Some boring Exige questions I need help with
Discussion
I'm looking to move from my E46 M3 to an Exige S. Budget around £25k. Weekend road plus 4 or 5 trackdays a year. Coming from a M3 run as a family car as well as a "toy", I know the differences will be considerable and I've searched various posts but have some boring questions of my own I'd like help with.
1. can you get a booster seat on the passenger side for a 7 year old? Do cars with harnesses also come with the standard seat-belt or does it tens to be an either/or thing?
2. running costs I reckon must be lower than the M3, but for around 5,000 miles pa including the track days, does anyone have an idea on how frequently the tyres and brakes will need doing? I'm generally quite a sympathetic driver so I saw pretty good life on these parts on the M3, but a dealer told me the normal life of the standard tyres on an Exige is around 5,000 miles and you'd need to replace them after most track days whcih seems a bit scary to me.
3. how are they with just weekend use? what about being used for short trips around town? will they suffer? do they need a good run every week?
4. I'd want the sports pack and a/c and maybe the touring pack. Are the standard brakes up to the job on track or will they fade after 15-20 minutes like those on my M3? I'm not generally into upgrades but it would be good to know if there are any must-haves.
Thanks!
1. can you get a booster seat on the passenger side for a 7 year old? Do cars with harnesses also come with the standard seat-belt or does it tens to be an either/or thing?
2. running costs I reckon must be lower than the M3, but for around 5,000 miles pa including the track days, does anyone have an idea on how frequently the tyres and brakes will need doing? I'm generally quite a sympathetic driver so I saw pretty good life on these parts on the M3, but a dealer told me the normal life of the standard tyres on an Exige is around 5,000 miles and you'd need to replace them after most track days whcih seems a bit scary to me.
3. how are they with just weekend use? what about being used for short trips around town? will they suffer? do they need a good run every week?
4. I'd want the sports pack and a/c and maybe the touring pack. Are the standard brakes up to the job on track or will they fade after 15-20 minutes like those on my M3? I'm not generally into upgrades but it would be good to know if there are any must-haves.
Thanks!
Made the same move (albeit to a NA Exige) a few years ago. Not 100% sure on the seatbelt thing, never checked but I used a stanard mothercare booster seat when my lad was younger so no issue getting one that fits.
The running costs are *far* less than an M3. Tyres for example (Toyo 888s) are about £95 for a front and about £125 for a rear. They will last a good few thousand miles on road or half a dozen track days depending on your driving style. Brakes can be cheap but for track spend the money, Pagid 42s are a favourite, Carbone Lorraine are flavour of the week at the moment and Performance Friction (which I'm using) are pretty stunning on track but take warming up on road. All three are about £200 a set. My advice, don't mess about with Mintex etc if you are going on track. After using Mintex on road for about 4000 miles I destroyed set in one track day. False economy. I reckon I'll get at least 10 track days from a set of decent pads. You can upgrade the discs but even then only a few hundred. Not £900 like on my old M3!
Servicing around £200 a go but you will want to change the oil in between so thats another £50-60 a time. Plus brake fluid, say another £30.
My car is used as a local runabout if it's sunny and track days. Sometimes it sits idle fo a week or more without issue. They're a pretty basic car, not a huge amount to go wrong and the engine is not tempremental.
Brakes... yep the M3 standard brakes are crap on track! So are the Exiges using standard road pads. As before, a decent set of pads and you won't need to upgrade them. A lot of people are racing Lotus' with boggo calipers, just uprated fluid, pads and braided hoses.
As they come the car is pretty good for track use. Only issues are toe links which have a reputation for snapping with continued hard cornering so an uprated set at about £300 might be an idea. Suspension is okay, I'm starting to find its limits so a set of Nitrons at some point could be an idea, £1200.
The running costs are *far* less than an M3. Tyres for example (Toyo 888s) are about £95 for a front and about £125 for a rear. They will last a good few thousand miles on road or half a dozen track days depending on your driving style. Brakes can be cheap but for track spend the money, Pagid 42s are a favourite, Carbone Lorraine are flavour of the week at the moment and Performance Friction (which I'm using) are pretty stunning on track but take warming up on road. All three are about £200 a set. My advice, don't mess about with Mintex etc if you are going on track. After using Mintex on road for about 4000 miles I destroyed set in one track day. False economy. I reckon I'll get at least 10 track days from a set of decent pads. You can upgrade the discs but even then only a few hundred. Not £900 like on my old M3!
Servicing around £200 a go but you will want to change the oil in between so thats another £50-60 a time. Plus brake fluid, say another £30.
My car is used as a local runabout if it's sunny and track days. Sometimes it sits idle fo a week or more without issue. They're a pretty basic car, not a huge amount to go wrong and the engine is not tempremental.
Brakes... yep the M3 standard brakes are crap on track! So are the Exiges using standard road pads. As before, a decent set of pads and you won't need to upgrade them. A lot of people are racing Lotus' with boggo calipers, just uprated fluid, pads and braided hoses.
As they come the car is pretty good for track use. Only issues are toe links which have a reputation for snapping with continued hard cornering so an uprated set at about £300 might be an idea. Suspension is okay, I'm starting to find its limits so a set of Nitrons at some point could be an idea, £1200.
Tony is correct. Mine does the odd track day but I do 12k miles a year in it (my only car). I also drive it round London all the time. It doesn't suffer for short trips and town driving although the geo does get knocked out eventually by the uber-bumpy roads.
After 3 weeks of being stood still it started no problems so they don't need to be run every week.
Tyres usually last fine but the Toyo 888's/Yoko AO48's are soft compounds so they do wear out on the road in around 6k miles. BTW the fronts almost never wear out - only the backs. The fronts go hard and lose grip so need changing with the rears.
Otherwise, light on fuel, easy on brakes (ie as Tony says just uprate the pads - the discs and calipers are pretty good) and the handling is spot on. Your only worry is that once you've had it on track they are money pits as you will just want to keep upgrading!
After 3 weeks of being stood still it started no problems so they don't need to be run every week.
Tyres usually last fine but the Toyo 888's/Yoko AO48's are soft compounds so they do wear out on the road in around 6k miles. BTW the fronts almost never wear out - only the backs. The fronts go hard and lose grip so need changing with the rears.
Otherwise, light on fuel, easy on brakes (ie as Tony says just uprate the pads - the discs and calipers are pretty good) and the handling is spot on. Your only worry is that once you've had it on track they are money pits as you will just want to keep upgrading!
Esprit said:
Note, the above is only true for a S2 Exige.... using an S1 Exige as a daily driver is only really an option for nutters, masochists and those who have multiple S1 Exiges to cover for various occasions when they'll be off the road 
The price you pay for owning a true classic!Unless Tony's got a better tire supplier than me I think rears are more like £140 each. It obviously depends on the track involved and driving style but generally I get between 4 and 5 tdays out of a set of rears on proper tracks. You can stretch the fronts to twice that but be prepared for massive understeer with the potential for snap oversteer.
If doing tdays i'd look for a car with the harnesses/seats with cut-outs already in as they are surprisingly expensive to add if bought seperately. You can have both harnesses and seatbelts in the same car.
If doing tdays i'd look for a car with the harnesses/seats with cut-outs already in as they are surprisingly expensive to add if bought seperately. You can have both harnesses and seatbelts in the same car.
Edited by NeilC on Sunday 18th October 23:09
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