I love my GT4, but Lotus Exige... Wow!
09-08-2016, 04:43 PM
#1
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I love my GT4, but Lotus Exige... Wow!
I was recently handed the keys to my buddy Kalson's modified Exige, an open Ridge Motorsports Park to myself and told to give'r.
It's been a while since I've driven an Elise/Exige and the first time I've driven one on a track. The experience was ethereal. The Exige is effortlessly light, nearly free of momentum and so utterly fluid. I was hooked after only a few laps and did not want to get out!
This is the first car I've driven which makes the GT4 feel a bit heavy and sluggish. I have to give credit where credit is due: the Exige is a better track car. It's lighter, more responsive, has fewer electronics and is easier on tires and brakes. Not to mention that delicious unassisted steering which is perfectly weighted and brimming with old school sinewy feedback. I miss steering of old. It's right up there with the 997 GT3 steering for feel and feedback.
I jumped back into the GT4 after the Exige and I still love my car. But every corner I could feel where the extra weight and momentum was costing me in effort, fluidity, tires and brakes. The GT4 is a supreme all rounder, but if track days are the primary activity, then I would prefer an Exige. I really want an Exige for track days and keep the GT4 as the all round street car. The GT4 is a real car, after all. I don't think I could live with an Exige (especially Kalson's one) day to day or on any kind of road trip. His car was so loud I couldn't hear myself speak during the recording. A stock Exige is much more liveable, but they are still pretty harsh and tinny on the street in my experience.
What are your experiences? Any current or past Lotus owners on here? What did you have?
Last edited by driveopolis; 09-08-2016 at 05:28 PM.
09-08-2016, 05:43 PM
#4
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Past Lotus owner, mildly modded track ready Elise R succeeded by a Evora S. Build quality was horrible, we still tell the stories of 10+ visits a year to the garage to our Porsche driving friends when we want to have a laugh. Every possible mistake, my cars (both) had them: Flying headlights, broken radiator (multiple times), electronic gremlins, wheel bearings defunct, brakes discs contorted, dashboard replaced (again, multiple times), trim on A pillar loose... I could go on for hours.
I sold my Evora when the catalytic converters crumbled away and destroyed the complete sports exhaust, after just 20,000 miles. Dealer called me and told me its 3 months out of warranty and will cost me $5,000+. Told him he can keep the car and shall just wire some money.
Initially, I liked how the Elise / 4-cylinder Exige drive, but learnt the hard way that they are not very predictable. Evora was much better / more stable.
2 Porsches (Macan aside), and zero problems, despite noumerous track days. Lotus? Never again, they are at the brink of bankruptcy forever for a reason.
I sold my Evora when the catalytic converters crumbled away and destroyed the complete sports exhaust, after just 20,000 miles. Dealer called me and told me its 3 months out of warranty and will cost me $5,000+. Told him he can keep the car and shall just wire some money.
Initially, I liked how the Elise / 4-cylinder Exige drive, but learnt the hard way that they are not very predictable. Evora was much better / more stable.
2 Porsches (Macan aside), and zero problems, despite noumerous track days. Lotus? Never again, they are at the brink of bankruptcy forever for a reason.
09-08-2016, 05:44 PM
#5
Three Wheelin'
Still have my '05 Elise since new. Quite a few track oriented mods including rose jointed suspension. Mine is naturally aspirated so it's not that fast in a straight line, but name of the game is the experience.
Haven't watched the video yet, but your subjective thoughts are pretty accurate. For 30-60 minutes at a time, the Lotus is still a great rush, even compared to my GT4. A lot more feel coming at you. Feels more raw. Teaches you how to drive properly. The light weight feel is pretty unique. In its day, people said the same thing against similarly priced cars like S2000. Livability wise, taking the top off helps a lot. For those drives that are longer or more every day in nature, much rather be in the GT4.
Elise / Exige far more reliable than Evoras it seems. Elises / Exiges need a lot of little mods to improve small things like shifter feel, etc. Aftermarket shocks to make handling more predictable. Consumables cost 1/2 the price and last 2x as long. Awesome car once dialed in...those who say car is hard to handle need to drive a sorted one.
