New Lotus Exige Sport 350

Lotus calls the Exige Sport 350 the ‘ultimate incarnation’ of the mid-engined sports car, and we see no reason to argue with that. It still has its flaws, namely getting in and out and a lack of luggage space, but it excels on every other level. Few other manufacturers make cars that handle or deliver such an uncorrupted driving experience as well as Lotus. It might be getting on a bit, but the Exige is still one of the best sports cars in the business.

Every manufacturer has a particular skill set. It just so happens Lotus’s centres around making very light and very fast sports cars. The new Exige Sport 350 is a perfect example of how the Norfolk based brand operates – adding performance not through boosting power, but by stripping out any unnecessary weight.

By shipping the existing Exige S off to the gym, the Sport 350 is welcomed back leaner, meaner and even quicker. Hardly a heavyweight to begin with, Lotus has managed to remove 51kg from the 1,176kg Exige S. It’s been done, Lotus says, by adding a lighter battery, a new louvered tailgate, new engine mounts, a revised centre console and even lighter body panels.

To shave every unnecessary kilo, engineers completely stripped the Exige to the sum of its parts, laid every body panel and screw in its ‘Lightweight Laboratory’ and scrutinised each component. If it wasn’t needed it was discarded, and if too heavy, it was redesigned from new materials. The handbrake, for example, looks identical but is 26 grams lighter than before.

What hasn’t been tinkered with is the 345bhp 3.5-litre V6. Here it’s paired with a tweaked six-speed manual gearbox, while a six-speed auto is a £2,000 option.

Lotus has listened to criticisms of the manual gearbox in the outgoing Exige S and made the necessary alterations. Shifts are now shorter, snappier and more precise than before, but not only can you feel the changes, you can see them too – thanks to the fantastic exposed gear linkage. But Lotus being Lotus, this system also serves a purpose, as the redesigned centre console used to accommodate it is now 1.5kg lighter.

The changes add up to a car that’s not only quicker in a straight line – 0-62mph takes 3.9 seconds (one tenth faster than before) – but faster everywhere else. The Exige Sport 350 is the quickest production car to ever lap Lotus’s Hethel test track.

New dampers and camber adjustments make the Exige more alert and even more direct than before, with steering so detailed in its feedback and a front-end faithful to even the most minute inputs.

The engine remains razor-sharp in its responses too, with the faintest flex of your right foot punching you back in your seat as the Exige lurches forward. Lotus’s DPM system is now standard, with Sport and Race modes adjusting the traction control, opening the exhaust and sharpening the throttle response. But for such a focused car, the ride is remarkably compliant – even over the battered British B-roads we subjected the car to. Sure, it’s firm, but take an Alfa 4C down the same stretch of road and you’ll be visiting the chiropractitioner for weeks.

Key specs

• Model: Lotus Exige Sport 350
• Price: £55,900
• Engine: 3.5-litre V6 supercharged
• Power: 345bhp
• Transmission: Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
• 0-62mph: 3.9 seconds
• Top speed: 170mph
• Economy: 28mpg
• CO2: 235g/km

Lotus Exige S

The Lotus Exige S is a rival for similarly priced high performance coupes like the Porsche Cayman R and BMW M3. But it's much more of a thriller than either of those two, and is even more compromised. Unlike its lightweight predecessor, it's powered by a supercharged 3.5-litre V6, so performance has taken a big leap forward. With a more aggressive look and upgraded suspension, it looks and feels like a compact version of a proper supercar – and it's astonishing to drive, with brilliant handling and straight line performance. It still feels like a low-volume hand-built machine, though, which is the major downside, but it's certainly fun.

Take an Elise, add a longer wheelbase, wider track, new rear subframe, pumped-up bodykit with vast aerodynamic additions and larger wheels and you've got the Lotus Exige S. It looks very aggressive and stands out far more than a Porsche Cayman R on the road. In fact, it looks so dramatic, we wouldn't be surprised if it turned as many heads as an Italian supercar costing three times the price. Inside, the cabin is stripped out and almost identical to that of the Elise, with a lot of switchgear borrowed from mainstream manufacturers, thin racing seats and exposed aluminium.

This is where the Exige S really excels. The supercharged 345bhp 3.5-litre V6 offers searing acceleration, thrusting the 1,176kg Exige S from 0-60mph in just 3.8 seconds and on to a 170mph top speed. It doesn't sound as tuneful as a Cayman R's flat-six, but it certainly delivers with lots of low-rev punch and high-rev urge. The handling is even better. This is a car that tells you exactly what's going on at the front wheels, and together with the widened track and longer wheelbase, it's more grippy yet more stable than the Elise on which it's based. Incredibly, Lotus' engineers have also managed to make it ride comfortably too.

One neat feature is the traction control system available on Race Pack versions which is so clever that even a professional driver is quicker around a racing circuit with it switched on than when off. On the downside, the gearchange has a loose feel to it and the steering is heavy at parking speeds, while the engine is ever-present, especially at a high speed cruise when all the wind and road noise combine to make the stereo pointless... Ear plugs are a must for long journeys.  

Yes, the Exige S has a driver and passenger airbag and ABS with stability control, but that's about it for safety aids. It's based on the Elise, and despite the higher price tag, you don't get more safety kit for your money. Lotus has never had the best reputation for reliability either, with numerous gremlins creeping in after a few months of ownership. Still, most people don't buy a Lotus to drive on a daily basis. 

With just two seats, and a tiny 98-litre boot in the rear, the Exige S is about as impractical as cars get. The problems start when you try to get in: the wide sill and low roof make trying to slide elegantly into the driving seat very difficult indeed. Once inside, you'll find there's not much adjustment for the driver's seat – it doesn't slide back and forth very far – and the steering wheel is also fixed. Similarly priced rivals like the Porsche Cayman R are much better in every respect.

The Lotus Exige S doesn't weigh very much, so when you're cruising you'll probably manage more than 30mpg from the big V6. Use that performance, though, and you'll be filling up the relatively tiny 43-litre tank on a regular basis. The engine is very dirty too, with CO2 emissions of 236g/km, so your annual road tax bill will be high. Lotus expects most Exige S owners to take their cars onto a racing circuit too, an environment in which it's quite easy to go through tyres and brakes – and they aren't cheap to replace. Add in service intervals of just 9,000 miles, and it becomes clear that running an Exige S is an expensive venture. 

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