Lotus Exige S
 

Finally, after nearly 3 years of lusting I took the plunge and bought an exige s on Saturday. Balls to the credit crunch, recession and worrying about what the future holds :D The money sitting in my savings account was earning about £11 interest per month !!!

All I can say is WOW........what a car. The handling is just incredible, not been brave enough to switch off the traction control yet but planning on doing some proper driver/teaching days.

Straight line performance/acceleration is more than acceptable, probably similar to a re-mapped newage STI or a classic STI.

Strangely enough, considering it's a road going track car it's got the best ICE System I've ever had, nice Alpine head unit with matching speakers and an I-Pod connector :D

Can't help but grinning like a chesire cat every time I go for a drive, maybe just the new car effect and it will wear off, time will tell.

Best moment so far is stumbling out of the damm thing at a packed tesco's petrol station when filling up. Being 6ft 3 and 17 stone there's no real dignified way of getting out without looking like a bit of a berk :D

My only complaint is the exhaust note or rather the lack of but will no doubt be investing in a nice 2ubular system in the not too distant future.

Not had time to get any pictures yet but attached a few from the sales add if anyone is interested. These don't do it justice, in the flesh it looks absolutely bonkers :D

front

side

rear

interior

A very happy Chris

Good one matey!!
Elise/Exige are top of my list when the STI goes
AC:thumb:

Lovely :D


**shakes piggy bank**

:(

11k for that?

Looks lush

Excellent reading skills you have there. :thumb:

lol :lol1:

... think he's paying 11k a month for it ;)

To save people clicking on the links...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...tons/exige.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ons/exige1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ons/exige3.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ons/exige2.jpg

Best colour too!

Damn nice car.

Unfortunately, all my plans for a second "Weekend" car have gone out the window.

Credit crunch has hit our company now.

Like it .!! Like it a lot !!!!:thumb:

£11k !!!!! I wish ;) Double that and add a bit :D

Me and the Mrs were fighting over the keys as to who drove it today, she won, lol.

Just need Mark to pop along now and tell me about his Gotham ECU upgrade, I must not modify this car, I must not modify this car, I must not modify this car :D

:hjtwofing :D

very nice!!!!! :)

one day.....................

Congrats, really like these :thumb:

Very nice Chris. Methinks you will be having a lot of fun in that car. I've never driven an exige/elise, is on my to do list so I can experience this sublime handling that I've read so much about.

Doesn't it do 0 -60 in about 4.5s? So faster than a STi in a straight line I would have thought?

I'd recommend you try one, as you can tell I'm absolutely smitten!

I've not come up against any other performance cars yet to compare it to in the real world so not sure exactly how quick it really is. The fact that you're backside is about 1 ft from the floor may give a false perception of how fast it is. Because the power delivery is so linear it's also quite difficult to compare to the scooby I had before (newage sti running around 380/340) as there's no real shove in the back, it's just constant acceleration from 2k revs up to 8k revs.

Not sure on 0-60 times, I've seen some quoted as 4.1 but I think that's very optimistic.

Some people are running honda lumps in elises and exiges running over 300bhp, they must be absolutely mental. I was offered a similar spec car but it was just too modified for my liking, I wanted something quite standard and hopefully (touches wood) reliable. I've done the power chasing in my various scooby/skylines and suffered countless blown turbo's, gearboxs, etc. Was time for something different :)

Very nice mate, and a proper grown up toy. Its a very hard core car to live with and have utmost admiration for people that own/drive them. But can imagine the reward is great, and a car that you would want to go for drive just for the sake of it.

You've hit the nail on the head with wanting to take it for a drive just for the sake of it !!

Problem is the Mrs gets up earlier than me and keeps taking it :D

Lovely looking car , must say though was a tad disapointed recent when one showed up to meet us for a Sunday morning a/b road blat on some very good roads a lightly modded sti ra was all over it and the Subaru powered murtaya with just a sti3 engine @240 horse made it look totally outclassed.
Tbh it sounded awesome I followed it for a while and loved the soundtrack, I told myself it would maybee go better in some one elses hands as i did not want to squash my admiration for a fine car. !

Stunning car mate. I did a driving day in an elise at silverstone a couple of years back and they are so well balanced. The Exige filled the gap left by the VX220 turbo and gives the car the power it so desperately needs.

The only thing that put me off is that I'm 6 foot tall and struggled to get in them, although I've taken up running so losing the beer gut will probably help:D

I'm seriously thinking about one of these as the scooby replacement, but that's a couple of years off yet:?

I'm seriously thinking about one as the wife's replacement :D

:lol: It'd be a close run thing when it comes to running costs, but on the fun factor I think the Lotus would win hands down:notworthy

Wonder if it was a "s" version?

The N/A cars do lack power and aren't that quick in a straight line. Perhaps the chap couldn't drive as they should confortably out handle most scoobs :D I can carry so much more speed through corners than I could in my STI - that was a lardy newage though ;)

I think my wife would be annoyed if I replaced her with an Exige!! :o

Seriously though, I would love to have one of these!!! :D

I'd rather be driving an exige than any scooby, even if they are slower. That's just my opinion before people start wanting cage fights, or to come round my house and 'av a word :)

Stunning, I still miss my 111s and will return back to an Elise sometime.
Words cannot discribe the pure driving joy, miles of perma grin all the way:thumb:

Get the soft roof conversion done now and take your summer motoring to another level:cool:

:lol1:

Just remembered the joys of having a white car. Spent all day saturday waxing it, went for a 40 mile round trip on Sunday and can already write my name on the back :D

Almost mastered getting in and out without looking like a clown now, bit more tricky in garage as can't open the door fully.

Not sure about the soft top conversion, spoils the looks a bit I think and no doubt doesn't help air flow to the intercooler.

Desperately trying to get a 2bular exhaust ordered for some guaranteed pops and bangs on the over run, you can take the boy out of a scooby but you can't take the scooby out of a boy ;) :D

Haha quality car mate really looks the dogs :thumb:

I think I will have to own an Exige one day. I remember seeing the mk1 at Hethel and thought then that really is the dog's nadgers :p

I agree with someone else about the speed thing, who cares if it isn't as fast as some of the 4WD uber mob, its got sublime handling and looks :cool:

Top motor!! :)

hi mate,

lovely motor, i am seriosuly looking at these.

Do you find it tight/uncomfortable inside,

im around 6ft 2 and 19ish stone...do you think id fit in one lol?