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Lotus unveils new Exige 'S'
Lotus has managed to give the bantamweight Exige more power without increasing weight, and as you might expect the result is even more fun from the British giant-killer.
Sparked by its entry into the FIA's new GT3 sportscar championship, which equalizes competition by balancing the power-to-weight ratio of different cars, Lotus revamped Toyota's 1.8-liter VVTL-i engine with an upgrade to the supercharger/intercooler package from the Exige 240R, resulting in 218 hp at 7800 rpm and 159 lb-ft of torque at 5500 rpm. (The same engine in the base Exige is rated at 189 hp.) Redlined at 8500 rpm, the new engine package makes the Exige S the quickest-ever Lotus production car, with a 0-60 mph time of only 4.1 seconds, and 100 mph reached in less than 10 seconds. The Exige S will be the base production car for the full-race Lotus Sport Exige GT3.
Clive Dopson, Managing Director of Lotus Cars says, "The Exige S represents the ultimate 'extreme' production Lotus, with performance that trumps other supercars costing twice or even three times as much."
Unfortunately, all this fun won't be exported to North America, but our readers in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region can enjoy this lightweight flyer for about $53,000, starting in late spring 2006.
[Source: Group Lotus]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe 4:08PM (2/10/2006)
Is the Blower the same unit that TRD sells for the Celica? Then the NA owners can waltz over and make their own at a dealership...
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robotrock 4:12PM (2/10/2006)
Or they could have used a K-series and had 230+ naturally aspirated horsepower.
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Takeo 4:31PM (2/10/2006)
How many people would like to see the S2000's F20C (2.0 Liters, 240+ HP) in this thing?
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Chunks 4:37PM (2/10/2006)
that is so hot...
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TennisD 4:49PM (2/10/2006)
"Or they could have used a K-series and had 230+ naturally aspirated horsepower."
The Rover K-Series? You mean the engine that's not only now dead but also no longer meets emissions standards? Yeah, using that would have been a swell idea...
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David 5:00PM (2/10/2006)
#2/robotrock, the K-series won't pass U.S. Emissions.
Too bad we aren't getting it, but on another note I was not aware that the new GT3 category used power/weight ratio to equalize many different cars. I've always thought this was a great idea, and I'm glad to see someone doing it.
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Nick Haug 5:12PM (2/10/2006)
This looks alot nicer than the Exige Cup.
http://performancegt.com/blog/_archives/2006/2/2/1739639.html But the Cup has 243hp.
Lotus are really pushing the tape.
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el-indiano 5:29PM (2/10/2006)
ANSWER THIS:
i spoke with a guy in the lotus booth about the exige and he said that it shares no body panels with its little brother the elise. although they look identical except for the boot.
is this true or was the guy and an idiot?
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John 5:29PM (2/10/2006)
The S2000 engine swap has been done.
This car would be so much better if Lotus had a deal with Honda instead of Toyota. The forced induction route is too easy and lacks technical savvy.
Toyota engines are great but I believe that the S2000's engine would be right at home in the Exige/Elise chassis.
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Andy Keck 5:49PM (2/10/2006)
>is this true or was the guy and an idiot?
It's true. The panels are of different construction as well. The Exige has hand-laid GRP panels while the Elise panels are high-pressure molded GRP.
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Andy Keck 6:08PM (2/10/2006)
>The S2000 engine swap has been done.
Nope. You're thinking of the K series or the B series motors. The F20C is longitudinally mounted with separate tranmission and differential components. The Elise requires a transversely mounted engine/transaxle combo from a front wheel drive car.
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John 7:11PM (2/10/2006)
Thanks for the correction Andy...it was a Honda B18 engine. With 195 Hp. It was in Sport Compact Car Mag. a couple of years back.
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Gary 7:36PM (2/10/2006)
Typical U.S. Government knuckleheads. It does not have an airbag or safety bumpers. And we all know we need them because Daddy Government is there to protect us because we can not take care of ourselves....
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naugahyde 11:23PM (2/10/2006)
What? I can't get it with Nav, leather, 22" chrome rims and LCD monitors in the sun visors?
I'm not buying it then...
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grajeda 12:11AM (2/11/2006)
With every new lotus Exige or Elise we are sure that we dont need thousands of dollars for a supercar...
With few Hps but great dynamism and fun... it is all we need...
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Rene Curry 12:30AM (2/11/2006)
Such a great car and yet sooo ugly. It looks like a bad kit car.
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Braden 3:01AM (2/11/2006)
The blower on here is NOT the TRD unit. TRD's blower is spec'ed only for the 1ZZ-FE engine, which is NOT found in any (unmodded) Elise/Exige. The 2ZZ-GE (Celica GT-S, Matrix XRS, Corolla XRS) is what you get in the USDM Lotuses (Lotii?)
That said, there IS a production toyota using the 2ZZ-GE and equipped with a factory blower - it's the Corolla Compressor, and it's over in Europe. They push around 6-7 lbs on the low cam, and drop it to 2 or 3lbs of boost when it hits the hot cam (above 6200-ish). Toyota Europe won't even give us a part number to order the thing, nor will TRD USA make a kit. Drives the aftermarket people with 2ZZ's crazy -- the 11.5:1 compression ratio makes it a scary engine to run FI, so we all would prefer a solution from a known entity, in case their stuff destroys the engine...
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Adam 1:06AM (2/27/2006)
The supercharger used by the Exige 240R is apparently an Eaton M62 unit. I'm be interested to find out if the Exige S just uses a detuned version of the same setup.
Here's a picture of the 240R engine:
http://www.mr2board.com/canadam/exige240r05_engine.jpg
The Corolla Compressor doesn't have such an obvious intercooler setup, and I can't find literature stating whether or not the car runs an intercooler in its setup.
I'll report back with my findings. This engine belongs in a 3rd generation MR2!
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