Test drives are a terrible thing. One day in April I took a run up to see a Lotus Exige V6S. And since then the man maths calculator was on overdrive.
I loved the Evora too. It meant a lot since I had met it brand new. It broke necks rather than turning heads, it was refined, easy to fuel and a lot of fun on a B-road or on track. No logical reason to change then.
Logic was not involved. In comparison, the Exige is cramped, with a much noisier cabin with its roots in the Elise complete with Vauxhall switchgear. But it's lighter, significantly more potent (345bhp vs 280bhp, and 1125kg vs 1350kg), and any possible other comparisons I could draw after my first few minutes of driving it melted away. It is absolutely ballistic. The Evora was ECOTY in 2009, as was this in 2012... makes sense doesn't it...
So the Evora went up for sale, and when I thought it was going to be a slow sell, someone in the owners club snapped it up. Small wonder, it was a great example even if I do say so myself. It felt very strange letting it go, but even more awesome to get it's replacement.
So here she is. A Mk3 Lotus Exige, which unlike the previous generation cars is based on the Evora chassis with a significantly wider track, hence as you see above the width of the clam being stretched significantly. Being only 2 years old it's the newest car I've ever owned! A baby!
This makes it look particularly attractive. The Mk3 comes as standard with the same Toyota 3.5L V6 as found in the Evora, with a Harrop supercharger bolted atop, providing stacks of torque across the rev range.
It's blue, the fastest colour. Essex blue in fact, a special order motorsport order colour (#beard) that was first used by Lotus to celebrate the launch of the Esprit Turbo back in the early 80s.
Its a coupé rather than the roadster - so hard top, full aero (ie spoiler, front splitter), but can be quickly converted to roadster which I hope to do down the line for taps aff.
Lots of options have been ticked for this car. Most notably it has the Lotus/Bosch developed DPM - a 4 stage traction control system. Race mode will be the most interesting to deploy - it learns the grip levels of the road and gives max power for the traction in cornering. Hard to describe... in fact, I will let Chris Harris describe it better...
There is also apparently launch control. Fun times ahead!
She also has the 'Premium Pack' which of course adds a modicum of weight, but makes the car slightly more bearable to live with on long journeys. Full carpets, leather trim throughout, full leather chairs in optional venom red. I must admit in the photos it looks slightly garish but IRL its actually nice.
The large sill takes a bit of monkey-work to get over but once you are in it's a perfectly pleasant place to be even if you are slightly past the 6ft mark like myself.
It has a fairly pathetic Alpine single din head unit I plan to change out, but does have 12v and USB outlets so it's not totally archaic. It has cruise control and parking sensors- both factory options, which help with its livability although it really is a weekend and special occasion car. Special and occasion are most apt.
Driving the thing is sublime. Addictive power and sense of occasion, and I found myself driving about over the weekend with the window down. Valved exhaust from standard along with the 'charger means this is a lot louder out of the box than the Evora and it roars on full chat.
I can't wait to put a few more miles on it and then finally get it on track. There's of course plenty of tweaks and mods I'd like to do but driving it is foremost on my mind!
I loved the Evora too. It meant a lot since I had met it brand new. It broke necks rather than turning heads, it was refined, easy to fuel and a lot of fun on a B-road or on track. No logical reason to change then.
Logic was not involved. In comparison, the Exige is cramped, with a much noisier cabin with its roots in the Elise complete with Vauxhall switchgear. But it's lighter, significantly more potent (345bhp vs 280bhp, and 1125kg vs 1350kg), and any possible other comparisons I could draw after my first few minutes of driving it melted away. It is absolutely ballistic. The Evora was ECOTY in 2009, as was this in 2012... makes sense doesn't it...
So the Evora went up for sale, and when I thought it was going to be a slow sell, someone in the owners club snapped it up. Small wonder, it was a great example even if I do say so myself. It felt very strange letting it go, but even more awesome to get it's replacement.
So here she is. A Mk3 Lotus Exige, which unlike the previous generation cars is based on the Evora chassis with a significantly wider track, hence as you see above the width of the clam being stretched significantly. Being only 2 years old it's the newest car I've ever owned! A baby!
This makes it look particularly attractive. The Mk3 comes as standard with the same Toyota 3.5L V6 as found in the Evora, with a Harrop supercharger bolted atop, providing stacks of torque across the rev range.
It's blue, the fastest colour. Essex blue in fact, a special order motorsport order colour (#beard) that was first used by Lotus to celebrate the launch of the Esprit Turbo back in the early 80s.
Its a coupé rather than the roadster - so hard top, full aero (ie spoiler, front splitter), but can be quickly converted to roadster which I hope to do down the line for taps aff.
Lots of options have been ticked for this car. Most notably it has the Lotus/Bosch developed DPM - a 4 stage traction control system. Race mode will be the most interesting to deploy - it learns the grip levels of the road and gives max power for the traction in cornering. Hard to describe... in fact, I will let Chris Harris describe it better...
There is also apparently launch control. Fun times ahead!
She also has the 'Premium Pack' which of course adds a modicum of weight, but makes the car slightly more bearable to live with on long journeys. Full carpets, leather trim throughout, full leather chairs in optional venom red. I must admit in the photos it looks slightly garish but IRL its actually nice.
The large sill takes a bit of monkey-work to get over but once you are in it's a perfectly pleasant place to be even if you are slightly past the 6ft mark like myself.
It has a fairly pathetic Alpine single din head unit I plan to change out, but does have 12v and USB outlets so it's not totally archaic. It has cruise control and parking sensors- both factory options, which help with its livability although it really is a weekend and special occasion car. Special and occasion are most apt.
Driving the thing is sublime. Addictive power and sense of occasion, and I found myself driving about over the weekend with the window down. Valved exhaust from standard along with the 'charger means this is a lot louder out of the box than the Evora and it roars on full chat.
I can't wait to put a few more miles on it and then finally get it on track. There's of course plenty of tweaks and mods I'd like to do but driving it is foremost on my mind!