INSIDE LINE

Full Test: 2006 Lotus Exige

Media Player

  • 2006 Lotus Exige Picture

    2006 Lotus Exige Picture

    Looking like a cross between a sport bike and an angry insect, the Exige devours our favorite secret back roads. | September 29, 2009

Road Test

Full Test: 2006 Lotus Exige

Shade Runner: Do racecars dream of electric windows?

    1 Rating
    Have you ever had the dream? You know the one. You're out in public, as if everything is normal, but you're driving a naked car and everybody else is driving ordinary cars and you're hoping nobody notices; especially law enforcement? Maybe it's just me, but that's how driving the 2006 Lotus Exige feels. There's something exotic and naughty about taking the Exige out in public. It gets attention, and I'm sure the bright orange paint and flat-black wheels and wing have something to do with it.

    But there's more to it than that. It doesn't feel legal, though technically it is, but just. The Exige's (and Elise's) 2.5-mph bumper impact test and internal headlight sealing exemptions expire in 2007. Don't worry: Neither will turn into a pumpkin then, but after that, you won't be able to buy either the soft-top Elise or shadier hardtop Exige in their current configurations and Lotus is mum on what's coming next. Get 'em while you still can.

    What about it?
    To start with, the Exige's dimensions are tidy, to say the least. As an example of its Lilliputian proportions, optionally electric windows feature just two switches, one on each door. To roll the passenger's window down from the driver seat, simply extend your right arm and push the button on the passenger's door. You can almost do the same with the non-powered rearview mirror on the outside of the passenger door. A Mini Cooper towers over the Exige, some 10 inches taller.

    You might think this is an exaggeration, but it's true that an Exige driver looks up at an MX-5 Miata's license plate. Our long-term MX-5 is almost 8 inches longer and weighs 450 pounds more, but the Exige is just as wide and with a shorter wheelbase. Both of those "small" cars feel sporty, but the Exige feels, sounds and looks like a car ready to turn laps on the next available open track event — which it is.

    Because of its ultra-firm suspension, every pavement seam is an event, each Botts dot feels like a trash can lid, and I'd swear I could tell you which state was depicted on the commemorative quarter I ran over yesterday. Virginia. No wait West Virginia! It's that tight and communicative. Feed it a freshly paved slab o' tarmac, however, and there are precious few experiences as well matched or as rewardingly memorable.

    Divergence
    Both the Elise and Exige are built around the same 150-pound extruded and bonded aluminum chassis, but the only exterior sections shared between them are the door skins and rocker panels. While the Exige's roof panel is technically removable, it requires tools and elbow grease; and Lotus doesn't recommend taking it off.

    In notably un-Lotus-like fashion (wherein everything has a purpose, and anything without purpose is left off for "added lightness"), that presumed rooftop intake scoop is not functional and is, in fact, physically blocked off. Only on the European-market supercharged Exige S or "off-highway use" Lotus Sport Exige Cup does the nostril direct cool air to an intercooler in the engine bay. It still looks cool.

    The $51,915 Exige is the rarer of the two street-legal Loti, as only about 300 will be brought to the U.S. this year. Our tester was optioned with Chrome Orange paint ($1,200), Touring Pack ($1,350 includes leather seats and door panels, electric windows, upgraded stereo, full carpet set plus additional sound insulation) and Lotus Traction Control ($495) for a total as-tested price of $55,955.

    Track-focused, the Exige comes standard with the Elise's Sport Pack that includes Eibach coaxial coil springs, Bilstein monotube dampers, front antiroll bar, forged aluminum wheels, flypaper-sticky Yokohama Advan A048LTS tires and twin oil coolers. If that's still too tame, there is a $2,495 Track Pack which, among other things, allows a knowledgeable driver to make easy adjustments to the suspension.

