The Lotus Exige S V6 with the 3.5 litre Supercharged engine from the Evora S has started rolling off the production line at Hethel.
The Lotus Exige S V6, with the supercharged 3.5 litre engine we first saw in the Evora S, has started to roll off the production line (actually, ‘production line’ me be a bit of an exaggeration) and is heading off to its new owner.
That new owner will get an Exige that’s a long way from the light and chuckable 1.8 litre Exige we’re used to, but in its place looks to be a proper pocket-sized supercar.
With a 0-62mph of 4.0 seconds dead, 345bhp and a top speed of 170mph, the Eixige S is up there with the Porsche Cayman R, yet offers a more chuckable car you’ll doubtless feel a part of in a way you never would with a Porsche.
The price of the Exige S is high at £53,850 – pretty much the same price as the Porsche Cayman R – but you will do without a lot of the creature comforts you’ll get in the Porsche. But the Exige is almost a second quicker to 62mph, and as long as you’ve been doing your Pilates to make sure you can clamber in, the Lotus looks to be the choice.
And the Exige S should, if DRB-HiCom are serious about turning Lotus round, be exactly the direction Hethel should be heading.
markpowell says
At last there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, I always felt for the employees at hethel as their future looked bleak, but DRB- HICOM are sticking with the team for the long haul.A new engine for the Exige which will put the performance comparible with the porsche cayman which is great news. Lotus needs to do more and they must never rest on their lourels, and i know you need to crawl before you can walk after the financial mess bahar left lotus, but the the technology in the car world seems to move incredibly fast these days even though were in the middle of a world financial crisis. The only industry that looks very healthy these days is the automotive industry, engineering is picking up thank god so maybe we are ever so slowly easing out of the mire. Lotus was a success story when colin chapman held the company ownership, it can be a success story again without the chapman heritage and build their own heritage to the brand for the 21st century and be the best sports car brand in the world, it can be done hethel have the means to do it in their workforce, their hungry and to return from the brink they have the resilliance to do it, they have the brain power and the knowhow……need i say more…I am not a lotus employee only a bystander and a fan of lotus cars and this is my personal interpitation of how things seem….