Daily Driving a Lotus Exige S V6
Discussion
As some of you may know, I own a Caterham 7 and until recently I also had a Mercedes C350 estate. I've been pretty much daily driving the Caterham unless I have longer journeys to do as it's so much fun to drive. The winter is coming though so i got thinking about what I should do with cars. I went to Bell & Covill and test drove a Lotus Exige V6 with the thinking that I could sell the Caterham and replace it with the Lotus. Unfortunately the Lotus just didn't offer the raw Caterham experience so I left a little disappointed. The more I thought about it though the more I thought I could easily daily drive the Lotus which opened up the possibility of another way of running my cars. A few days later my nice sensible Mercedes was quickly sold and a deposit was placed on my own beautiful Liquid Yellow Exige V6!
I still haven't driven the Lotus much as I've been away for work, but my initial impressions are that it's a lot faster than the Caterham and that the engine is brilliantly suited to the car. It is of course impractical although I can fit my camera gear in which is good! The electronics are very impressive too, you feel very safe in the car because of this which is nice in less than ideal conditions. Only thing I don't like is the lack of an LSD, I like to have the back moving about on me in cars well as the lotus will understeer a bit at the moment and you can't get it to push on into oversteer without being silly and very committed. I guess I'll keep being silly to when I'm in the Caterham!
And with my Caterham. Pretty pleased with the numberplates, a bit of fun!
The seats in the car are lovely looking but not the best for long journeys. I think I'll get some cushions made up for it so it becomes easier to live with day to day!
I still haven't driven the Lotus much as I've been away for work, but my initial impressions are that it's a lot faster than the Caterham and that the engine is brilliantly suited to the car. It is of course impractical although I can fit my camera gear in which is good! The electronics are very impressive too, you feel very safe in the car because of this which is nice in less than ideal conditions. Only thing I don't like is the lack of an LSD, I like to have the back moving about on me in cars well as the lotus will understeer a bit at the moment and you can't get it to push on into oversteer without being silly and very committed. I guess I'll keep being silly to when I'm in the Caterham!
And with my Caterham. Pretty pleased with the numberplates, a bit of fun!
The seats in the car are lovely looking but not the best for long journeys. I think I'll get some cushions made up for it so it becomes easier to live with day to day!
C7 JFW said:
Logical choice - I like that a lot.
Interested to hear more about the engine - bit surprised there's no LSD, I thought the WHOLE point about Lotus' (other than no weight) was that they did everything properly, mechanical diffs etc?
The Evora didn't (doesn't) have one either, Lotus just said it didn't need it and given the reviews I guess they were right.Interested to hear more about the engine - bit surprised there's no LSD, I thought the WHOLE point about Lotus' (other than no weight) was that they did everything properly, mechanical diffs etc?
jaik said:
Lovely stuff. You should be able to dial out that understeer with a geo setup. I dailyed a 2008 Elise for a year and loved it. The only impracticality that bothered me was worrying about where it was parked.
He could but its probably driving style. With no wiehgt in the front you need the front tucked into the corner before accelerating, its not like a front engined car with all the weight at the opposite end.Frimley111R said:
He could but its probably driving style. With no wiehgt in the front you need the front tucked into the corner before accelerating, its not like a front engined car with all the weight at the opposite end.
I know how to drive a mid engined car, used to own a VX220 so I'm aware of where you need to have the weight etc. Setup still needs some tweaking though I think. I played with the Caterham setup quite a lot before I was happy with how it drives, now it's brilliant, lots of grip for when pushing on but then can also slide it about if you fancy it!
PaulJC84 said:
Looks great, I follow your pictures on Instagram and was pleased when you got this as its one of my favourite cars available at the moment. Any plans mod wise or trips?
I will wrap the back panel but apart from that nothing planned for this year. Taking it to Wales, hopefully with the Caterham soon. Then will start planning a big road trip in it for next year 
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