Lotus has announced a new version of their Exige, the Lotus Exige Sport 350 and this version is even faster and lighter than previous models.
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We can, however, look on enviously from afar while soaking up the details. “With the Exige Sport 350 we took an already phenomenally quick auto and made it even faster, more dynamic and more pure, perfectly demonstrating our Lotus design philosophy of “lighter and faster”. For its part, Lotus claims to have examined each component of the mid-engine sports vehicle in its quest to ferret out fat, liposuctioning offending grams from the battery, the engine mounts, and the HVAC ductwork. The Exige Sport 350 is the latest revival of the “Sport” name for the carmaker and weighs in at 51 kg (112.5 lb) lighter than the Exige S. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a revised six-speed manual transmission, or the optional paddle-shifted six-speed automatic transmission. This makes it the first production Lotus ever to go sub 1 minute 30 seconds around its Hethel track.
Lotus Dynamic Performance Management (DPM) provides three discrete modes – “Drive”, “Sport” and “Race” – with the latter offering increased levels of traction slip threshold, allowing wider drift angles before intervening. This also opens up the exhaust valves at high engine speeds for a more aggressive sound.
The new lighter rear louvered tailgate is said to also lower the car’s center of gravity as well as aid engine bay cooling.
Exterior features include LED headlights and tail lights and cast alloy wheels finished in gloss black, measuring 17 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear, wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres.
As far as the interior goes, many journalists are raving about the reintroduction of Tartan interior in red or yellow which you can choose between leather or Alcantara. The Tartan theme was first introduced in 1976 in the Lotus Esprit S1 and was a bold statement originally in keeping with the fashion of the time and now fitting for the new Exige Sport 350.
Along with the launch of this new model, the name “Sport” will also get back in Lotus’ naming scheme and will join its “smaller” brothers, the Elise Sport and Elise Sport 220. Finally, lightweight pipes for the ventilation system were added while the use of sound deadening was “optimised” – says the British car-maker. Various aero components, including a front spoiler and large rear wing, help the sports vehicle to generate 42kg of downforce at 160km/h. Top speed is 170mph.
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Sales of the Exige 350 Sport start in February 2016 in Europe and those in North American markets will have to wait another month for this lightweight track monster to reach our shores.
