THE BRUTAL LOTUS EXIGE
The Exige sports car is the most raw, powerful & uncompromising Lotus performance car in the range. Your right foot will try and tame more than 300 horsepower in a chassis that weighs around 1100kgs – 200kg+ lighter than competitors.
There is no other modern sports car for sale in Australia that delivers such brutal, raw, performance. It is the best two door high performance sports car you can buy with a manual transmission.
…all-bespoke gear linkage. And it is, quite simply, world-class….an exquisite collection of milled aluminium clickety-clackety bits. And it’s not just the sound of each gear being selected, it’s the sensation: the cool, weighty metal lever in the palm of your hand, the short, direct throw, and the precision between the gears….
RAW, POWERFUL, BRUTAL
For those who desire sheer speed
The Exige is not for the faint hearted, there are no apologies, this is the genre-defining definition of a race car for the road. No other sports car has the same levels of powerful acceleration with incredible handling for under $250,000.
It is no surprise that the Lotus Exige is the winning vehicle of the 2018 Australian Production Car Championship & the 2019 Targa Australia Championship. It’s performance pedigree has also delivered multiple class or category victories on the track or at targa.
Like an Elise, the Exige doesn’t have power steering or gimmicks that stand between you & driving enjoyment. Feel everything through your fingertips, feet & seat of your pants.
GOING.
BUT NOT QUIETLY.
Final Edition Lotus Exige. The best and last.
WHAT DO LOTUS SPORTS CAR OWNERS THINK?
“The BEST balance of ride and handling car I have ever driven. Whether cruising on the highway or a session of enthusiastic driving on a track, the feedback and chassis balance is outstandingly unbelievable.”
Con
“I like the focussed and minimalist simplicity of my Elise. No power steering, no cup holders, no cruise control, no seat adjustment, no touchscreen, no GPS navigation, no lane control. Perhaps Leonardo da Vinci expressed it best when he wrote: ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'”
Murray
“Alive! That’s how I feel when I strap myself into my Elise. Driving a Lotus is an immersive experience, and I love the tactile signals…”
David
“I love driving my Lotus , I feel very proud and privileged to own one . The admiration and glances she gets is great . This is my third Lotus and the only make of car I would choice to drive.”
Theresa
“These cars are absolutely insane. If you want a totally different experience to driving a car (without any of the unnecessary “extras” that cars come with these days), then try a Lotus. I guarantee you’ll be hooked. I genuinely thought I was happy with my car … until I felt what Lotus were capable of – before long I was trading my car in for a new Lotus.
I recommend anyone considering a performance car to test drive a Lotus … Hand me the keys to ANY other car and I would GLADLY hand back the keys and state: “No, thanks, that’s not necessary”
Adam
“A single word to describe my Elise would be ‘purity.’ No ‘aids’ or ‘assistance’ of any kind diluting my experience, input yields immediate, unfiltered output.”
Tristan
THE FIERCEST SPORTS
CAR MONEY CAN BUY
A driver focused interior
Some drivers might prefer plush interiors full of gadgets, LCD screens and other creature comforts like cup holders. A Lotus Exige is not for you – the focus for this sports car interior is driving pleasure.
An Exige can be specified with leather, alcantara, carpets and other additions. Most people opt for keeping it simple with the focus on driving enjoyment.
A tactile, manual gearbox
The Lotus Exige is one of the last sports car models that you can buy with a manual gearbox. The unique, open gate design, gives you that tactile feeling every time you change gear.
Designed for those that love driving and love rev matching your downshifts, engine braking or even double clutching.
Precise, razor sharp, steering
Every piece of the Exige has been designed to focus on the simplicity of driver enjoyment.
The Lotus Exige has a very simple sports steering wheel with driver’s airbag. There are no gizmos or other buttons on the wheel to distract you.
The Exige doesn’t have power steering. It is so light you wouldn’t even know, but so precise you feel everything through your fingertips.
Safety harness ready seats
Straight from the factory the Lotus Elise has specially designed, light weight, sports seats that are ready for safety harnesses.
We can install our harness bar with Schroth safety harnesses ready for track day or targa rally use for driver & passenger.
Digital dash with lap timing
The Exige is focussed on performance driving. Optional on selected models and standard on the Final Edition range is the digital dashboard.
