Latest Top Gear Exige S
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Blue By You
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TEBOW FOR HE15MAN
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My friend's dad has a Lotus Exige. He let me drive it the other day. It's incredible. Extremely different from any car that I have ever driven. It's in a class of it's own if you ask me.
Rotary only since 1980
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From: Southeast of Seattle
News Flash!!! A $50K sports car beats a $25K muscle car around a sports car track. Film at 11:00. 
Of course, the Top Gear guys are supposed to be entertaining, not fair. Otherwise they would have put the Exige up against the Z06 Corvette, a much more direct competitor price wise.
No doubt that Lotus can build a world class chassis. But a Toyota engine?!? If they wanted a true testament to British engineering, they would have dropped a Cosworth engine in there. But then what at what cost and reliability?
Of course, the Top Gear guys are supposed to be entertaining, not fair. Otherwise they would have put the Exige up against the Z06 Corvette, a much more direct competitor price wise.
No doubt that Lotus can build a world class chassis. But a Toyota engine?!? If they wanted a true testament to British engineering, they would have dropped a Cosworth engine in there. But then what at what cost and reliability?
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Originally Posted by Blue87Sport
News Flash!!! A $50K sports car beats a $25K muscle car around a sports car track. Film at 11:00.
Of course, the Top Gear guys are supposed to be entertaining, not fair. Otherwise they would have put the Exige up against the Z06 Corvette, a much more direct competitor price wise.
No doubt that Lotus can build a world class chassis. But a Toyota engine?!? If they wanted a true testament to British engineering, they would have dropped a Cosworth engine in there. But then what at what cost and reliability?
Of course, the Top Gear guys are supposed to be entertaining, not fair. Otherwise they would have put the Exige up against the Z06 Corvette, a much more direct competitor price wise.
No doubt that Lotus can build a world class chassis. But a Toyota engine?!? If they wanted a true testament to British engineering, they would have dropped a Cosworth engine in there. But then what at what cost and reliability?
Also, they put a stock Elise vs a Viper on a track in one magazine and the Elise won. The Elise and Exige are said to have the best street legal handling in the world by many sources. Also, in the top gear race, the driver of the Mustang was a professional driver, he wasn't. The professional driver did much better than his own time with the Mustang.
Last edited by teen_living_a_dream; May 24, 2006 at 08:02 PM.
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What Lotus needs to do is put a rotary engine in their cars. The Exige goes 0-60 in 4.7 seconds with 190 HP, 0-60 in 4.1 with 218, and 0-60 in 3.9 with 243, imagine one with a rotary engine at same weight of maybe less producing over 300! If an Exige had a 3 rotor engine, I'm sure Lotus could make it go 0-60 in less than 3 seconds.
the giant tastetickles
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Originally Posted by teen_living_a_dream
What Lotus needs to do is put a rotary engine in their cars. The Exige goes 0-60 in 4.7 seconds with 190 HP, 0-60 in 4.1 with 218, and 0-60 in 3.9 with 243, imagine one with a rotary engine at same weight of maybe less producing over 300! If an Exige had a 3 rotor engine, I'm sure Lotus could make it go 0-60 in less than 3 seconds.
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Blue By You
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A 3 rotor rotary is going to have a hell of a time passing emissions standards and it has never been certified in the US to my knowledge (the reason why the dumped the Rover engine). It also has the stigma of rotary reliability, and will be a good bit heavier than the 2ZZ.
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Blue By You
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Originally Posted by teen_living_a_dream
The magazines thatsay it has a "Toyota engine" are sort of wrong. It is a Toyota block, put everything is changed by Lotus. Pistons are upgraded, new fuel injectors, and it is lightened. Magazines just don't know the difference. I blame the US Lotus site for not saying Lotus modified Toyota engine. Magazines also said the rx8 was front engine but the Mazda rx8 booklet in front of me says front-mid engine with a picture of the engine behind the front wheels and fuel tank in front of the rear wheels.
Also, they put a stock Elise vs a Viper on a track in one magazine and the Elise won. The Elise and Exige are said to have the best street legal handling in the world by many sources. Also, in the top gear race, the driver of the Mustang was a professional driver, he wasn't. The professional driver did much better than his own time with the Mustang.
Also, they put a stock Elise vs a Viper on a track in one magazine and the Elise won. The Elise and Exige are said to have the best street legal handling in the world by many sources. Also, in the top gear race, the driver of the Mustang was a professional driver, he wasn't. The professional driver did much better than his own time with the Mustang.
