Lotus Excel Reviews

Fine if you are a ``Bogan.''It will also buy you a sleek, lightweight, 1.8-litre, Lotus Elise S two-seater with race-bred dynamics, a removable soft top and enough poke to see off most of the boofy V8s. Come to a set of curves and it's definitely all over.Weighing in at 860kg gives the Elise S an impressive power to weight ratio which explains why the naturally aspirated, 100kW/173Nm, 1.8-litre Toyota engine pushes it from 0-100km/h in a scant 6.1 seconds.But we are just scratching the surface of what this delightful little car has to offer. It is tiny even compared to most other sports cars and is spartan inside though better than before.The startling looks are designed to scythe through the air while the flat undertray with rear diffusers further aids aerodynamics. Large vents funnel air to the engine's radiators in the rear quarters and the entire car stands barely more than a metre high.The Elise S is more of an everyday car than its hard-top stablemate  the supercharged Exige S. Though still challenging to get into with the roof on, the Elise S will happily trundle along in city traffic with the aircon cooling its occupants and the Alpine audio blazing away.On weekends, it will relish a dose of club track day activity rewarding the driver with race-car handling and performance at a controllable cost. Fuel, brake pads, tyres won't be a critical issue.This is the latest version of the Elise that has been around for quite a few years now, starting life with an awful Rover K-Series engine but moving on up since Toyota power was bolted amidships. Interior enhancements include splashes of pukka carbon fibre texture leather and a new instrument pod. It has key remote central locking and dual airbags along with ABS, aircon and Alpine sound.The soft top is easily removed and stowed in the "boot'' behind the engine. You can actually see out the rear view mirror and though manually adjusted, the side mirrors are well positioned and relatively easy to move.This is Lotus's entry-level model but is available with two option packs, not that you would need them. There are also some new colours.On our test drive we were stirred by the raunchy exhaust note and feel of the direct steering. The five-speed gear change is like a rifle bolt action and the brakes are super strong. We have always been impressed by the chassis strength of the Elise and Exige which remains the same as before, even with the roof off. But pedal placement is problematic being offset to the centre and too close together. Despite the diminuitive dimensions, drivers of 183cm can find a comfy driving position. All necessary information is housed in the compact instrument pod including a gear change warning light as the engine nears redline.This car is all about pushing hard through turns. It sits flat and grabs the tarmac with grippy Yokohama tyres to the point where you will end up with a sore neck from the G-forces. When you go home like that, you know you've been having fun.

Nosing into a city street someone volubly denounces me with the word that rhymes with “banker.”Harsh ... must be the collar and tie.“I'd rather have a car in this colour,” I tell the sturdy yeoman with the loud shirt and mouth to match, “than have to be wearing it to work.”If it's not easy being this shade of green, it works on the Lotus for the same reason as old mate's clobber. This low-slung projectile is in constant danger of becoming a mobile speed hump for a bargee in an SUV. It pays to be visible.If this hue is not for shy and retiring types, then neither is is the 2008 Exige S, least of all with the $11,000 optional Performance Pack.This is good for 179kW/230Nm, equalling the limited edition Sport 240. There's new instruments and alarm/immobiliser. The power hike comes via a Magnuson/Eaton M62 supercharger, faster flowing injectors, higher torque clutch system and an upsized roof scoop. So the Exige S PP can achieve 100km/h from standing in 4.16 seconds.The 245km/h top speed is barely short of the track-only 2-Eleven that recently made carsguide gibber. As always with Lotus, the key is found in the power to (light) weight equation; 191kW per tonne. At 935kg, this is a pocket supercar for a mere fraction of the ask.The hero feature combines the launch control and variable traction control function from the 2-Eleven. A dial on the steering column selects starting revs for optimum standing starts. Shove down the loud pedal (seldom is that term for the accelerator more apt than with Lotus), let go the clutch and almost immediately the horizon has become the foreground.The traction control's degree of intervention is similarly adjustable, to the extent of 30 increments, from 7 per cent tyre slip to all bets off. The launch function, which we sampled on the 2-Eleven, was not set up on our car. That might be as well, because while the Exige S is a track-day rapier we perversely did some 500km on the goat-tracks that pass for public roads in NSW. On the more isolated of these, the Exige shakes a few rubes from their reverie.Torque surges on smoothly from about 3500rpm, the power 1500rpm later, and crescendos massively until eight grand. If you tire of this visceral rush, then you're tired of life. The accelerative thrill is matched aurally with a supercharged whine that — mere centimetres from the back of your head — sounds otherworldly. Steering that's unadulterated by assistance completes the Lotus equation.Ride is, of course, awful on all but the state's ever rarer expanses of smooth tarmac. Yet the fact we went out for a bit of a steer and just sort of kept going for 500 clicks, says everything. SnapshotLotus Exige SPrice: $114,990 (Performance Pack $11,000)Engine: 1.8L/4-cylinder supercharged; 179kW/230NmEconomy: 9.1L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual; RWD 