    Weight, there's more
    The weight difference between the Exige and Elise is about 30 pounds, and our Exige test car weighed exactly 2,012 pounds. If you want your Exige to limbo under the magic 2,000-pound threshold, check the $250 air-con delete option which removes about 22 pounds of hardware. Perhaps more important than that weight savings is the extensive aero tweaking done on the Exige to help it achieve about 100 pounds of downforce at 100 mph, compared to the Elise's 13 pounds at that same speed.

    That may not seem like much, but when a car weighs within a frozen turkey of 2,000 pounds, generating even that much added force is noticeable. It's not so much that it feels like a racecar with a true ground-force aero package, but the Exige has a deliberate and planted feeling, especially under braking from high speeds where the Elise feels like it's on its tippy-toes.

    Our test driver (who has more Lotus experience than most) commented that he could only explain his comfort level while setting a new Inside Line slalom record at 73.4 mph with the fact that the Exige's downforce took the skittishness out of the car. Because of it, he could pay attention to the task of driving with intent, rather than anticipating a thrilling, but potentially ruinous 75-mph slide.

    Steer
    Naturally, you'd want the steering in a car as responsive as the Exige is to be reflex quick, and it is. What was the last car you drove without power-assisted steering? The Exige don't need no stinking, heavy and power-sucking power steering. Really it doesn't need it, even in a parking lot, and once up to speed, the task of steering disappears from the list of things to think about while driving. It just happens when you contemplate a lane change, or fancy going around a corner.

    With a relatively slow overall ratio of 15.8:1 (many sports cars' ratios are in the 13:1 range), the car still changes directions with the alacrity of a hummingbird because of the dinky 90.5-inch wheelbase and small-diameter (12.7-inch) steering wheel.

    Go
    Much has been written about power-to-weight (or weight-to-power) ratios, and most of it is true. Lotus enjoys a long and illustrious history of building cars that don't require monster engines. When going fast is the priority, not only in a straight line, but also around corners, weight is the enemy. That's why the Exige is powered by a Toyota-sourced 1.8-liter 190-hp DOHC inline four-cylinder engine.

    Do the math and you'll discover a 10.6 pounds/hp relation that's somewhere between that of a Porsche 911 and a Ford Mustang GT. The Exige is quick, but not crazy fast. The fact that the engine features variable valve timing and lift means it's a little sluggish at low rpm, but really goes berserk at about 6,500 rpm all the way to its 8,500-rpm rev limiter.

    We had a little trouble getting a good, bog-free, wheel-spinning launch due to the combination of warm day and sticky tires, but a 5.0-flat 0-60 time and 13.5 seconds in the quarter-mile is nothing to ignore. In fact, it'd be in a dead heat with another recently tested sports car, the BMW M Roadster.

    Stop
    Another benefit of added lightness is that braking performance is enhanced. Lotus took full advantage of this reality by designing a late-acting ABS system for the Exige. In other words, the point at which the antilock part of ABS recognizes a potential skid and begins to release and grab the brake rotors is farther away than in most cars. The benefit is that there's a useful amount of braking to be had between an imminent skid and when ABS would normally actuate.

    A trained driver (in a light and responsive car) can actually feel and hear this sliver of threshold braking. It's what the best race drivers use to pass another car just before entering a corner. The fact that the Exige is fitted with vented and cross-drilled Lotus/AP Racing brakes and Brembo calipers further underscores its intended mission of hot-lapping the track on the weekend. From 60 mph, the Exige needed just 107 feet to stop, but you'll find the brakes tremendously talkative and fade-free as well.

    Drive
    You've probably got the idea by now that the Exige is an uncompromising sports car. It isn't for everyone. In fact it's for a very few, 300 to be exact. For most people the new Porsche Cayman (non-S) would be a better choice for about the same price and similar performance.

    The Exige, however, exists for those live-fast die-hard enthusiasts who don't give a crap about cupholders, sat-nav, luggage capacity, impact harshness, HVAC, NVH, ESP, XYZ, or any other nifty electro-mechanic nuisance with an obscure acronym. It's a sports car in the fundamental sense, a track car in the ultimate sense, and a daily driver only for those of you who live in a municipality where smooth, twisted roads are as common as law enforcement is absent.