On flip side, GT4 is a super high quality item out of the box, great build quality. Can DD and track in the same car! Really quite amazing duality. Has more driving feel than I expected. I feel very safe and secure in it. Perfect blend of a car for me, though as a pure weekend car, could be a bit more raw. The benefit of the civility of this car is that you can just drive, drive, drive, and never get tired. It's so good.
Here's Matt Farah driving my Lotus:
Haven't watched the video yet, but your subjective thoughts are pretty accurate. For 30-60 minutes at a time, the Lotus is still a great rush, even compared to my GT4. A lot more feel coming at you. Feels more raw. Teaches you how to drive properly. The light weight feel is pretty unique. In its day, people said the same thing against similarly priced cars like S2000. Livability wise, taking the top off helps a lot. For those drives that are longer or more every day in nature, much rather be in the GT4.
Elise / Exige far more reliable than Evoras it seems. Elises / Exiges need a lot of little mods to improve small things like shifter feel, etc. Aftermarket shocks to make handling more predictable. Consumables cost 1/2 the price and last 2x as long. Awesome car once dialed in...those who say car is hard to handle need to drive a sorted one.
On flip side, GT4 is a super high quality item out of the box, great build quality. Can DD and track in the same car! Really quite amazing duality. Has more driving feel than I expected. I feel very safe and secure in it. Perfect blend of a car for me, though as a pure weekend car, could be a bit more raw. The benefit of the civility of this car is that you can just drive, drive, drive, and never get tired. It's so good.
Here's Matt Farah driving my Lotus:
09-08-2016, 06:22 PM
#7
Not surprised. I've been on the fence about selling my GT4 and picking up an Elise or Exige for awhile now. The only thing keeping me from doing that is I already have a raw track car (S2K) and the GT4 makes for a comfortable and fast daily driver for me. But my S2K is far more engaging, raw, and lighter feeling than my GT4 so I can only imagine an Exige being an even bigger step in that direction. Thanks for making the decision to just keep the GT4 harder. 
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09-08-2016, 08:27 PM
#8
Three Wheelin'
Sam,
Another thought on this as I went back through my thinking over the years on why I never caged my Elise. It's all about horses for courses. Of course a Radical would also be a much more ideal tool for the track than any Porsche or any road based Lotus. But the Radical is 100% unusable on the street. If I had caged my Elise, it would have lost whatever utility it still has for the street. Right now, my Elise is still awesome as a car to go on a 1 hour drive in the mountains or grab some breakfast in on a Sunday morning. You put it away in the garage after that and feel satisfied until next week. If you REALLY want a true track car, it needs a cage, halo seat, nets, etc. All these things ruin a car for street. Anyway, my Elise is much more civil than the wide body Exige you drove, but I really don't want to make my Elise any more track oriented unless it becomes a dedicated track car. But even then, how do you get it to the track? Everyone has to find that right balance of rawness and usability for how they intend to use the car.
Back to the GT4. Imagine you have to drive 2-3 hours to the track. Much easier to do that in a GT4 than my Elise, much less a track prepped Exige. On a mountain road, GT4 thrills in a different way, it just doesn't beat you up. And the GT4 is still a supremely capable car, let's not forget that. Much faster than an Elise in the right hands.
For mountain driving, the ratio of me picking the keys to the GT4 over Elise is probably 75% / 25%. The longer the drive, the more likely I am to pick the GT4; the tighter the roads, the more likely I am to pick the Elise. I can use the GT4 on any given day. The Elise I have to be in the right mood. But when I am in the right mood, it's incredibly unique.
Cliff notes: This is why people have large car collections. Different experiences and different uses. There is no ONE car that is all things.