You can have them all for a fraction of the price.P1 is a multi-million dollar version of a car-rental company but you need to be quick if you want to be a part of the action.Less than a year after launching its Melbourne office, memberships in the exclusive and expensive rental company are running out.More than 135 Australians have signed up and the company will limit its membership to 200 to make sure there are enough cars to go around.“We'll never go above 200 members,” says James Ward, general manager of P1 in Victoria, “basically to maintain a ratio of five new members for each new car.”Though only 29 vehicles are spread across the company's three Australian locations — in Richmond, Sydney and the Gold Coast — the quality of the cars and motorbikes has seen the company lay out $29 million on equipment.Set up by former Formula One world champion Damon Hill in 2000 in Britain, the club came to Australia in December 2006. The Richmond branch opened last March.Members can join for $4550 and pay annual charges ranging from $27,000 to $36,500 to have access to a dream garage.P1's roster includes three examples of the Lamborghini Gallardo, a Lamborghini Murcielago, Ferrari 430, Ferrari 575M, Aston Martin DB9, Bentley GT Continental, Porsche 997 GT3, Porsche Cayman S, Audi RS4 Avant, Lotus Exige, Hummer H2, and a Ducati 1098 and BMW K1200 for bikers.Packages give customers a bank of points to use through the year.As is befitting the cost, the company offers a range of services. They drop off the cars anywhere they are required and can store and wash the customer's personal car.“It's as much about the car as it is about the service,” Ward says . “It's whatever suits our customers.” 

That's because the Rinspeed sQuba can literally dive under the water and continue to operate submerged, just like a submarine.

And lack of the latter makes for a truly formidable amount of the former. With a power-to-weight ratio of 3.9kg per kilowatt and performance to do over supercars with price tags to make the Lotus's $127,500 seem modest.At 3.9 seconds from standing to 100km/h and 8.9 seconds to 160km/h, it'd be faster than all of them here at Oran Park.Ripping down its straight last week, even this most tentative track-day pilot felt what it was to easily exceed that speed. The bare numbers tell the story but can't begin to convey the sensation of experiencing them in this windowless open topper. Fabulously agile, instantly responsive and completely, utterly, involving; the 2-Eleven is everything you love about Lotus, only more.It takes someone of the calibre of our host, Dean Evans, to demonstrate the car's dynamic potency.Yet even for a comparative novice, one who hadn't previously enjoyed Oran in its full openness, the Lotus is a total joy toy, thoroughly accessible and exhilarating.Even an impromptu spin, the result of fat headedness and ham- footedness, serves only to emphasise the 2-Eleven's general tolerance of driver dopiness.Settling into something approaching the correct lines, the variable traction control set for indulgence, we stay in the third cog of the six-speed gearbox all the way round, using the supercharged 1.8's tractability.Fourth is snicked only as the rev warning light flashes, the tacho approaching 8000rpm and the speedo 180km/h.If you've never sampled a Lotus you must, if only for the steering. Most manufacturers treat turning the wheel as an onerous chore and in relieving the effort, they will invariably diminish sensation.The 2-Eleven's steering is bursting with feel. Unadulterated by assistance, it is sabre sharp and almost disconcertingly direct but an utter joy.If only you could drive it to the shops. Sorry, but you'll have to keep a Europa on the side, because the 2-Eleven's cleared for track use only (and a full face helmet is an entirely necessary accessory). The 2-Eleven, first seen by most at the Australian International Motor Show, is the fastest production car in the marque's rich history.With only 100 to be built annually, head-turning is guaranteed on track days. Based on modified Exige S running gear, the 2-Eleven runs a Toyota-derived 1.8-litre supercharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve four-cylinder with variable valve timing and lift.Tuned to develop 188kW at 8000rpm, it's 16 per cent more powerful than the street-legal Exige S — and 20 per cent lighter. It's also more tractable, with an enhanced torque figure of 242Nm, so urge comes hot and strong and in linear fashion. The launch and traction controls are manipulated via the same system, the former providing starts of varying explosiveness, the latter a choice of 18 levels of electronic intervention from dictatorial to do and be damned.We've said it before (and the odds are short that we'll say it again) there just ain't nothing like a Lotus.

