How will these two mid engined cars compare as far as handling, braking, acceleration and light track duty? Obviously the Cayman will be more practical and user friendly. We should get the Exige in the US. A super charger might become available at some point IMO, although we won't get the Exige 240R.

 

apples and oranges

 

Why apples & oranges? They are both 2 seater sports cars, mid engined, rear wheel drive. Both by companies with extensive racing history. Pretty close in pricing. I'll probably get one or the other. Yeah they have nothing in common except everything mentioned above!

 

Yeah, I just looked up the 3/05 R&T which had a "Best All-Around Sports Car" comparo. A 987 S was included as well as an Elise.

The test was done on the street and Buttonwillow West Loop - AND utilized one driver on the track (Steve Millen) to get the times. The 987 S ran a 67.27 and the Elise a 68.65 which is a pretty sound thrashing on a 1.6 mile track. The Elise runs a 4.6 0-60 vs the 987 S 5.0, but wait - the Boxster runs a 13.4 @ 105 to the Elise's 13.3 @103.1 so it's clear that the Elise is falling off up high (aero and horsepower challenged). The Boxster out brakes the Elise by a good margin, and out slaloms it by 1.3 mph. Elise does have better static grip with a higher skidpad number.

The Elise is probably harder to drive (not necessarily bad - it probably doesn't mask mistakes as much, but if you 'know' what you're doing it probably rewards with good pace).

I think alot of Elise enthusiasts enjoy the 'pure' experience you get from the Elise - a 2000lb more focused car vs a car essentially 3000lbs (3130 as tested by R&T).

...interesting to see the other times, the regular C6 corvette won the comparo (price played a role price as tested was $53.545, and amazing value - 987 S second, 997 S third) and had the best lap time of 66.32. The 997 S ran a 66.71.

 

one can talk about all the difference there is b/n cayman and exige. it won't make much sense until you drive the. for now, if you can drive a boxster S vs an elise.. that would be as close as cayman vs. exige. once you drove both, it will be extremely obvious why the two cars are apple vs orange. there's nothing in common b/n the two.

 

Agreed - what I really find interesting is that the 987 S is effectively a compromise car - fine for daily driving but a good track day toy, and the Elise is really a very thinly disguised pure trackday toy, yet the Boxster aces it completly at the track.

I'd expect the Cayman S to do the same to the Exige. And yes, I think if I wanted a pure track toy, why not a Radical or Super 7. It's nice though to have a car you can drive 6 hrs to a trackday in and get out refreshed - do that in an Elise (exige) and you'd qualify to triple stint at LeMans.

The R&T rankings don't bug me - I actually agree that the C6 is the best pure bargain up front, but resale on a 987 S in three years will be significantly better than a C6. Also the base C6 price would have been 45K - they added a ton of options to that as well. It matters not - the 987 S is one amazing performer and a refined package as well.

 

Hello.. new to the forum.

The exige is a completely different car, with different principles. There is probably less compromise with the exige than there would be with the caymen. The caymen wont be as light, and will feature too much luxury to even fit the comparism. Perhaps a Caymen RS would compete much better.

 

ehh..perhaps. but the M3 barely even competes.

 

And what does that have to do with the Cayman? Now we are looking at an apples to oranges to bananas comparison.

Exige = bare bones almost race car

Cayman S = sports car with a balaned approach

M3 = Overweight glorified sedan

 

Well, the M3 is most probably the only competetor for the Caymen, that BMW can give... Thats why it falls into context. But initially, its just an overweight coupe which would most likely be beaten by both.

 

The Exige will be the much purer track car. The Cayman weighs around 55% more and has power everything. The Exige's manual steering will be much more involving. With a dealer installed S/C (planned), the Exige would probably be the much faster track car.

 

Never was it mentioned the M3 would ever outrun any BoxsterS or Caymen...just so, that it was in comparism territory.

The M3 stock is rather slow and abit of a bore to drive... I've driven my son's...trust me, Im certain a caymen would do better on a track.

 

I predict that the Z4M will be faster (in a straight line at a minimum) than a Cayman S for less money, but it will not provide the same level of driving involvement. It will probably have the current M3's 333hp I-6, but the chassis is not as rigid and the weight distribution and brakes are outclassed by the C7s...

 

wow, so now it is elise, cayman, boxster and m3....
there seems to be lots of confusion here.
ppl often say that elise is pure track car blah blah etc. well it's more of a track car compared to "normal cars" like porsches and bmws. but by all means it isn't really track ready. i had the sport pkg. i thought it was too soft and another experienced driver tracked once and thought it was WAY too soft for track. put in another 6-8k, then it's good.

m3, i assume you are talkiing about E46m3? yes at 3400lbs, it's like the titanic. but it can be made into a great track car. strip everything out of it and put some REAL suspension on it. but then, it's not a streetable car.

cayman, i have not driven one yet. so can't comment.

we are just all too spoiled ;-)

 

btw, exige is just like the elise. same motor same suspension (if your elise had sport pkg). exige has more aero but it's not faster. cost a lot more money than elise.