Lotus supercar?

[Bebee]

Have Lotus ever made a true supercar? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercar

I can't think of one but please put me right!

The Exige V6 is a candidate for such status, no?

[groomi]

When I was a kid in the 80's, every poster shop, pack of Top Trumps, birthday cards etc featured the Esprit alongside the Countach, Testarossa, F40, 959 et al.

It may not have quite matched them for performance, but it was so far ahead of a typical 'sports car' and certainly had the necessary wedgy appearance.

[Thorburn]

Bebee said:

The Exige V6 is a candidate for such status, no?

Not really, it's a sports car to me.

I don't really like terming things like the Ferrari 360 or 430 as supercars personally, and wouldn't even consider 911 variants as supercars.
I think it comes down to presence and power in relation to it's peers, with an element of pricing and exclusivity as well. Something that's hard to nail down in concrete terms because it's a moving target (Would a Countach be a supercar now? On paper no. But in it's day it certainly was...)

The next generation Esprit, with it's bespoke V8, 500+bhp, and more aggressive looks, and £100k+ price tag has a chance of being a real supercar.

[Junglehop]

The Esprit was certainly a True supercar... Well it became so with the introduction of the Turbo Esprit. the V8 Esprit was also a top contender... one of the quickest things out there on its release.

Articles:

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/ERoadtests/CAR_Jun...

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/ERoadtests/V8_leve...

[Hedgerley]

As the article hints at, of its time (the V8 was introduced in 1996) I would suggest the Esprit could be considered a 'supercar'. Today however and bearing in mind its been out of production over 7 years (having been in production for nearly 30) I would suggest it sits at the top end of 'sportscar'. At 350bhp and fairly rudimentary chassis/suspension compared to modern exotica, it is outclassed by even moderately tuned 4 door saloons these days.

I'm on my second Esprit V8-GT having been a lifelong fan and I can tell you it is still a major draw when I park up and to be honest its perfectly quick enough for me thank you very much. But then I am getting old and more interested in the GT aspect rather than the 0-60, even it is still sub 5s.....

[F1GTRUeno]

The Elise GT1 roadcar is probably about as 'supercar' as you'll get from Lotus.

If you consider the F1 LM/GT, 911 GT1, CLK-GTR, etc supercars then the Elise is too.