But what are hats and sunscreen for?Besides most of today's roadsters can get their fabric or folding metal lids up at the push of a button within half a minute. These are Carsguide's favourites: Affordable fun Mazda MX-5 Price: from $42,870Engine: 2L/4-cylinder; 118kW/188NmEconomy: 8.5L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or autoIf there was an annual award in this category it would reside perpetually in Mazda's trophy cabinet. The original MX-5 reinvented the classic Brit roadster adding such novel notions as performance and reliability.The third generation retains the 1989 model's exhilarating dynamics and sheer fluidity. If you don't find pleasure in the way an MX-5 drives you've probably ceased breathing.Purists might decry such modern innovations as air-con, power steering, ESP, a folding composite roof and (egad!) an auto transmission, but it hasn't been 1957 for some time now. Still others would rather it went quicker, but they're missing the point.The MX-5 is the affordable roadster. Track marqueLotus Elise SPrice: $69,990Engine: 1.8L/4-cylinder; 100kW/172NmEconomy: 8.3L/100kmTransmission: 5-speed manualThe salient figure here is 860 that's the number of kgs the entry-level Lotus weighs, or about 500 less than a Toyota Corolla whose engine this spartan roadster uses to get from standing to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds.While it's absolutely one for the enthusiast - or the fanatic - even if you've not the least wish to drive something so uncompromised (though a good deal more civilised than the Exige) you should at least be driven in a Lotus once. It'll open your eyes. Wide.At its best at track speeds, where the Lotus's wonderfully unassisted steering comes into its own and where it doesn't matter that it takes ages to assemble to roof, you can smilingly drive one every day. But beware barging SUVs. Zed's not dead Nissan 350Z RoadsterPrice: $73,990Engine: 3.5L/V6; 230kW/358NmEconomy: 12L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or 5-speed autoThe Roadster version of the still outstanding 350Z gives very little away to the coupe model and while the same-priced auto is a cog short of the manual's six, it's easy to live with in city traffic.Though we've yet to try the Roadster with the substantially new the faster V6 that causes the bonnet to bulge so priapically, our recent week in the revised Coupe suggests that it too will be more of an already good thing.It's almost impossible to believe that same company is responsible for the Tiida ... Gay tidingsAudi TT Roadster V6 quattroPrice: $92,900Engine: 3.2L/v6; 184kW/320NmEconomy: 9.6L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed DSGLike the coupe, the lighter front-wheel-drive with the GTI's turbo four pot is a better bet most of the time than the heftier all-wheel-drive, though it's not really a sports car there'll be moments when you'll love yourself for the latter's extra go and grip.Dispensing with the coupe's comedy back seat, there's ample room behind when with the fabric roof's folded. Some find the ride a bit terse; I don't but would still take the optional magnetic suspension.With performance and handling that are both entertaining and accessible while wrapped in such an aesthetically bell-ringing package, the TT is fairly loveable. If only ...Porsche Boxster SPrice: from $135,100Engine: 3.4L/6-cylinder; 217kW/340NmEconomy: 10.4 or 11L/100kmTransmission: 6-speed manual or 5-speed autoIn our rare idle moments hereabouts, certain of us scan the classifieds trying rather pathetically to convince ourselves that a used Boxster is almost within our reach. Almost. Well, maybe one day ...That's the problem with spending any amount of time in a Boxster, particularly, the top whack S. There's nothing wrong with it, you see. Well, maybe the ride on bigger tyres is just a bit savage, but so what when all else is perfect. It even sounds wonderful.At it's worst, the Boxster will make you hate yourself for not being a better driver. So sublimely intuitive is the handling, so poised and balanced does it feel even in extremis, it almost always feels capable of more. Even if you're not. Two plus twosAffordability aside, floating the open top proposition can founder on the fatal shores of practicality. Society frowns upon selling one's children, though surely financing a Boxster should be cause for sympathy.Still, Volkswagen's Eos (from $49,990) cabriolet/coupe comes is a practical, stylish and - with the drivetrain of the Golf GTI - tolerably rapid 2+2. It retains adequate bootage with the sophisticated folding metal lid, which can be configured five different way, folded down. Uniquely there's also a diesel option (from $48K), so you needn't use much juice.And there are further options afoot.With BMW's glorious twin-turbo 3-litre petrol six, the 135i cabriolet (due in June) will be by far the sharpest 2+2. Audi's A3 cabrio, likely to feature the 1.8-litre TFSI, follows in July.And if fortune smiles upon you to the tune of $1.19 there's the sensuous land yacht that is Rolls-Royce's Drophead coupe. Plenty of room in the back for the kids in this baby. 