    If you're the type who relishes an intimate conversation with a true sports car, the 2006 Lotus Exige is an eloquent, multilingual partner enthusiastically begging for your cultured and informed company. Have a look at the consumer commentary and you'll discover to whom these cars are being delivered. If you just want a nifty-looking sporty car, look elsewhere.

    Road Test

    Stereo Evaluation

    System Score: 4.0

    Components: The Lotus Exige's standard system is a Blaupunkt Acapulco single-CD head unit with four Blaupunkt speakers. The stereo features RDS, MP3 capability and can play CD-R and CD-R/W discs. It also has built-in equalizer settings and speed-sensitive automatic volume control. This stereo has an old-school removable faceplate.

    Other notable features include a CD naming feature and the ability for text-enabled CDs to have that information scroll across the screen. Separate sound profiles can optimize sound for the driver only, front only or front and rear, but with a car as small as the Exige there's not much use for this feature.

    Performance: We admit that looking for a stellar sound system in a car like the Lotus is like looking for a brain surgeon at the MTV Beach House. Still, the Exige does have a stereo and even such exotics as the Ferrari F430 offer some in-car audio options.

    Judged solely on its own merits as an in-car audio system, this stereo is somewhat lacking. The Blaupunkt head unit is more like an aftermarket unit that probably looks "really sweet" in a lowered '88 Nissan Hardbody, but it's out of place in a Lotus. Also, the buttons and switches are too small and their labels are hard to read.

    The system offers some nice features, however, and once you force yourself to figure out how the stereo works, most of them are easy to access and adjust. The display screen can change colors and there's a built-in equalizer plus an X-bass feature that really helps the sound quality go from "uh oh" to "OK."

    For the most part the sound quality is just below average. It sounds thin and lacks any real bass punch. Boosting the X-bass helps give the music a fuller quality but it never gets to a point where we'd consider it to be good. The equalizer also helps, but with only four speakers and the car's noisy interior you'll never look forward to playing that new CD on this system.

    Best Feature: Bass boost feature.

    Worst Feature: Head unit ergonomics.

    Conclusion: We've come a long way — only a decade or so ago we could only dream of having a CD player in an exotic sports car. In an all-out, ultralight, razor-sharp sports car like the Exige, the best thing we can say about the stereo is that it has one. — Brian Moody.

    Road Test

    Second Opinions

    Dan Edmunds, Director of Automotive Testing says:
    I fell in love with the Elise the moment Lotus Engineer Roger Becker tossed me the keys for a week. Sure it was noisy, vibratory and tight, with exposed chassis members and bare aluminum extrusions defining the interior. Those usually negative sensory stimuli turned out to be an essential part of the essence of this car — it's a race-bred machine and I, as driver, was an integral component.

    I began scheming ways to obtain my own copy, imagining it as my four-wheeled Ducati — a weekend car that I'd go stonking around with on the local twisty bits and nearby mountain roads. It would live in my garage with the "top" permanently rolled up in its bag.

    Exige is saturated with the same machine-like qualities and astounding performance. A functional wing and scoops bolster its already outrageous Hot Wheel come-to-life persona. And yes, I literally had a line of neighborhood kids, who've never shown the slightest interest in any of the other cars I've brought home, pushing and cutting in front of each other to be first to climb in for a ride.

    But for me, the fixed roof destroys the balance of the equation, making it harder to imagine one in my garage. That same interior feels cold and cramped. The motorcycle analogy crumbles — changing from a spontaneous weekend thrill ride to a machine that would more likely gather dust until the next scheduled track-time event.

    Senior Road Test Editor Josh Jacquot says:
    Translating the Lotus Exige driving experience into words is like trying to explain fireworks to the blind. You might be able to make someone picture them in their head, but until they've actually witnessed them with their own eyes, the details that define the experience will never fully etch into their memory banks.

