8 FEBRUARY 2021
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From Air & Business Travel News (ABTN) February 2005
With the end of the Elise (and its derivatives) Exige production in sight (and road test cars in short supply due to the pandemic) we have turned to an article from Air & Business Travel News (ABTN) October 2005 for this review and added some Exige images over the years. For a detailed history of what he terms the greatest sports car of all time, by Jan Blom, please refer to the CLUB LOTUS magazine January 2021. And if you don’t already know it was, in the keeping of all Lotus car names starting with “E”, named after the daughter of the then company owner Romano Artioli. www.clublotus.co.uk
Malcolm Ginsberg reports on the ultimate Lotus.
Lotus Exige December 2004. It still looks great in February 2021.
Driving the Exige is an experience! If you are big, or less nimble it is not the easiest of cars to get in and out of, but once sat in the taught cockpit everything fits neatly into place. Take off from the traffic lights and you are going to be first and braking can be left very late into the roundabouts. Motorway cruising is not one of its virtues and if Lotus want to do anything to make the Exige a real mini grand tourer something needs to be done to the interior noise levels. This does not matter with the convertible Elise but Exige customers are a different breed. You have to use wing mirrors too, the rear-view mirror virtually useless. What is needed is a periscope to see over the protruding wing.
For the future Lotus still builds the GM/Opel/Vauxhall version in small numbers. A new and larger Lotus series is planned based on a standard module. The now Malaysian-owned company is one of the world’s leading automotive design agencies with half its £150m turnover quietly generated in the backrooms of Lotus Hethel (Norwich) factory. But the skills and knowledge built up over 60 years abound. Maybe the Geneva Motor Show will give an indication of Lotus thinking for the future?
From your local Lotus dealer Exige prices as of February 2021 start at £59,000.
See also ON TOUR: All change at Lotus in BTN 8 February 2021. Also the Evora road test 12 October 2009
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