The optional GPS upgrade lets you switch from daily driving info to track mode. Lap timing and data recording is built in, perfect for analysis after your track driving session.
Aerodynamic aids
Other sports cars might have a few wings or other bits added to their vehicle to help make it look aerodynamic.
The Exige though has been designed with downforce in mind. It has a flat bottom floor like an F1 car, rear diffuser and it’s overall body shape was created with aero in mind.
Sports brakes, wheels and tyres
There is no point being able to go fast if you can’t stop and turn. Every Elise is specified with high performance brakes including ventilated front discs & sticky sports tyres.
From the moment you leave the dealership you are ready to attack an apex or mountain pass.
High performance engine
The Exige is powered by a 350hp+ supercharged V6. It is incredibly reliable, tractable and a joy to listen to with the barking, throaty, sports exhaust.
An Exige weighs less than 1,200kgs making it 200kg+ lighter than rivals. You will experience brutal acceleration, cornering speeds & feel every bit of the road.
TRACK DAY OR TARGA RALLY READY
ARE YOU A DRIVING ENTHUSIAST?
Use a Lotus Exige sports car every week of the year
The biggest problem we know that faces many sports car owners is where or how can they use it and explore its full potential. Modern sports cars have so much performance that normal road driving isn’t really enough.
When you buy a Lotus Exige from Simply Sports Cars you get access to an annual event calendar of driving events. You can choose to do track days, targa tarmac rally events, driving training and even casual motorsport, our dealership makes it possible.
Join a local Lotus Club in Australia
Another great way to enjoy your Lotus Exige is to join one of the local Lotus Clubs. There is one in each state and they organise a mixture of events including social drives, local motorsport and other driving activities.
Each club is welcoming and inclusive, creating the perfect way to enjoy your sports car with other driving enthusiasts.
CONFIGURE
YOUR EXIGE
Go to the Lotus Cars website to configure your new Lotus Exige. you can select from colours, interiors and other combinations to build a vehicle to suit your tastes.
What are the Lotus Elise & Exige Final Editions?
This year marks the end of an era for Lotus Cars. As the business moves towards an exciting future as outlined in recent announcements, time is being called on production of the iconic Elise and the genre-creating Exige, after 25 and 21 years respectively.
In honour of these two legendary models, Lotus has announced a range of five new Final Edition cars which have higher power, greater standard specification and – in true Lotus style – light weight.
These cars are the ultimate versions of the Elise and Exige, and mark the pinnacle of technical development to showcase more than two decades of engineering excellence. To be built in limited numbers, each is a fitting tribute to performance cars that are, almost uniquely, legends in their own lifetime.
Five new variants – two Elise and three Exige – have been created and Lotus is anticipating high demand from global markets as customers rush to buy a slice of history. They are available with unique paint colours, new exterior decals, new wheel finishes, new trim and Final Edition badging.
The improvements continue under the skin, a fact reflected in new names which reveal higher power outputs on three of the five – the Elise Sport 240, Elise Cup 250, Exige Sport 390, Exige Sport 420 and Exige Cup 430.
Learn more about the Lotus Exige Final Edition
The Exige Sport 390 Final Edition has been launched to celebrate the Exige’s final year of production. First launched in 2000, the Exige has become the genre-defining definition of a race car for the road.
As standard, it features the most extensive list of interior and exterior features ever. The biggest upgrade is the all-new TFT digital dashboard with the choice of two screens, one with a conventional set of dials and the other a race car-style with digital speed read-out and an engine speed bar.
The steering wheel is of a new design and clad in leather and alcantara. It features a flat base to create better leg clearance for taller drivers and to aid ingress and egress. Every car comes with a Final Edition build plaque, plus new seat trim and stitch patterns.
A new selection of colours has been introduced for the Exige Sport 390, harking back to some of the iconic colour schemes from Lotus’ past. They are split into two; Select, which includes Daytona Blue, Fire Red, Metallic Orange and Motorsport Black; and Hertitage, which includes Racing Green, Nightfall Blue, Essex Blue and Calypso Red.
