Lotus addresses the Exige's biggest flaw by adding a supercharger. Its organic responses were already among the best, so how sweet is it now?
BY DAVE VANDERWERP
The Exige is a very strange car. Almost no other four-wheeled anything produces such polar-opposite responses from our staff as does the Exige, which is essentially a more-track-ready version of the already extreme Elise that Lotus brought to market last year. An announcement of an Exige purchase could be met with anything from a jealous congratulation to a sour, scrunched-up face that could be confused with the reaction given a Buick Lucerne.
For eight grand more than an Elise, the 2006 Exige added stiffer suspension settings, and hand-laid bodywork and a rear wing to increase downforce. But it offered no additional horsepower. For $57,915 (an increase of $6055) the new-for-2007 supercharged Exige S addresses that horsepower problem and replaces the Exige. It’s available in the 50 Lotus dealerships nationwide as of November 2006. The special bodywork limits production to about 300 to 400 cars per year in the U.S.
Since when did a supercharger only add 30 hp?
To the Toyota-sourced 1.8-liter four-cylinder that powers Lotus’ entire lineup, the company has added a Roots-type supercharger making 7 psi of boost and an air-to-air intercooler fed by the roof-mounted air scoop. Horsepower is up 30 to 220 at 7800 rpm and torque swells from 133 pound-feet to 165 at 5600 rpm. That’s not a huge gain, but Lotus doesn’t want to overstress the engine internals that are identical to the naturally aspirated version. That, and Lotus wouldn’t want to out-do the non-street-legal, limited-edition, 243-hp, $78,990 Lotus Sport Exige Cup that has essentially the same supercharged powertrain. The Toyota six-speed manual in the Elise and Exige is carried over.
While the power gain is just 16 percent, on the street, the Exige S feels at least 50-percent stronger, especially in the mid-rpm range. That’s because at 2500 rpm the new engine makes as much torque as the old engine’s peak. The previously feeble mid-range in naturally aspirated form was (and still is for the unchanged Elise) the worst part of the car and a fault of the peaky Toyota engine that doesn’t wake up until the 6200-rpm switchover point for the variable cam timing. The Exige S still uses the same two-position cam, but with the added torque, the switchover point is no longer perceptible. To the soundtrack, a dose of supercharger whine has been overlaid on the already fervent shriek of the high-revving four, and the redline remains at 8500 rpm despite the boost. Good luck keeping a light foot on the throttle to achieve fuel economy near the EPA 23/29 city/highway ratings.
Lotus predicts the 2100-pound Exige S (a claimed 62-pound gain) will hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, an improvement of 1.1 over the last Exige we’ve tested, and expect the quarter-mile to be similarly improved at about 13 seconds flat. Even better, there’s no more 8000-rpm clutch drop to get a quick launch. Somewhere around five grand should now do the trick. Around Lotus’ 2.5-mile road course at its U.K. headquarters, the Exige S is about 1.5-seconds quicker than the Exige according to Principal Vehicle Dynamics Engineer Matt Becker. And he would know.
Details, details.
To pick out an Exige S from last year’s Exige will take a sharp eye as there are no styling changes. The only differences are that the front splitter, side scoops, and rear wing are now body color instead of black. A single, oval exhaust tip replaces the two smaller round pipes, and there are a couple Exige S labels. That’s about it.
Everything else remains, including unequal-length control arms at all four corners, black forged-alloy wheels, and extra-sticky Yokohama A048 tires (195/50-16 in front, 225/45-17 in back).
Optional equipment is also carried over, including the $1350 Touring Pack, which adds leather to the seats, power windows, and an Alpine CD player, $495 engine-only traction control, a $1790 limited-slip differential (includes traction control), and the $2495 Track Pack, which adds 10-way adjustable Bilstein shocks (softest setting is more relaxed than a stock Exige S, stiffest is far more aggressive), five-way adjustable front anti-roll bar, and a racing-harness mounting bar behind the seats.
Same flaws, and the same fabulous driving experience.
Getting in and out is a contortionist act: Climb up and over the wide doorsill to the extremely low resting place. How low? Your left armrest is that same door sill you just climbed over. Out front is a spectacular view over the Exige’s shapely front end, where the pavement whizzes by at what appears to be about 12 inches in front of your toes. However, what’s happening out back will remain a mystery as the new intake plumbing and intercooler block the view entirely.
Trunk space? If we said it didn’t have one, you’d be pleasantly surprised at the four cubic feet available. That said, visually it appears more spacious—and certainly more useful—than the paragon of trunk inefficiency, the Pontiac Solstice, and its five cubic feet.
However, any reservations about any of the above or the minimalist interior, the thinly padded seats that only adjust fore and aft, or somewhat narrow footwell fades away as soon as you experience the first corner. The Exige’s non-power-assisted steering is among the world’s best in terms of feel, and feeds back nuances in the road you never knew existed. The brakes—11.5-inch, vented, cross-drilled discs front and rear—offer extremely linear feel and are predictable all the way to the ABS-intervention threshold even if they don’t have quite as much initial bite as we might like. And while the transmission is decent, it’s not the most precise six-speed.
Track day, anyone?
We mercilessly flogged Exige Ss for a full day at the 1.5-mile, 10-turn South Road Course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and perhaps the most impressive thing is how well the cars held up to that abuse, not to mention Becker’s frequent drifting demonstrations. The tires didn’t even need replacing. Few, if any, other street cars would fare so well. The only perceptible degradation during lapping was that the brake pedal went a touch soft, but that was after 15 or so hard laps.
Of course, also impressive is how quickly the Exige S turns, stops, and, even more so now, goes.
And it’s always happy to bring the rear end around with a little trail braking. No other street car is this connected to the driver, Ferrari F430 and Porsche 911 GT3 included.
And that’s the point, as this is exactly what it was made for. If you’re not interested in track time, the Exige S is all wrong for you. Maybe you should try a 911. Or a Lucerne.
