What's the news?
Barely a year after the Sport 350 broke cover, Lotus has once again usurped itself with the announcement of an even lighter and sharper version of its famed Exige. The bare figures make for some reading: 380hp, 1,066kg and 286km/h. In an Exige! There's a major emphasis on sharpness and driver involvement, and the car is one of the most focused machines ever to appear from the Norfolk manufacturer.
Exterior
Function dictates form here, with aerodynamic trickery giving a not-insignificant 140kg of downforce at top speed. This is achieved by widespread revisions over the Exige Sport 350 including a big wing, a front splitter, a rear diffuser and even barge boards, all wearing the delicious weave of carbon fibre. Most of these also contribute to the crash diet that the Hethel designers put the car on, and there's a polycarbonate rear window instead of the usual glass item. In a display bordering on the fanatic, even the revised rear lights have lost a few hundred grams.
Interior
Carbon fibre seats trimmed in Alcantara, leather or tartan save six kilos, but the main feature is still that beautiful naked gearbox linkage which takes centre stage on the transmission tunnel. There's numerous personalisation options available, and you can even specify an infotainment system. Colin Chapman would turn in his grave at the mere mention of that...
Mechanicals
This is where the meat of the changes really occur. As hinted by the name, the 3.5-litre supercharged V6 now produces 380hp with a smidge of extra torque, achieved by higher boost pressure, revised mapping and a 9.2kg-lighter titanium exhaust. Feeding the engine is an uprated fuel pump and a larger 48-litre fuel tank, and a race-spec lithium-ion battery shaves yet more mass. Super-lightweight forged rims save ten kilos of all-important unsprung weight, wrapped in wider track-focused Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and shrouding big AP Racing discs and calipers.
The optional Track Pack brings adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars to help shave those extra fractions from lap times. All in all the car is 25kg lighter than the Exige Sport 350, and 0-100km/h can be achieved in a touch over 3.5 seconds which puts the lithe Exige on a par with the usual supercar suspects.
Anything else?
The car is bound to be pretty stunning to drive, and has been honed both on Lotus' own test track and the roads surrounding its Hethel facility. The roadster body is standard with a coupe shell as an option, along with the choice of an automatic gearbox instead of the six-speed manual. CEO Jean-Marc Gales is understandably excited about the new machine, commenting: "We've saved something special for our last new car of 2016. We have built upon the foundations of the excellent Exige Sport 350 and developed a perfectly proportioned, intuitive and attainable supercar for real roads. The cut in weight is nothing short of drastic and, combined with the hike in power and its enhanced agility, we've created something exceptional - far greater than the sum of its parts. The Exige Sport 380 is so good, that it is no longer the best in class, it's now in a class of its own".