Saterday I’ve been to Assen where the Lotus Cup had a race. At the track a lady from Lotus spoke to me and informed me that driving an exige without top is very very very trickey.
I own a Exige S2, and once in a while I like to drive without the top (never on the track) so I can enjoy the rare days of sun.
My question is what is known about the fact that you take to roof off. I understand that the aero dynamics are influenced, but I believe that will only make a hugh difference at high speed (160+). She told me that there have several serious accidents due to the fact the roof was taken off.
sounds like scare mongering to me.
I know of at leats 2 official dealers who will perform this roof off mod.
At the end of the day the elise has the roof off fine, so why not the exige.
I am afraid the lady from Lotus was talking complete bollocks. I have driven my S2 several times with the roof off. I probably wouldn’t drive it roof off on track, but on the road it makes absolutely zero perceptible difference to the handling.
The roof & rear clam of the S2 are needed to direct airflow onto the rear wing. Given the levels of downforce though, you shouldn’t notice on the road.
Lotus want to distance the S2 from the 111R & are keen to push the fixed roof concept, as it states in the hand book.
Afternoon Pesky!, Ive run mine several times with the roof off and did 3000+ miles inc nurburgring etc with no hardtop. Ignoring convention, Pesky, aerodynamics (got mine to same indicated top speed with roof off), etc , it seems to have no noticable difference to handling or chassis stiffnes.
Gav
I was actually - only spectating though. They just look so abysmally shite without the roof IMO, never mind what it does (if anything) to airflow. That’s my view & I’m entitled to it
Are you sure the lady wasn’t referring to an S1? Or was it Mrs Pesky
No idea if it was mrs Pesky, and she was refering to the S2, as we were standing beside it. I can imagine that for trach use the story is somehow true. Just got a bit annoyed by her and her story. I told her the Lotus delivers the Exige ready for roof-off, her reply was “But you don’t see these items when the top is on” sounded not really convincing. Is Mrs Pesky a blond lady, from i believe arround 40. Normal sized (not to tall, not to small, not to fat, not to thinny), if so then it defn could be mrs Pesky (Is she in charge of the CUP Exige races?)
Cheers to all others for their feedback. I agree that exige with roof is just really beautifull and that was the reason why I bought it (and not the 111R), but taking the roof off once in a while i good to.
I was actually - only spectating though. They just look so abysmally shite without the roof IMO, never mind what it does (if anything) to airflow. That’s my view & I’m entitled to it
So Pesky do you think I should take my roof off, you seem to be sitting on the fence with this issue
The above is a recreation of an incident which actually happened at an exiges.com meeting. The offenders (burning) turned up without their Exige roofs fitted!
I think this is just Lotus covering themselves… there is probably a chance that the lack of roof may ‘slightly’ alter the aerodynamics and Lotus dont want to be held responsible… plus, as the handbook says, the exige was concieved as a sports coupe… I have the softop conversion on mine, I wonder what difference that makes to the handling and engine cooling
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