Another thought on this as I went back through my thinking over the years on why I never caged my Elise. It's all about horses for courses. Of course a Radical would also be a much more ideal tool for the track than any Porsche or any road based Lotus. But the Radical is 100% unusable on the street. If I had caged my Elise, it would have lost whatever utility it still has for the street. Right now, my Elise is still awesome as a car to go on a 1 hour drive in the mountains or grab some breakfast in on a Sunday morning. You put it away in the garage after that and feel satisfied until next week. If you REALLY want a true track car, it needs a cage, halo seat, nets, etc. All these things ruin a car for street. Anyway, my Elise is much more civil than the wide body Exige you drove, but I really don't want to make my Elise any more track oriented unless it becomes a dedicated track car. But even then, how do you get it to the track? Everyone has to find that right balance of rawness and usability for how they intend to use the car.
Back to the GT4. Imagine you have to drive 2-3 hours to the track. Much easier to do that in a GT4 than my Elise, much less a track prepped Exige. On a mountain road, GT4 thrills in a different way, it just doesn't beat you up. And the GT4 is still a supremely capable car, let's not forget that. Much faster than an Elise in the right hands.
For mountain driving, the ratio of me picking the keys to the GT4 over Elise is probably 75% / 25%. The longer the drive, the more likely I am to pick the GT4; the tighter the roads, the more likely I am to pick the Elise. I can use the GT4 on any given day. The Elise I have to be in the right mood. But when I am in the right mood, it's incredibly unique.
Cliff notes: This is why people have large car collections. Different experiences and different uses. There is no ONE car that is all things.
09-08-2016, 09:08 PM
#9
our old private track day group originally was all 996 GT3s. one day Jack showed up with an elise and passed it around .in three mouths it was 100% lotus for track. I had an elise then a well set up exgise s(nitrons ect). 10,000+ track mies over 8 yrs it made my 996 GT2& GT3 feel like driving a bus. sold both of them. Problem as a real car there awful track @1900lbs +240hp hard to beat.
09-09-2016, 01:07 AM
#11
I'm waiting for ExMB's critique before I make a final judgment on the video 
09-09-2016, 02:10 PM
#14
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Thread Starter
Thanks Shockwave!
Yeah, sounds like that's the consensus on this thread!
Wow, thanks for sharing your experiences. It's a real turn off when a car spends that much time under repair for things that should not really have a fault to begin with.
Awesome, thanks for the insight, Vantage! I totally agree on the GT4's civility. I've done a couple long days in mine and still felt like I could keep going by day's end. Good to hear that the Exige/Elise is more reliable than the Evoras and Sven's experiences above.
The S2k is a different experience as well (I used to have an '04 Sebring Silver) so you really should just have all three!
You are totally right about the importance of civility when you drive your car to the track. The Ridge is a 5 hour drive for me. On any given track day, I will be driving all day then still have to drive home afterwards. Pretty happy to be in the comfort of the GT4 on my way home!
Whatever state your Elise might be in, I'm still jealous, because one Sunday morning drive a week to get breakfast would scratch the itch pretty well, along with a few track days a year. So long as your Elise is drive able to the track -- and it sounds like it is -- you've got it good. I agree, there's no way to have everything in one car and that's a real good reason to buy more of them.
Haha, sounds like everyone was converted after one drive. Thanks for the anecdote!
Thanks blackmist! I appreciate the encouragement. You're right, if the GT4 was modded to be more track focused, it too will become a different animal. But mass is still mass and it would be difficult to approach the Lotus on the scales no matter the mods. I'm sure the GT4 could be made to be faster and more raw though!
Knowledge is not knowledge until I've experienced it first hand.
Yeah, sounds like that's the consensus on this thread!
Past Lotus owner, mildly modded track ready Elise R succeeded by a Evora S. Build quality was horrible, we still tell the stories of 10+ visits a year to the garage to our Porsche driving friends when we want to have a laugh. Every possible mistake, my cars (both) had them: Flying headlights, broken radiator (multiple times), electronic gremlins, wheel bearings defunct, brakes discs contorted, dashboard replaced (again, multiple times), trim on A pillar loose... I could go on for hours.
