Lotus Exige Sport 350 set for Malaysian debut soon?

After introducing the Lotus Evora 400 recently, Lotus Malaysia looks set to keep the momentum going with the new Exige Sport 350. A posting on the company’s Facebook page revealed that the sports car is ‘coming real soon’, so fans of the British marque, take note.

As a recap, the Lotus Exige Sport 350 first made its debut in December 2015, where it replaced the outgoing Exige S. In line with the carmaker’s more recent creations, the Elise Sport and Elise Sport 220, the Exige adopts the ‘Sport’ naming designation here as well.

A new name isn’t the only change related to the Exige Sport 350. The new car is 51 kg lighter compared to its predecessor at 1,125 kg. This is thanks to the introduction of lightweight parts including the louvered tailgate panel, battery and many other items.

Propelling the heft, or rather the lack of it, is the job of a 3.5 litre supercharged V6 engine, providing 345 hp at 7,000 rpm and 400 Nm of torque at 4,500 rpm, unchanged from the Exige S. Pair the engine to a six-speed manual, and the Exige Sport 350 will make the century sprint in 3.9 seconds and continue on to a top speed of 274 km/h.

For those who opt for the six-speed auto (with paddle shifters), the 0-100 km/h time is reduced to 3.8 seconds. However, the car’s top speed is diminished to 261 km/h and it weighs 5 kg more than the manual.

The added lightness is accompanied by improvements to the car’s handling as well. Here, firmer dampers and a revised geometry work with the car’s aerodynamic styling (which produces 42 kg of downforce at 160 km/h) to allow the Exige Sport 350 to lap Lotus’ Hethel track with a time of 1 minute 29.8 seconds, which is 2.5 seconds faster than the previous model.

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