It is powered by a 3.5-litre supercharged V6, with a baffled sump, mounted in a lightweight and rigid chassis that provides thrilling acceleration and instant response. Pure unassisted steering offers exquisite feedback and vivid communication at all speeds. The car benefits from its own, bespoke version of Lotus’ pioneering, bonded aluminium chassis, a unique rear subframe and forged aluminium double wishbone suspension at the rear.
The new Exige Sport 390 replaces the outgoing Exige Sport 350. The power increase of 47bhp comes from a revised calibration linked to the Edelbrock supercharger with chargecooling, to produce 397bhp and 420Nm. It accelerates to 60mph in just 3.7 seconds before reaching a top speed of 172mph.
The advanced aerodynamics are carefully balanced, generating 70kg of downforce at the rear and 45kg up front for a total of 115kg at top speed. To put this power on to the road, the Exige Sport 390 has 10-spoke silver lightweight forged alloy wheels (7.5J x 17” front and 10J x 18” rear) and Michelin PS4 tyres (205/45 ZR17 front and 265/35 ZR18 rear).
Lotus Exige reviews
Piston Heads: Favourite Car of the Year – Lotus Exige
It’s savagely fast and utterly compelling to drive, of course, but also feels exotic, expensive and desirable
CarAdvice: Favourite Car of the Year – Lotus Exige
“…it’s a case of having a sense or feeling of connection with a sports car that in this day and age is virtually non-existent elsewhere…”
Exhaust Notes Australia
“It’s driving in its most distilled form.“
CarAdvice
“…it laments bruising city streets and crushing speed limits with the vigour of pilgrims to Israel’s Wailing Wall and it begs with the abandonment of a lovestruck and horny teenager. This car wants to be driven. Hard.…”
Auto Car
“…The Exige range is an engineer’s car, seemingly conceived for the purest of intents: to go fast and to entertain wildly while doing it….What that wheel is telling you is that you can place the car with millimetric accuracy and that there’s masses of grip to play with….”
CAR Magazine
…chassis engineer Gavan Kershaw tossed me the keys, and told me I had the Hethel test circuit for 45 minutes.
AUTOWEEK
…On the road, the Exige feels hardcore, if still retaining a high degree of usability….It’s nimble, communicative and, above all, fun….the Exige 350 Sport is an interactive driving experience..”
TopGear
“It’s pretty stellar – and so damn fast.” “It’s actually lovely on the road. Freakishly comfortable.”
AUTOCAR
“The price may be a long way from the Exige’s roots, but such is the prodigious performance and complete absence of any kind of rival actually in production (we’re looking at you, Porsche GT division) that it actually seems like a bargain.”
PistonHeads
“This is, simply, one of the fastest and most rewarding driver’s cars this side of $200,000.”
AUTOCAR
“There aren’t many options remaining for the true purist driver, but the Exige Sport 350 is one of them, retaining just enough daily usability to make it work as a single car, while delivering the kind of track-focused precision no rival can touch.”
Auto EXPRESS
“Lotus calls the Exige Sport 350 the ‘ultimate incarnation’ of the mid-engined sports car, and we see no reason to argue with that.”
Frequently asked questions about Lotus Exige
The Lotus Elise and Exige share the same chassis and are both designed to be very focussed, pure, sports cars. The main difference is the Exige has a slightly larger wheelbase & track as well as the more powerful supercharged V6 engine configuration.
Depending on the configuration an Elise has around 200 horsepower and weighs around 1,000 kgs. The Exige has 350 – 420 horsepower and weighs around 1,100-1,200 kgs.
The interior layout is practically identical as are things like seating, switchgear etc.
Yes a Lotus Elise is a rear wheel drive, mid engine, sports car that is one of the lightest available for sale in Australia.
The Lotus Exige has used a few different engines over its model years. Early models used a Rover engine but this was changed to a Toyota sourced engine with supercharging in more recent models. Lotus tunes the engines and electronics to suit the high performance nature of an Exige. You get the benefit of a reliable powertrain combined with an incredible handling & driving experience.
The Exige design philosophy is very similar to an open wheel racing car. The driver is seated low with a mid-engine, rear wheel drive configuration that is like most race cars. It is light weight, agile and one of the most powerful track cars you can buy in Australia. There are not many sports cars for sale that have the same brutal power to weight ratio as a Lotus Exige.