I sold my Evora when the catalytic converters crumbled away and destroyed the complete sports exhaust, after just 20,000 miles. Dealer called me and told me its 3 months out of warranty and will cost me $5,000+. Told him he can keep the car and shall just wire some money.
Initially, I liked how the Elise / 4-cylinder Exige drive, but learnt the hard way that they are not very predictable. Evora was much better / more stable.
2 Porsches (Macan aside), and zero problems, despite noumerous track days. Lotus? Never again, they are at the brink of bankruptcy forever for a reason.
I sold my Evora when the catalytic converters crumbled away and destroyed the complete sports exhaust, after just 20,000 miles. Dealer called me and told me its 3 months out of warranty and will cost me $5,000+. Told him he can keep the car and shall just wire some money.
Initially, I liked how the Elise / 4-cylinder Exige drive, but learnt the hard way that they are not very predictable. Evora was much better / more stable.
2 Porsches (Macan aside), and zero problems, despite noumerous track days. Lotus? Never again, they are at the brink of bankruptcy forever for a reason.
Still have my '05 Elise since new. Quite a few track oriented mods including rose jointed suspension. Mine is naturally aspirated so it's not that fast in a straight line, but name of the game is the experience.
Haven't watched the video yet, but your subjective thoughts are pretty accurate. For 30-60 minutes at a time, the Lotus is still a great rush, even compared to my GT4. A lot more feel coming at you. Feels more raw. Teaches you how to drive properly. The light weight feel is pretty unique. In its day, people said the same thing against similarly priced cars like S2000. Livability wise, taking the top off helps a lot. For those drives that are longer or more every day in nature, much rather be in the GT4.
Elise / Exige far more reliable than Evoras it seems. Elises / Exiges need a lot of little mods to improve small things like shifter feel, etc. Aftermarket shocks to make handling more predictable. Consumables cost 1/2 the price and last 2x as long. Awesome car once dialed in...those who say car is hard to handle need to drive a sorted one.
On flip side, GT4 is a super high quality item out of the box, great build quality. Can DD and track in the same car! Really quite amazing duality. Has more driving feel than I expected. I feel very safe and secure in it. Perfect blend of a car for me, though as a pure weekend car, could be a bit more raw. The benefit of the civility of this car is that you can just drive, drive, drive, and never get tired. It's so good.
Here's Matt Farah driving my Lotus:
Modified Lotus Elise - One Take - YouTube
Haven't watched the video yet, but your subjective thoughts are pretty accurate. For 30-60 minutes at a time, the Lotus is still a great rush, even compared to my GT4. A lot more feel coming at you. Feels more raw. Teaches you how to drive properly. The light weight feel is pretty unique. In its day, people said the same thing against similarly priced cars like S2000. Livability wise, taking the top off helps a lot. For those drives that are longer or more every day in nature, much rather be in the GT4.
Elise / Exige far more reliable than Evoras it seems. Elises / Exiges need a lot of little mods to improve small things like shifter feel, etc. Aftermarket shocks to make handling more predictable. Consumables cost 1/2 the price and last 2x as long. Awesome car once dialed in...those who say car is hard to handle need to drive a sorted one.
On flip side, GT4 is a super high quality item out of the box, great build quality. Can DD and track in the same car! Really quite amazing duality. Has more driving feel than I expected. I feel very safe and secure in it. Perfect blend of a car for me, though as a pure weekend car, could be a bit more raw. The benefit of the civility of this car is that you can just drive, drive, drive, and never get tired. It's so good.
Here's Matt Farah driving my Lotus:
Modified Lotus Elise - One Take - YouTube
Not surprised. I've been on the fence about selling my GT4 and picking up an Elise or Exige for awhile now. The only thing keeping me from doing that is I already have a raw track car (S2K) and the GT4 makes for a comfortable and fast daily driver for me. But my S2K is far more engaging, raw, and lighter feeling than my GT4 so I can only imagine an Exige being an even bigger step in that direction. Thanks for making the decision to just keep the GT4 harder.
