New Lotus Exige Imminent

General General Lotus Talk
21

chaps, all this s2 exige talk will lead to the depreciation of your cars! (which suits me, 'cause i haven’t bought one yet!!)

22

A few people have commented that Lotus struggled to sell the Exige MK1 and so they wouldn’t do a MK2. True, they struggled at first, but after people started to see how fast they are on track days, and after the price was dropped, the last few were sold quite easily.
I understand the car was quite profitable due to the cost of upgrades and accessories.
Lotus clearly need new models to extend their product range, and an Exige is a pretty easy and cheap way of getting something that looks different out in the marketplace.

Lotus clearly need a BIGGER car not a faster Elise. Especailly if they want to charge more, the 190 is hardly flying out the door either.

It’s much more expensive to develop a production car these days than it was for the Exige, that’d bring any profits down. That’s the reason they registered all the remaining ones in Dec 2001, so they wouldn’t need to conform to 2002 Euro regs (inc. engine sensors, 2 yr min warranty, etc).

Also, when the Exige came out there wasn’t really the Radical/XTR alternative, serious competition these days. To buy an Exige2 you’d have to want to a) upgrade b) want to drive it to the circuit c) really love Lotus. Also, I can’t see it coming in under 40k seeing as the Elise 190 is high 30s.

Just my thoughts.

Ian

23

Okay you gamblers. I say [color:“red”] Mk2 Exige [/color] , beginning of November, project codename [color:“purple”] ‘Cyclone’ [/color] (there is a clue in there)

As far as I heard is ‘Cyclone’ the official name for the Turbo VX220 ‘Sprint’.

Customer cars (current demo/magazine test car is not the ‘final product’ yet, eg. It’s using 4-bolt Elise/Exige hubs and final car will use 5-bolt VX hubs) should be delivered somewhere in September/October.

Bye, Arno.

24

Don’t know if this is total guff, but I am told there is a New Exige in the works, with a V6 mazda powertrain…

As I said though, could be total guff…

25

The drivetrain that would REALLY make sense in my opinion would be the dual rotor Mazda Wankel, from the new RX-8.
Very lightweight, and 230 HP stock.

Would be nice to make a conversion, like Joe did, and it would be Uldis’ conversion

26

I don’t know if these are official pictures or what, but I picked them up off the internet.
[image]http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/20864/p/451450_2896144818494868598_vl.jpg[/image]
[image]http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/20864/p/451443_6269993143555518664_vl.jpg[/image]

27

both pictures are not the same body. The white one is much more accressivly styled then the orange one.

I also heard that the orange one is created by a photoshop expert

Thanks anyway, Lotus keeps us in doubts

28

still does not make any sense to me that the white car was secret / mule / customer car and had those bloody great lotus logos on it; dingle pulling in my opinion!

29

what makes me even more curious, is that there is only 1 picture of this car available. That is the one displayed.

I have never seen an elise/exige in this form on the road.

30

Orange one is defo a bad photoshop job

Can’t really tell anything from the second shot

31

Hi all,
i had a nice news from a very good source.
In March we will see a new elise with toyota engine with 190 bhp.

Anyway nothing to do with a new Exige…

Cheers
Nicolas

32

October sees the start of the “Motorshow” season

33

was chatting with a dealer who claimed to know of deposits being put down on s2 exige, presumably by other dealers. same old story - if people put deposits down - lotus will build it.

34

Yeah, right, like the M250?

35

I put a deposit down on an M250 once - lost a lot of interest and at last transferred it to … a new Exige

Every cloud has a silver lining

36

Yeah, I did the same. No M250 so an Exige instead. I’d still choose the M250 given the choice but the Exige is a great substitute.

I’ve heard unsubstantiated rumours of a new Lotus, sporting a Toyota V6 and 4 wheel drive, being tested at a facility a long way from Hethel. Probably total ‘scuttlebuck’ but in view of the content of this thread probably worth spreading…

37

There is a piece on the Lotus Enjoy in last weeks Autocar.

Is this what people are talking about…I think not. Too much like the 340R.
I do, however, like the way you can take the front and rear wings off for track days. But no roof and tonneau only.

38

Maybe Lotus are going to build a Jeep then???

39

I’d still choose the M250 given the choice but the Exige is a great substitute.

…cough…splutter Accept NO substitute…

40

I saw an article on the dutch Lotus dealer, who stated that lotus is working on a new Esprit which will have to compete with the small Lambo’, so your note on 4wheel drive sounds not bizare