You could always buy it back in 5 years for 35 K !!
I’m afraid I’m the bad guy driving off in Damon’s Lotus!! Lovely car as I’m sure many of you know. I don’t know if it makes it worse for Damon I only live a couple of miles away from him…
Hello by the way. I’ve had a skim through this forum and it looks a great resource for all things Exige. Hopefully I’ll get to some events during the year.
Nick.
Welcome Nick. I trust you’re enjoying your ownership so far… You’ve got a good one there 
Yes indeed, welcome to exiges Nick, it’s a friendly place too mate 
heya,
good to have you aboard
Welcome to Exige Nick 
Welcome, lovely car…
Hey, we got ourselves another Boothy!
Welcome! 
Welcome to exiges Nick, look out in events for meets/trackdays where we hope to see you and the car.
Thanks for the welcomes.
Yes loving the car. It’s taken me a while to get a Lotus considering my brother had a Series 1 Elise when they first came out and has had Elises ever since. I must have done half a dozen trips to Le Mans in them… Maybe that put me off!
Thinking about it, I have 2 friends with Series 1 Exiges and another with a Series 2 so no excuses.
I’ve had a race car the last few years doing track days after I stopped racing, but getting fed up with trailering it as it’s on slicks… So I’ve searched for the ultimate road/track car and realised my friends (and brother) had it right…
I have to say the Exige is better than I anticipated. On the road the balance and feedback is off the scale, so I imagine the track is even better. My only concern with tracking it is the legendary Lotus build quality… Or lack of it. I don’t imagine having the same feeling of solidity after 20mins track time as you get with the German marques.
What I do know is I can’t stop driving it.
Hopefully meet some of you soon.
Nick.
TBH the german cars feel like you’re abusing them on track and start to smell as the brakes get too hot, IMO
Don’t know about other Loti, but mine felts at its best after 20 mins of track work
What he said. Mine came back better than when it left at Easter; it was in need of a darn good thrashing.
Problem is the better a car is (and you are) the harder you thrash it, whatever it is. I remember at Donny a good few years ago when the factory sent Gavin Kershaw and Matt Becker to one of our days and Gav destroyed a set of reasonably new pads in about 20mins doing hot laps in Russ’ car (taught us all how to brake properly though!).
There’s a lot of German marque brand hype that the Lotus has helped me see through.
That bring back memories Ian. 2006?
I remember going round with the old hairpin with Matt Becker sideways
How much of a problem is this gearbox stuff I keep reading about? Is it exclusively 270bhp+ cars that have problems?
From what I’ve read 3rd/4th are the weak point, with 3rd gear synchro being a particular problem. Some people seem to swear by different oil and engine mounts.
What’s the consensus on here as it’s difficult to sort through the bull for a newbie?
Cheers,
Nick.
Don’t believe the hype…track it and enjoy…any box that has been mistreated complains…include those on cars!
Treat it with mechanical sympathy and fit an gearbox oil cooler. You should be ok unless you are unlucky or go past 280hp