Sam,
Another thought on this as I went back through my thinking over the years on why I never caged my Elise. It's all about horses for courses. Of course a Radical would also be a much more ideal tool for the track than any Porsche or any road based Lotus. But the Radical is 100% unusable on the street. If I had caged my Elise, it would have lost whatever utility it still has for the street. Right now, my Elise is still awesome as a car to go on a 1 hour drive in the mountains or grab some breakfast in on a Sunday morning. You put it away in the garage after that and feel satisfied until next week. If you REALLY want a true track car, it needs a cage, halo seat, nets, etc. All these things ruin a car for street. Anyway, my Elise is much more civil than the wide body Exige you drove, but I really don't want to make my Elise any more track oriented unless it becomes a dedicated track car. But even then, how do you get it to the track? Everyone has to find that right balance of rawness and usability for how they intend to use the car.
Back to the GT4. Imagine you have to drive 2-3 hours to the track. Much easier to do that in a GT4 than my Elise, much less a track prepped Exige. On a mountain road, GT4 thrills in a different way, it just doesn't beat you up. And the GT4 is still a supremely capable car, let's not forget that. Much faster than an Elise in the right hands.
For mountain driving, the ratio of me picking the keys to the GT4 over Elise is probably 75% / 25%. The longer the drive, the more likely I am to pick the GT4; the tighter the roads, the more likely I am to pick the Elise. I can use the GT4 on any given day. The Elise I have to be in the right mood. But when I am in the right mood, it's incredibly unique.
Cliff notes: This is why people have large car collections. Different experiences and different uses. There is no ONE car that is all things.
Another thought on this as I went back through my thinking over the years on why I never caged my Elise. It's all about horses for courses. Of course a Radical would also be a much more ideal tool for the track than any Porsche or any road based Lotus. But the Radical is 100% unusable on the street. If I had caged my Elise, it would have lost whatever utility it still has for the street. Right now, my Elise is still awesome as a car to go on a 1 hour drive in the mountains or grab some breakfast in on a Sunday morning. You put it away in the garage after that and feel satisfied until next week. If you REALLY want a true track car, it needs a cage, halo seat, nets, etc. All these things ruin a car for street. Anyway, my Elise is much more civil than the wide body Exige you drove, but I really don't want to make my Elise any more track oriented unless it becomes a dedicated track car. But even then, how do you get it to the track? Everyone has to find that right balance of rawness and usability for how they intend to use the car.
Back to the GT4. Imagine you have to drive 2-3 hours to the track. Much easier to do that in a GT4 than my Elise, much less a track prepped Exige. On a mountain road, GT4 thrills in a different way, it just doesn't beat you up. And the GT4 is still a supremely capable car, let's not forget that. Much faster than an Elise in the right hands.
For mountain driving, the ratio of me picking the keys to the GT4 over Elise is probably 75% / 25%. The longer the drive, the more likely I am to pick the GT4; the tighter the roads, the more likely I am to pick the Elise. I can use the GT4 on any given day. The Elise I have to be in the right mood. But when I am in the right mood, it's incredibly unique.
Cliff notes: This is why people have large car collections. Different experiences and different uses. There is no ONE car that is all things.
Whatever state your Elise might be in, I'm still jealous, because one Sunday morning drive a week to get breakfast would scratch the itch pretty well, along with a few track days a year. So long as your Elise is drive able to the track -- and it sounds like it is -- you've got it good. I agree, there's no way to have everything in one car and that's a real good reason to buy more of them.
our old private track day group originally was all 996 GT3s. one day Jack showed up with an elise and passed it around .in three mouths it was 100% lotus for track. I had an elise then a well set up exgise s(nitrons ect). 10,000+ track mies over 8 yrs it made my 996 GT2& GT3 feel like driving a bus. sold both of them. Problem as a real car there awful track @1900lbs +240hp hard to beat.
Knowledge is not knowledge until I've experienced it first hand.
09-09-2016, 04:58 PM
#15
Try a Exige V6! 