2016 Lotus Exige Sport 350 Laps Hethel In 1:29
By Paulo Acoba
The mad scientists in Lotus’s Lightweight Laboratory have managed to strip 112 pounds from the Exige in their 2016 Lotus Exige Sport 350.
Lotus’s design philosophy has always been “lighter and faster” which has allowed this British Sports and racing car company to produce some of the fastest and most aesthetically pleasing cars known to mankind. It seems like Lotus has no end to the amount of variants they can come up with for their Exige lineup, but no one seems to be complaining either. Earlier Monday, according to Autoblog, Lotus unveiled its latest and lightest iteration of its Lotus Exige in their 2016 Lotus Exige Sport 350.
The Sport 350 reintroduces the Sport moniker to Lotus joined by the Lotus Elise Sport and Elise Sport 220. With the “the introduction of a louvered tailgate panel, a lighter battery, lightweight engine mounts, a lightweight centre console featuring an exposed gearshift mechanism, lighter HVAC pipework and the optimised use of sound insulation,” Lotus engineers were able to pull 112 pounds from the already lightweight Exige S. The 2016 Lotus Exige Sport 350 weighs just 2,480 pounds.
According to Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus,
Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc
"“The Lotus Exige is already regarded as one of the world’s best sports cars and a benchmark for performance and handling both on road and on track. With the Exige Sport 350 we took an already phenomenally quick car and made it even faster, more dynamic and more pure, perfectly demonstrating our Lotus design philosophy of ‘lighter and faster’.”"
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The only thing that didn’t receive a thorough re-working was the Toyota-sourced supercharged 3.0L V6 putting out a generous 345 HP and 295 lb-ft at 4000 RPM. Give it the beans from a standstill and you can hit 60 MPH in 3.7 seconds (3.6 seconds if you grab the optional six-speed automatic…yes automatic) and eventually hit a top speed of 170 MPH.
The gearbox itself gains a more precise feeling and benefits from quicker shifting thanks to lightweight materials integrated into its overall construction. Outback, the rear louvered tailgate not only subtracts weight but helps the engine bay cool off adding functionality to form. In addition, the suspension has been firmed up and the geometry has been slightly revised.
When Lotus whipped this light-weight Exige around their Hethel test track, they were able to wring out a 1 minute 29.8 second lap time which is the fastest production Lotus to have a go at Hethel ever.
As far as the interior goes, many journalists are raving about the reintroduction of Tartan interior in red or yellow which you can choose between leather or Alcantara.
And if you want an even lighter Exige Sport 350, you can option out forged alloys which bring the weight down by another eleven pounds.
Next: Unveiled: 2016 Lotus Exige 360 Cup Packs 355 HP
Sales of the Exige 350 Sport start in February 2016 in Europe and those in North American markets will have to wait another month for this lightweight track monster to reach our shores.