    The Exige is an exercise in uncompromised design and function. Its purpose can't be concealed. Sitting inside, even the relatively elegant interior of our test car, which had leather seats with ProBax padding and — get this — floor mats, was a mixture of cast and extruded aluminum bits that send a message about this car's real mission: cornering with more speed than anything else you can buy on these shores. And that's exactly what it does.

    "It corners like it's on rails" is an overused cliché uttered by the unknowing masses who use cars like appliances. Bullet trains corner on rails. Roller coasters corner on rails. And the Lotus Exige is the only car you can buy in the U.S. that corners like it's on rails. Kick anyone who tells you otherwise straight in the nuts. They've never driven a Lotus Exige.

    If you've got the cojones, the Exige will deliver enough lateral cornering load to make you wish you didn't. Through our slalom it roasted the old Inside Line record (held by the Porsche Cayman S) by an unthinkable 1.2-mph margin. For those of you who use cars like appliances, that's like riding a roller coaster into a series of left/right transitions fast enough to puncture lungs, slip discs and break vertebrae. In fact, it might just be enough to make the blind see fireworks.

    Road Test

    Consumer Commentary

    "The Lotus Exige will take your breath away. Not a practical utilitarian car by any means, this car is designed for one purpose: to be driven on twisty back roads where the adrenaline flows through your veins. This is a "me" car that spells out individuality with F1 roots. This car is for serious drivers in a small niche of track drivers, car enthusiasts and those that want pure performance without killing the pocket book. I've waited since 2004 for mine. Delivery was February 2006. From its 150-pound chassis to the hand-laid fiber body, it's definitely worth the wait. Only 300 made and I'm glad I got mine. Favorite Features: The Spartan interior makes for a distraction-free zone. It's you and the car. Forget the luxury items, there are none. No trunk to speak of, throw your gear bag and helmet in and you're packed to race. This is like sitting in a cruise missile. You simply have to think about your line, Exige does it. Suggested Improvements: The supercharger would be nice for the U.S. model: The extra 40 hp would be a great boon for the midrange performance. The addition of the front driving lights offered in the U.K. would be nice, too, since it is prewired. The tow ring in the kit is too small."
    Al B Bach, May 21, 2006

    "The Exige is an amazing machine. Steering feel, braking and cornering are all phenomenal. Being so functional, the car is also beautiful to look at. I love mine, but prospective buyers need to know what they're getting. The car is not for everyone and you have to be willing to deal with its total impracticalities. It's basically a four-wheel motorcycle. The car is best used on twisty back roads or on track. Commuting or highway cruising is a waste, in my opinion. You have to accept the attention that the car draws. It's a surprisingly comfortable car once inside. Ingress and egress are tricky but get easier with a little practice. Nothing comes close to an Exige for the money. Favorite Features: Handling and styling. The car goes like stink, corners like nothing else and gives tremendous feedback to its driver. The car looks like a $200K supercar or like a mini Le Mans racer. It's just a thrill every time you get it out on an open country road. Suggested Improvements: Lotus would be well advised to offer a dealer-installed supercharger for the Exige. Extra low-end grunt is always welcome even though the car is far from slow as is. HID lights would also be a welcome addition. Any other creature comforts would change the nature of the beast. Leave it alone."XEEEJ, March 22, 2006

    "The Exige and you become one. You can feel everything that goes on. Every bump, every crack. There are no surprises. This is the best Lotus ever. Colin is smiling!"gtlotus, Feb. 14, 2006

    Sort By:

    Sort By:

    Close

    Share on Facebook Share on Facebook
    Share on Twitter Share on Twitter

    Advertisement

    Speed Read

    Featured Specs

    • 10.6 pounds of car for each horsepower to move
    • Race car-mimicking construction
    • Almost 100 pounds of downforce at 100 mph

    What Works

    Extremely communicative chassis, steering and brakes; Space-alien sport-bike styling; aero kit that makes real downforce

    What Needs Work

    More power wouldn't hurt.

