Car of the Day: Lotus Exige S

Submitted by Kirk Pedersen on Thu, 2009-10-22 07:56

 

It's an exciting day for me today, as I get to write about my favorite car company and one of my favorite cars: the Lotus Exige S.

 

While they appear similar, the major difference between the Exige S and its brother, the Elise 111-R is the Exige’s supercharged 4-cylinder pumps out about 30 more ponies, and is a demon on the track with 218 horses pulling its 2,000 pound frame.

 

The Exige is, in layman’s terms, a coupe version of the Elise and uses a similar 6-speed manual transmission mated to its Toyota engine. The Exige S runs 0-60 in a flash, at 4.7 seconds and hugs corners better than far more expensive coupes.

 

Lotus says the Exige S is the fastest car they’ve ever produced but when you drive one in SHIFT, the interior may look like you’ve gone back in time. Manual-crank windows, optional air conditioning – to cut down on weight – and plain-looking controls make the Exige a true drivers’ car, but devoid of the creature comforts one would expect in an expensive vehicle.
 

 

 


Kirk Pedersen

It's accurate when you look at how spartan the dash is in the road version of the Exige S. Most of the engineering time was spent under the hood.


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I think the outside view is beautiful, but the bottom of the dashboard and the gearshift on this one looks like someone forgot to put a texture on it.