The Lotus Exige is one of the Lotus entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 2000, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. Its designer of record is Julian Thomson.
How it came about
The Lotus Exige is a sports car made by the British company Lotus Cars from 2000 until 2021. Originally a coupé version of the Lotus Elise roadster, since the Series 3 the Exige has been the larger-engined model of the family, featuring a V6 engine in place of the Elise's straight-four. Convertible versions of both models are available. Exige is French and means "demand"/"require".
Under the skin
The record carries the layout — and the layout: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Lotus's history is not in doubt: the Lotus Emira followed it; it was built at Hethel, Norfolk, United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Hyundai Santa Fe, the Škoda Auto Škoda Fabia, the Toyota Yaris. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.