2008 Lotus Exige S 240
PAHRUMP, Nev.–Lotus is surely the carmaker that has stayed most true to its original brand values.
From Day 1, its founder, Colin Chapman, preached the mantra of "adding lightness."
Weight hurts everything. In Chapman's day, it was mainly performance, handling and braking. But weight also hurts such environmentally critical issues as fuel consumption and emissions.
(Chapman died in 1982 at 54 of a heart attack.)
While Lotus recognizes that to sell cars it has to include such heavy items as air conditioning and quality sound systems, its engineers still search and destroy every excess gram they can.
So there will never be a three-tonne SUV with a Lotus badge on it.
Yes, the new Exige S 240 has a cupholder, but it is aluminum, with a single leather strap. Effective, and it weighs practically nothing.
The Exige is in effect the coupe version of the Elise roadster. It will be sold in Canada for the first time early in the new year. The Canadian price has not been announced, but the U.S. sticker is $64,890, plus a $925 destination charge.
The S 240 gets its name from the horsepower output of the supercharged Toyota 1.8 L four-cylinder that sits sideways behind the seats.
It has been uprated from the 220-horse Exige S with higher-flow injectors, a new Lotus-developed engine management system and a revised air scoop in the roof of the car that shoves more air into the engine.
The clutch and brakes have also been uprated to handle the extra urgency, notes Nick Adams, program manager for Lotus Sport.
Stir the six transmission ratios correctly – and perhaps take advantage of Lotus's new launch control system – and you'll see 100 km/h from rest in a shade over four seconds.
This is one quick car, my friends, yet it delivers fuel economy of around 10 L/100 km.
The secret, of course, is modest weight: a mere 942 kg – more than 100 kg less than a Chevy Aveo.
As fast as the rear-drive coupe is, it isn't really about acceleration. It's about handling, a oneness with the road or track.
All current Lotus models are based on the Elise's epoxy-bonded extruded aluminum chassis, with composite bodywork. I say "current" because an all-new, more powerful and more upscale Lotus is just around the corner.
The Exige gets a fixed roof in place of the Elise's canvas unit. With a height of just 116 cm, this makes Exige just about the most difficult production car in the world to get in and out of.
Once inside, you'll find the cabin simple, plain, almost stark. A new soft-touch dash material and a new instrument cluster add a touch of class and more high-techery to all Elise and Exige models for 2008.
The IP includes a progressive shift indicator, flashing one, two, then three LEDs to let you know the 8000 r.p.m. redline is approaching. But in bright sunlight, especially when thrashing around a tight racetrack like the South Mountain circuit about 45 minutes west of Las Vegas, you're too busy to notice.
The seats are minimally adjustable, although you can order different thicknesses of seat padding to suit. If you fit, you'll be decently comfortable, although stray elbows and knees may contact various bits of the interior during some manoeuvres.
The rear hatch has a series of slats that let you see the engine under there while standing outside the car.
But forget about seeing anything out the back while driving. Adams says the law requires an inside rear-view mirror if you can see "any daylight'' out the back. A pinpoint or two can be discerned, but that's it. You have to tweak the outside mirrors to compensate.
Luggage space? Er, no.
The coupe is noisy on the road: with the engine about a hand's width from your ears, it could hardly be otherwise. It isn't a particularly pleasant noise, either, and is accompanied by considerable gear whine.
It's that weight thing again. To approach silence would require loads of heavy sound deadening. You want to go fast or what?
About that launch control: it's part of the new engine management system, which also includes variable traction control. When you start Exige (from the French exiger, to demand), the traction control is set to allow for zero slip of the rear wheels.
Where's the fun in that? So you can dial up to about 10 per cent slippage before the engine starts cutting fuel to randomly selected cylinders to gradually back off the power.
A limited slip differential is also available, but Adams says Lotus really doesn't believe in them.
"An LSD detracts from steering sensitivity in a straight line,'' he maintains, "and increases understeer in tight corners. We make it available for those who do a lot of autocrossing in their cars.''
The launch control is the ultimate party trick. Switch it to "variable," hold the accelerator down full and twist the adjusting knob to the revs you want – 5500 r.p.m. is suggested.
Select first gear, "sidestep" the clutch pedal – i.e., slide your foot off it to the side – and, as the instructions put it, "hang on.''
Exige is clearly a limited-use vehicle. Another way to put it is "extremely focused.''
Given the objectives Lotus set out to accomplish, the car is near-perfect.
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