gtr vs elise

Good driving - you ran a much better line - my daughter has a track excige and we have a blast together - costs wise, her husband is her track support

 

We r in NC but took her Excige to Fl and registered it - they don't check anything other then the serial number - hell, it was on a trailer
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Aw yes I remember Streets....great track for the Elige!

Favorite track tho is Laguna... Image Unavailable, Please Login

You guys are making me miss my 211

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Sent from my 16M

 

Wow, despite your insane political views, respect! Whats next for you, the evora or perhaps V6 cup, or are you sticking with the Exile/Elise?

Alot of body roll in that picture you posted, is that normal?

 

Possibly an Evora 400. I'm tossing the idea around.

That shot is actually from the skidpad at "Streets." We were trying to see how many Gs I could pull before breaking out the rear end. That's why the right rear is so compressed.

 

Sweet!

 

Now we can resolve the issue properly, look what the cat dragged in on sat. Very different to an elise, yet clearly of the same parent. If you like one you'll love the other,
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Looks awesome, congrats and more pics please

 

Nice

 

Not street legal, but also no,t not street legal depnding on state as the motor is emissions compliant.

Initial reports. If an elise is like an angry 17 year old, this car is like an all together 27 year old. The tub and cockpit is instanly familiar because its the same, which leads to comfort behind the wheel. Its also way more spartan than my elise which seems like a luxury car in comparison. On the exige you really can hear ever stone, there is zero sound insulation, nor carpets etc.

To drive I would say power wise its closest to a 997 Gt3, although I have not gone above 5k rpm yet or floored it. Lets just say the power feels epic, and if anything too much to fully deploy on the street. Like an elie or Gt3 its fun at all speeds, but whereas an elise, you really push down the road so is very intensive to get speed on the road, this just has so much more that the thrills feel like volume turned up to 20 and really not fully deployable on road.

The steering feels more direct, less floaty, and the nervous edge that tippy toes at the rear an elise has is gone. Its a more planted car, less body lean, more direct, more smooth less buzzy, more refined(motor not buzzy great shirfting) yet harder core. Kinda like an elise that grew up went to gym and got strong and smart. Everythign lotus learned about the elise over the years they applied here.

Its really a different motor, different suspension(esp rear) and different shifting, the shifter not quite 997 GT3 but really good, and the front end while feeling similar to an elise is more direct and less nervous, the whole car is less nervous but with way greater depth.

If you thought an elise was worth it at 50k over say a vette for the same money, to me at close on double the cost this car seems well worth it over say a z06 or Gt4, but you definatly have to be into the whole lotus minimalist schtick, the other cars I think would feel too isolated and too filltered compared to this. But that just how some of us feel.

I really want to find a way to street register, as much fun as it will on track, it feels so good on street that its a pity to miss out.

Illl go t the track next week, still gotta take it easy and run it in. Plus like a superbike I think one cant just floor it, its somethign to grow into so much furtehr ahead does it feel in terms of raw performance.

 

Got it from a lotus dealer in Indy, seemed like really good people and were good to work with. I think 12 came this year in as "race cars" and this was one of 3 left from what i could see. A bunch are racing on the west coast and I spoke with the shop that takes care of them, really helpful in terms of setup.

Will try to get it to monticello this weekend for some gentle laps and running in..
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From what i saw you could in theory remove the top like an elise, same part. And built in the cage certainly adds stiffness.

Only bad part is it has AC, who needs ac ina track car.

 

I thought of that, just go slower and stay cool, anyway 20lbs of extra weight for ac, better to diet it off, win win.

 

A W E S O M E !!

Congrats!

 

If it's like my Exige, the top can be removed, but it is a bit of a pain. (Lots of unbolting and nowhere in the car to put the top.)

 

Flash even ona an elise which has a "removable" hardtop there are lots of bolts and screws, not all the same size. Given what we know of lotus, its probably the same setup on all the cars. Some are just officialy removable others not.

I did read the manual last night. The front part of the roll cage unbolts too. As flash says lots of bolts and bits.

 

Ok went to the track on Friday. First couple of laps the car was all over the place, understeered like crazy and then if you feathered went to oversteer. The tire pressures went up 8 psi more so in the front. Second run with tires bled down, and probably scrubed in was much better, and each run got better from that.

I was using a mostly self imposed 5200rm limit for runing the engine in and not more than 50% throttle.. Even at that the car would be doing 140 down the back straight, whereas the elsie going all out cant quite get to 130. The exige feels rock solid almost single hand stable at this speed through the kink in the middle of the back straight, whereas the elise needs a deft touch here. Brakes are also something else, I was applying from 140 at the no 3 board which would be really pushing things in the elise from 128, and in the exige I was still way overbraking.

Going into corners inital turn in is not as sharp as the elise, but threafter it takes its set and will even tighten the line with thorttle application. After 200 miles I accidently hit 6k on a few corners as the car really felt to be on rails and the power you can deploy and keep queezing in is another league and addictive.

This car reminds me most of single seater open wheel car to drive, and that is running on the stock pirelli trofeos which the motor can easily overwhelm comming off the apex..Its really crying out for slicks, the traction even in track mode dialing back too soon.

The only other exige I have driven was 400 hp mehtnaol brething 4cyl car and on the road. The v6 is less frenetic more refined and fells like it is faster, probably because the powerband is so broad and there is 300 ftlsbs of tq.

The car chatters to you as an elise does, but its a different language, lots of inputs through the wheel chassis etc, but the nature of them is different.

Some other observations. The rebound knob on the bottom of the shocks cant be reached by laying on the ground and contorting you arm as on the elsie, here you need to take the wheel off, so intial adjustments are more difficult to play with.

Cleaning the car is a delight tot he eyes. For example looking at the wing from horizontal angle you see that the small wings holding the main wing are like upside down aircraft wings and a main wing is all compound shapes. Nothing is random on this car, everything is there for a purpose and a lot of thought went into it. The doors feel featherlight compared to the elise. The way the body is flared out makes it superficialy similar to an elise but very different up close. Also I guess Lotus is using a different glue or the body layup material, as the glue smell is of a different variety.

Basicaly an elise and exige v6 they are like two chilldren of the same parentage, but one is bigger stronger more grown up and a bit heavier set. The elise is a superlative road car that is exellent on track. The exige feels like the greater percentage of balance is towards being a track car that can resonably run on street, but it makes the elise feel like a luxury car,
To top it off after cleaning I ran the car up the communal road behind my house. It rises probably 400 ft in a 1/2 mile distance. Using the hillclimb(which I drive often in all my cars) as a point of reference this car is way way faster than the elise or anything else so far, to drive it near its limits I woudl say does need a track, and I would say lots of learnign and practice.
Sad part its also the best backroads car i have yet to drive, but not street legal.

Whole different ballgame compared to an eilse, course I have not driven an exige 260.

 

Nice review!
I'd love to drive this and compare it to my previous S260 - loved that car and was isotope green.
My friend is a local dealer and owns 2 V6 Exiges....may have to go for a "test drive."


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Very good write up.

I want to hear your thoughts after break-in, and on different tires, when you can put it through its full paces.

Enjoy!

 

RIP, Keith.

Very sad loss.