Lotus Exige Cup 430 arrives – and it costs £100k

The latest ‘new’ Lotus to arrive is the Exige Cup 430, which gets the 430bhp Toyota V6 from the Evora to deliver the most hardcore Exige yet. And it costs £100k.

Lotus is on a roll with new models, milking every last ounce of profit they can out of their range of cars, by adding more power and upping the price. The latest is this, the new Lotus Exige Cup 430.

The Exige Cup 430 is the maddest Exige yet to come from Hethel, and it takes the 430bhp 3.5 litre supercharged V6 from the Evora GT430 Sport and moves the Exige on from last year’s Exige Cup 380.

Weight has dropped a bit in the 430 – to 1056kg – and its 0-62mph is cut to just 3.3 seconds, assuming you can get traction from the back wheels and shift the manual gearbox just right, with an extra 20kg of downforce in the mix too.

That’s down to the aerodynamic tweaks on the 430,m including new carbon fibre ducts, new front splitter, air curtain and new lightweight clamshell.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the 430 is aimed at owners who want to blat round a track, so it gets almost shiny Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and a close-ratio ‘box too, and it all adds up to what Lotus say is now the quickest car they make round the track at Hethel.

At just a shade under £E100k (£99,800) the Exige Cup 430 is almost £17k more than the Exige Cup 380 was when it arrived last year.