Forbidden Donut
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if I recall correctly, the 2ZZ weighs 280 lbs. The renesis weighs 303 lbs. A 3 rotor weighs ~350 lbs. And a 3-rotor (with all the fixings. 2 turbochargers, manifold, etc) weighs 770 lbs. That would make the exige a little bit porkier than lotus would want it, I reckon.
Originally Posted by teen_living_a_dream
Also, they put a stock Elise vs a Viper on a track in one magazine and the Elise won.
l'pool till i die!
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From: Widnes, UK
Originally Posted by Catspaw
I love the exige and all, but Clarkson is starting get on my nerves. You could slap wheels on a six-pack of Newcastle and he'd call it a marvel of British engineering.
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From: Widnes, UK
Originally Posted by Blue87Sport
No doubt that Lotus can build a world class chassis. But a Toyota engine?!? If they wanted a true testament to British engineering, they would have dropped a Cosworth engine in there. But then what at what cost and reliability?
)
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Blue By You
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From: Milwaukee
Originally Posted by wortho-rx8
not exactly true. you have to remember he hated a lot of rover/mg cars and they were british engineering
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So they optioned the power windows but not the LSD... that would explain the underwhelming time.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
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Blue By You
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Originally Posted by Xantium
So they optioned the power windows but not the LSD... that would explain the underwhelming time.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
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Originally Posted by Xantium
So they optioned the power windows but not the LSD... that would explain the underwhelming time.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
BTW: I cant believe lotus has the ***** to make LSD optional in that car. The Supercharged version of the track version of the trackable daily driver. Smart.
On Limited Slip Differential
The Elise was always designed from the outset to work without an LSD. We have recently started to offer an LSD as an option on the Toyota engined cars, primarily in response to market demand from the Autocross enthusists in the USA, who need one to be competitive when accelerating away at full throttle from very slow, tight corners in first or second gear.
In this type of competition they do not tend to run high speed (100mph +) corners and therefore the increase in understeer on this type of corner which you get with an LSD is of little negative consequence to them and they therefore are better off with an LSD.
In our experience an Elise or Exige equipped with an LSD is at a disadvantage to one without an LSD on a typical European race track. On top of that the LSD bluntens the steering feel and repsonse of the car which we don't like.
If you want an LSD then by all means fit one, but please understand that there are negative as well as positive effects. In the instance you describe, instead of spinning the inside wheel as you accelerate away at full throttle (which can be easily fixed by modulating the throttle! Very Happy ) a car with a 2:1 LSD like the one we supply will provide twice the torque to the outside wheel as it does to the inside one. This will increase the slip angle of the outside wheel and the car will tend to oversteer heavily on corner exit, requiring a reduction in throttle if you are not to spin.... It isn't much quicker, honest.
The optional diff we supply is a Torsen unit, the aftermarket unit supplied by Motorsport is a plate diff, with a similar 2:1 bias and no preload so in terms of action it mimics the Torsen closely."
The Elise was always designed from the outset to work without an LSD. We have recently started to offer an LSD as an option on the Toyota engined cars, primarily in response to market demand from the Autocross enthusists in the USA, who need one to be competitive when accelerating away at full throttle from very slow, tight corners in first or second gear.
In this type of competition they do not tend to run high speed (100mph +) corners and therefore the increase in understeer on this type of corner which you get with an LSD is of little negative consequence to them and they therefore are better off with an LSD.
In our experience an Elise or Exige equipped with an LSD is at a disadvantage to one without an LSD on a typical European race track. On top of that the LSD bluntens the steering feel and repsonse of the car which we don't like.
If you want an LSD then by all means fit one, but please understand that there are negative as well as positive effects. In the instance you describe, instead of spinning the inside wheel as you accelerate away at full throttle (which can be easily fixed by modulating the throttle! Very Happy ) a car with a 2:1 LSD like the one we supply will provide twice the torque to the outside wheel as it does to the inside one. This will increase the slip angle of the outside wheel and the car will tend to oversteer heavily on corner exit, requiring a reduction in throttle if you are not to spin.... It isn't much quicker, honest.
The optional diff we supply is a Torsen unit, the aftermarket unit supplied by Motorsport is a plate diff, with a similar 2:1 bias and no preload so in terms of action it mimics the Torsen closely."
Last edited by BlueEyes; May 29, 2006 at 06:14 PM.