how many Exige will they built?

General General Lotus Talk
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Hi guys, i am new herenice to meet you alli have something about Exige want to ask…how many Exige have Lotus build?is it limited?i checked some website and some of them saying there is a limit of Exige…some say 500, some say 1000…is it ture?thank younewbieVincent

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Nobody will ever really know until they stop building them, which they haven’t

3

well, the highest no. I have spotted at the factory was 604.

4

Someone at Nick Whales told me they are expecting six more Exiges, and that they all have to be built this year because of new emissions regs.

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Its my understanding that they have all been built now and they finnished off a batch of about 500, which was also for the race series.I have been told that of that 500 just over 200 have been sold and the 200-300 cars are just sitting there waiting to be sold. The good news is that for people that have them an Exige 2 won’t be out till they have shifted them.The bad news is that if all the road cars have had to been registered at some point Lotus might slash the price of them to shift the cars to ease cashflow and start new projects. This can only have a bad effect to any one wanting to resell there car because values could drop very quickly at some point.Also if the cars are hanging around for to long would you want to by a brand new car with a registration plate that is a year or two old?

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SnapperOne of my pals was at the factory last December - they were just finishing building the last couple of Exiges (for export) - latest chasis number was 685 (or thereabouts, if I recall correctly). That would confirm a total production run of no more than 700.There are perhaps only 2 or 3 NEW unsold cars left within the UK dealer network. However, these cars will have been registered before the end of December 2001. All Exiges were subject to SVA testing before being able to be registered - most were SVA tested at the factory, but some cars had their SVA test arranged locally by the selling dealer. Due to leglislative changes which took affect after the 31/12/01 (emissions etc) the Exige would not have passed the SVA after that date - hence any new unsold cars at dealers were registered by the end of December.So, there are not rows of Exiges just waiting to have their prices slashed, waiting for buyers! As to an Exige 2 - ie based on the Elise 2 in a similar manner as the original Exige was based on the Elise 1, then the consensus of opinion is that it is a non-starter!

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Snapper - there are so many apparent inaccuracies in your posting - would you care to share where your information comes from?Look at the chassis numbers registered by members on this site alone and you will see that your production figs must be out.

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If I am wrong then sorry its just what I was told by a person who I had no reason to dought. If people who are better informed than me know different then matter closed. Sorry if the information I was told was wrong.

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No need to apologise - we’re all buddies on this bbs & are here to help one another [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

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Hey Snapper,Being a man from the Press I’m sure you couldn’t reveal your sources anyway!Ever taken motorsport snaps?Ian [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]

11

I’ve just spent an evening listening to Tony Shute (GT 300, Carlton, 111 series, M100 Elan S2 etc, not to mention Expose (the see-through 340R/Elise development engineer))talking about (mainly) Elise development, the future etc. He could not be precise but said that he thought total Exige production was 650. He also said that S1 Elise production reached 10,500 (common eh!)and S2 sales currently at about 2000 with production at 3000 per annum. VX220 is also at 3000 units per annum. Interestingly, Lotus production staff are on 90 day redundancy notices (i.e. not yet redundant but may get 90 days notice)despite them selling more cars in Dec 2001 than in any month of the marque’s history!. Don’t wait for the summer to buy you S2 - keep the Lotus boys at work!Mike

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I think much of the “Selling more cars in December than any other month” is a blip due to the need to register cars quickly before the end of the year (and no longer meeting emissions regulations)

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David,We covered this. It seems that the K series in Lotus guise now meets Cat3 emission regs, but you could be right!Mike

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quote:Originally posted by 83man:David,We covered this. It seems that the K series in Lotus guise now meets Cat3 emission regs, but you could be right!MikeI didn’t think the VHPD version did and there wasn’t enough demand to make it worth re-doing the software.

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I know Caterham still offer the VHPD 190bhp engine with factory built cars, which does not qualify as a kit car under SVA regs, self build helps to get around some of the emissions regs…Caterham also does a 230bhp 1.8K-series (R500) so it is possible to still go down the high powered route.

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David,You’ve obviously done more research on this than I have. The truth is I don’t know, but Tony certainly gave the impression that emisions are not an issue with the engine at any level of development they have tried so far. In his summary he described the K series as a magnificent unit with seemingly limitless potential - although pride ensured that he rated the VX220 engine (a Lotus developed unit of course) as better.Mike

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Snapper,I believe the R500 engine is now down to less than 220 bhp because they had to change the exhaust sytem. Still bloody good, though.

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I don’t think it was the emissions themselves that ended Lotus’ use, more the EU regs that now require monitoring and fault reporting.

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Re R500, I think Caterham are still advertising it as 230BHP, I know they have made some changes recently but I am unaware of the loss of the 10BHP.I know they change the max rev’s from the earlier models. I know they have a removeable Cat on the car as well, but if they had to make some changes I would of thought that they would have to keep the power some how to keep the power to wieght ratio to be able to call it R500 - as in 500 bhp per tune.You might be interested to know that at the moment Caterham are building a 300 bhp VX Swindon powered car for a customer. I don’t know if its for the road or the track but its going to have all the right bits on it, so it should be a monster.