Would suit:
Real-world racers.
Price:
£33 395 (about R456 500).
Maximum speed:
240km/h, 0-100km/h 4.1sec.
Combined fuel consumption:
9.16 litres/100km.
Due for South African release:
Early 2007.
The new Lotus Exige S passes the crucial nose-picking test with ease. When considering a car's visual impact I always ask myself if I can pick my nose while driving it (and on occasion carry out the required field tests).
I don't mean "will I crash if I have a quick rummage?", of course, but more "will anyone notice my probing?"
Leaving aside the hygiene issues - not to mention, the question of what to do with your nasal bounty - it is an excellent test of what Autocar would call a car's "head-turning ability".
Drive down the road in a Lamborghini Gallardo or, when it was still new, the new Beetle for instance, and you can be fairly sure that someone will be looking at you all of the time.
No chance for a bit of a poke about there, then. Drive a Vauxhall, however, and you can probe your proboscis to your heart's content.
Though it is still a striking car, the sheer ubiquity of the standard Elise - which has been around for over 10 years now - means that people rarely give them a second glance. Pick away, Elise owners!
But the track-devil Exige S, which is based on the Elise, has a huge rear wing, an anodised diffuser at the back, a deep front splitter and moody alloy wheels.
Instead of a rear window, it has a louvred engine cover with a big air scoop on top. Glance underneath and it is as smooth as a surfboard for optimum aerodynamic effect.
It looks like a very cross wasp; people stop and stare and point when you drive it - with an added look of appalled fascination if you happen to have your index finger jammed up your nostril at the time.
The Exige S is the fastest-accelerating production car Lotus has yet made (and that includes the V8 Esprit) but the company swears it's a car that you can use every day.
It says the car has relatively forgiving suspension and a flexible engine, which is true. The media pack even asks: "Is this the quickest real-world production car?"
Well, that depends on your definition of the real world, I suppose. Mine would include being able to see something in the rear-view mirror, for example, and getting in without looking like you're trying to squeeze into a priest's hole (unlike the Elise, you can't remove the roof).
I'd also probably like some luggage space and to be able to hear.
Tether it in high winds
What Lotus means, of course, is that the Exige is small and wieldy; that it can out-corner a mosquito. And it's true - I don't think I have ever driven a road car that could corner with the pace and balance of the Exige and few have steering as precise and deliciously reactive.
Though its engine produces "only" 165kW, the car weighs less than your laptop and must be tethered when parked in case of high winds.
That means it has a power-to-weight ratio approaching a fairly serious motorcycle ridden by a fat bloke. It is faster than a Ferrari, yet is only a third of the price.
Supercharger
There are sports cars that sound better. The Lotus has a four-cylinder, Toyota engine with a Roots-type supercharger (the simplest type of power booster, which works very well at low revs) and it sounds mostly like a washing machine - except at high revs, when it sounds like a washing machine that's about to explode.
But at least the Exige comes with things such as traction control, crash bags and carpets.
Ready, almost, for the real world.