Anyone with half a heart will admit there have been tough times at Lotus just recently. First was the public meltdown of ex-CEO, Dany Bahar, and then came the ousting of Lotus from parent company DRB-Hicom and the cessation of all new projects under development. And this being Lotus; the cottage-industry sports car maker extraordinaire; there were a lot of dreamy projects to pull the plug on.
This leaves us asking the question: where to now for Lotus? A question quickly answered by this latest video showcasing the newest model on offer out of Norfolk. It is known as the Exige S Roadster. The Lotus Exige S Roadster was first previewed over a year ago at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
At the nub of this car is a Harrop supercharged, Toyota-derived, V6 engine, punching out 257 kW and 400 Nm of torque, which when combined with the typically light, bonded aluminium chassis, creates an intense power-to-weight ratio. 0 – 100 km/h in this mid-engined machine is dusted in 3.7-seconds and onto a top speed of 233 km/h. Gearbox choices include a 6-speed manual and an optional Serial Precision Shift (SPS) and fuel consumption should come in around the 10 L/100 km mark for both transmissions.
Lotus claim that unlike most roadsters, it’ll actually weigh less than the hardtop (10 kg less to be precise), on account of the material lost in the roof structure. So that would seem to suggest that no extra stiffening has been done to the overall chassis. It’s us just being pedantic, we know, but we have one other nagging issue with the Exige S Roadster. Lotus made the Elise, and then they made a hardtop version called the Exige, so isn’t the Exige Roadster simply a step backwards to the original Elise?
