The Lotus Exige S Roadster, first shown in pre-production form at the Geneva Motor Show last year, has now gone into production and is on sale in Europe and Malaysia (but not North America). As the name suggests it’s an open-top version of the hardcore Exige S coupe, with little change elsewhere.
It’s the first time an Exige is available with a removable roof, and it completes the Exige range that includes the S coupe and Cup track special. Power comes from the same supercharged Toyota-sourced 3.5 litre V6 engine in the other Exige models and Evora S, tuned to 345 hp at 7,000 rpm and 400 Nm of torque at 4,500 rpm.
Remarkably it weighs 10 kg less than the coupe at 1166 kg; its bonded aluminium chassis proving strong enough to not need extra braces without a roof. As such performance remains eye-wateringly quick: 0-100 km/h in four seconds dead and 160 km/h in a little more than double that. Top speed is limited to 233 km/h, down from the coupe’s 272 km/h, to protect the soft-top roof.
A six-speed manual or Serial Precision Shift (SPS) paddle-operated automated manual transmissions are offered, with a choice of two suspension and interior configurations. In Malaysia you can buy one officially at Lotus’ new flagship showroom in Petaling Jaya. Price starts from RM452,030 – not bad really, considering it’s far more costly than the RM550,000 Porsche Boxster S in the UK.
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Good job DRB. Your turnaround plan for Lotus is working wonders huh. Same OLD product for the last 17 years
Very cheap looking car.
Lol is drb in big financial trouble that cant higher a good photoshop fler? Thats one bad photoshopped photo
Grow, grow, in size please.
I would rather get the complete german marque of porsche rather than this malaysian owned uk brand with japanese engine.
Such price tag on such a rojak car. It just don’t give the luxury and porch of driving it. Even its a fxxking quick car. So what?
Well then obviously this car is not targeted at people like you.
If I am we’ll off enough to afford one of these toys, I would have a comfortable and luxurious car to pot around with. The Lotus is a sports car.
You don’t buy a Ducati 1199 and then complain its not as comfortable as a Goldwing would you?
True, German marque is always our 1st choice for price below 1 Mil. At the very least, if we really want Jap machine, get a GTR, more glamorous.
Exige performance is often compared to Porsche GT3, and is priced cheaper than a boxster here in Malaysia. Is a driver’s car, not a pimped out ride for show. 0 – 100km/h is like 3.5s
“Price starts from RM452,030 – not bad really, considering it’s far more costly than the RM550,000 Porsche Boxster S in the UK.”
Park a Boxster next to this Exige; sit inside and compare the two interior. If you’re a wealthy man, I bet you will easily choose the Boxster over the Exige.
True, German marque is always our 1st choice for price below 1 Mil. At the very least, if we really want Jap machine, get a GTR, more glamorous.
Isn’t a (traditionally) ‘roadster’ version of the Exige, an Elise and vice versa? What’s next an Elise coupe?
Sell off Lotus for god sake, how long you need a turnaround plan and how long to implement? DRB is depleting its resources and sucked Malaysian dry to subsidised Lotus.
Better to sell off proton and make lotus our national car.
Hahaha lol… good idea but…. The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd…. by engineers Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both graduates of University College, London, in 1952….. The four letters in the middle of the logo stand for the initials of company “founder”, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman…. Still Malaysian can’t called it our national car even though we(they) have 100% share….