    Tags

    Specs & Performance

    Vehicle
    Model year2006
    MakeLotus
    ModelExige
    Style2dr Coupe (1.8L 4cyl 6M)
    Base MSRP$51,915
    As-tested MSRP$55,955
    Drivetrain
    Drive typeRear-wheel drive
    Engine typeInline four
    Displacement (cc/cu-in)1,796 cc
    Horsepower (hp @ rpm)190 @ 7,800
    Torque (lb-ft @ rpm)138 @ 6,800
    Transmission type6-speed Manual
    Chassis
    Suspension, frontIndependent, Double Wishbones, Coil Springs and Stabilizer Bar
    Suspension, rearIndependent, Double Wishbones and Coil Springs
    Steering typerack and pinion (non assisted)
    Tire brandYokohama
    Tire modelAdvan A048LTS
    Tire size, front195/50R16 84W
    Tire size, rear225/45R17 90W
    Brakes, frontfront ventilated disc - rear ventilated disc
    Track Test Results
    0-45 mph (sec.)3.1
    0-60 mph (sec.)5.0
    0-75 mph (sec.)7.5
    1/4-mile (sec. @ mph)13.5 @ 100.2
    Braking, 30-0 mph (ft.)26
    60-0 mph (ft.)107
    Slalom, 6 x 100 ft. (mph)73.4
    Skid pad, 200-ft. diameter (lateral g)0.97
    Sound level @ idle (dB)54.9
    @ Full throttle (dB)95.4
    @ 70 mph cruise (dB)75.0
    Test Driver Ratings & Comments
    Acceleration commentsEven launching at redline, the tires are so grippy that wheelspin is short lived and the engine bogs a little below the magic-rpm changeover on the cam. Still, the shifter is race-car raw and race-car quick.
    Braking ratingExcellent
    Braking commentsI always feel like I'm going to snap the brake pedal off in these cars -- everything is so minimalist -- but it sure does stop.
    Handling ratingExcellent
    Handling commentsOur test surface this day was less than ideal, but nearly 1.0g is a stellar performance. The Exige offers awesome balance and control even at this limit. We set a new Inside Line slalom record with this Exige. At nearly 75 mph, we're pretty certain the car's downforce was contributing to the Exige's ability over that of the Elise.
    Testing Conditions
    Elevation (ft.)1,121
    Temperature (°F)80.9
    Wind (mph, direction)1.5W
    Fuel Consumption
    EPA fuel economy (mpg)22 City 29 Highway
    Edmunds observed (mpg)Insufficient data
    Fuel tank capacity (U.S. gal.)10.6
    Dimensions & Capacities
    Curb weight, mfr. claim (lbs.)2,015 (2,012 as tested)
    Length (in.)149.5 in
    Width (in.)68.0 in
    Height (in.)45.6 in
    Wheelbase (in.)90.5 in
    Legroom, front (in.)43.5 in
    Legroom, rear (in.)Not Available
    Headroom, front (in.)38.5 in
    Headroom, rear (in.)Not Available
    Seating capacity2
    Cargo volume (cu-ft)4.0 cu-ft (or 110 pounds max)
    Max. cargo volume, seats folded (cu-ft)Not Available
    Warranty
    Bumper-to-bumper3 years/36,000 miles
    Powertrain3 years/36,000 miles
    Corrosion8 years/Unlimited miles
    Roadside assistanceNot Available
    Free scheduled maintenanceNot Available
    Safety
    Front airbagsStandard
    Side airbagsNot Available
    Head airbagsNot Available
    Antilock brakes4-wheel ABS
    Electronic brake enhancementsElectronic brakeforce distribution
    Traction controlOptional
    Stability controlNot Available
    Rollover protectionNot Available
    Emergency assistance systemNot Available
    NHTSA crash test, driverNot Tested
    NHTSA crash test, passengerNot Tested
    NHTSA crash test, side frontNot Tested
    NHTSA crash test, side rearNot Tested
    NHTSA rollover resistanceNot Tested
    CollapseSpecs and Performance Expand Collapse

    Advertisement