduced to the U.S. market in July 2004, the Elise sold just under 2,400 units during the last sales year, the most cars ever sold in the U.S. in one year, said Colin Price, manager of marketing and communications for Lotus Cars USA.
“We thought there was clearly a market for this car in the U.S.,” Mr. Price said. “The Elise was sort of a back-to-the-roots car that offered tremendous performance from a relatively small (190 horsepower) engine. And it broadened our appeal to include new customers who would like to go out and play with a $50,000 car instead of a $200,000 car.”
The company decided to up the ante a bit this year with the introduction of the Exige, which offers a more “aggressive package for hard core enthusiasts,” said Mr. Price. “Not that the Elise is not a hard-core car. But the Exige is a bit more narrowly focused.”
Among the standard equipment on the Exige that the Elise does not have is forged wheels, stiffer springs and shocks for improved suspension, an aerodynamic bodywork package that generates greater down force and higher cornering speeds, and a hardtop to manage airflow to the rear wing of the car. The bodywork on the car is hand-laid, and the rest of the car hand-assembled.
The Toyota supplied, four-cylinder, 1,792 cubic meter engine on both the Elise and Exige models produces 190-horsepower with a red line of 7,800 r.p.m. The cars can bolt from a standing position to 60 miles an hour in an astounding 4.9 seconds, and can reach a top speed of around 150 miles an hour.
The standard Exige also features high performance Yokohama tires and twin oil coolers from the Elise Sport. Sport seats are standard and 20 exterior colors are available. Black is the only interior color for both the standard cloth and “Touring Pack” leather seats.
Among the options on the Exige is a limited skip differential with Lotus traction control. This allows the distribution of power evenly between the rear tires to allow more aggressive acceleration out of low speed corners.
Fuel consumption is good considering the power of the car. The Exige and Elise get around 30 miles a gallon on the highway and around 20 on city roads.
Make no mistake about it, the Lotus is a visceral experience. It lacks the plush comforts of today’s popular SUVs and luxury cars, but that’s part of the charm. When you pour yourself into the driver’s seat, you get the feeling of being strapped into a true racing car, one that begs to be pushed to its limits.
But the Exige and Elise do have their share of creature comforts, such as a leather-trimmed steering wheel, radio and CD player with a four-speaker sound system, and cloth with leather trim seats, as well as airbags on both the driver’s and passenger side for added safety.
Part of the allure of the Lotus is its mystique, enhanced by its serving as the ride for the main characters in the James Bond flicks and the movie “Pretty Woman,” where Richard Gere can’t handle an Espirit, but Julia Roberts does just fine with all that power. The car’s exterior design is stunning and resembles a big cat preparing to pounce upon unwary prey. In short, the Lotus has the appearance of a fun loving, sleek muscle car without the steroids and with more elegance.
“It’s a car that you don’t see every day, and that’s part of the appeal,” said Mr. Price. “It’s been rated the most fun car in the world to drive.”
Valenti is one of only two dealers in Connecticut, and one of only 45 in the U.S., to carry the Lotus. Some 2,400 Elises and only 300 to 350 Exiges will be sold in the country this year.
“We’re thrilled to have these cars,” said Mr. Reudgen. “We are one of the oldest Lotus dealers in the country, and we’ve been selling them since 1988.”
“I think they really hit it on the head with the Elise and now the Exige,” he added. “Bringing Toyota in has really improved the reliability and performance of the car and it is more stable and consistent now. The public is responding. They are also shocked when they find out the car sells for $50,000 and not $100,000.”
Numbers show the Lotus is clearly a man’s car. Men buy about 95 percent of the cars sold, and 75 percent of those buyers are professionals, such as doctors and lawyers. In keeping with its lineage, around 35 percent of those who buy a Lotus take the car onto the track.
“There is clearly an element of being part of a unique club when you buy a Lotus,” said Mr. Reudgen.
Added Mr. Price, “A fair amount of Lotus owners will do track days on a regular basis. There are groups who rent a track for a number of hours or days to enjoy racing the cars.”
“I don’t think you will ever see a day when Lotus wants to sell 25,000 cars a year in the U.S. like Porsche does,” he said. “We are happy where we are at and don’t anticipate substantial growth. Certainly in the long term we would like to broaden our portfolio a bit more. But we will never be a mass market car company.”

The results from this intake are amazing. Power gains are questionable, it’s tough to really tell. What really gets you is the noise. The car has a beautiful growl up until 6k rpms, sounds very very nice. At 6k, when the cams changeover, the sound quickly gets even louder, and takes on a different tone. It really is like a whole different engine at that point. Quite addictive, very nice! I highly recommend this mod to all Elise owners. There aren’t many such systems on the market; ForcedFed makes one, another is available over at Sector111.