[DISCLAIMER - Ok, I’m having a little fun here, but first I’d like to say this is in no way a dig at the S2. In my opinion it, and especially the 240R, is a fine car. Now there may be some reservations (eg. price of the 240R!), but none of them stop it being a very good car. Where I’m headed, if you hadn’t guessed already, is just to highlight how great the S1 is…]
So, there I was at sunny Rockingham on Sunday, and various Exiges were present. This included a very early S1 of Adam’s and the very latest Lotus 240R ‘test mule’ (with some ‘non-standard’ bits on it).
[Cue nostalgic picture]
[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0141.jpg[/image]
Lotus had brought the 240R for the day to continue its longer term testing; it’d done 3000km last week round Hethel alone! It was mainly being driven by Alistair McQueen. For those of you that don’t know him, he is my Yoda (no offence sir). A driving god, throttle control king (he won Autocar’s sideways challenge, embarrassing too many racing drivers to count, so often they stopped inviting him back), and as legend has it was heavily involved in designing the Hethel circuit, Espirit, Elise, Exige, etc.
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0141.jpg[/image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0141.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
[Cue nostalgic picture]
[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0096.jpg[/image]
Having had a fun day, given lots of rides, and learned the circuit, I headed out for a last blast on my own. It really makes a difference with only one of you in the car, power oversteer possible and everything! For those of you that haven’t done Rockingham braking from 120mph off the banked curve down through the chicane at 90+mph is magic! The RS14 Pagids even held up well.
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0096.jpg[/image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/DSC_0096.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
Queuing to pass some traffic I notice the test mule was approaching behind; a little challenge me thinks (no heroics mind, this isn’t racing and it’s the end of the day). Well I stayed in front (without being inappropriate) for a couple of laps until I made a mistake and did the honourable thing and let him past. Now having better lines to follow helped, but I pretty much followed him for the next 20 minutes (albeit with a couple of slow cars to pass to help a bit).
Alistair is brutally honest (following a lesson from him on my first trackday, he basically told me I was crap), so when I asked him afterwards how hard be was pushing I knew I’d get the truth - “oh, pretty hard” (grinning). He’d been keeping track of my progress, where he’d made and lost ground. Unsurprisingly, with all the torque of a charged 'yota, it was quicker out of the slow bends.
So there you have it chaps, I give you a K power S1 Exige on standard suspension (for the last time, Nitrons on Saturday), a rival for the latest and greatest.
[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/Rockingham.jpg[/image]
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/Rockingham.jpg[/image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/IDG/Exiges/Rockingham.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
Ian