Clad in vinyl and leather, the dozen girls on the stand could not avert (too many) eyes from the sculpted bodies of the two new Lotus recruits. Today saw the World debut of the Sport 240, a tricked-up Exige S with every racing modification a production car could offer. Specced by Lotus Cars Australia but built in Lotus Sport’s Hethel plant in England, only six bespoke 240s will make the southern journey for a landed price of $149,990. Three cars are branded with orange highlights on a black body, and the inverse is also available as an orange car with black splitter, spoiler and wheels. The supercharged Exige S powerplant is tuned further to produce 179kW, or 10 per cent more than the standard car. It is also given a limited slip diff (LSD), AP racing brakes, forged OZ alloys, launch control, and some go-fast body bits befitting a track-pack production car. The Sport 240 features another first for a car in this category; an 18-stage traction control system similar to those found in Formula One machines. While the theory is borrowed from F1, the actual technology is taken straight from Lotus’s newest track car, the 2-Eleven This is an extreme car, even for Lotus. Underneath it all, the wedge-on-wheels is actually also an Exige S; but without a roof; doors; even a windscreen. What it does have is 9kW more than the Sport 240 at 188kW, but even less weight at 745kg. It shares much of the same race-bred goodies, from the LSD to the brake package to the two-tone sports seats. The figures on paper are almost as impressive; 188kW at 8000rpm, 242Nm at an equally high 7000rpm, 0-100km/h in 3.9seconds (claimed), and a top speed of just under 250km/h. The 2-Eleven is not as exclusive as the Sport 240, with 100 cars built every year for a global market. But it is more affordable at $127,500. Bring the credit card; or make your significant other take it from you before you visit the Australian International Motor Show.  

The show has been expanded this year with additional internal and external displays.More than 50 new models will be unveiled amongst the 500 cars on display.Headliners include the world premieres of Mitsubishi's Evolution X cult car, the new generation Toyota LandCruiser featuring new Australian-developed suspension technology, and Holden's new sportswagon. Several other world premieres are expected.Other highlights include a Lexus that parks itself, and cutting-edge concept cars from BMW, Hyundai and Škoda, and new sportscars from Bufori, Lamborghini, Lotus and Maserati.View all the latest news and action on the official Australian International Motorshow website at www.australianmotorshow.com

According to the most recent monthly market bulletin, sales of soft-roaders are going off to an extraordinary extent, up by more than 40 per cent year-to-date in some categories in 2006.It would be pleasant to think the commercial success of vehicles designed to provide facility and comfort at the expense of any driverly satisfaction, indeed any sensation at all, was a temporary aberration.That we can't get enough of these cosseting, anodyne, soccer-mum mobiles marks us as self-obsessed, complacent and essentially disinterested in driving.We've had cause to expound on this grim fact of modern life more than once in the past week or so; as we came close to oblivion at the hands of yet another lane-barger automatically piloting the urban shopping vehicle.There might be some small excuse for an SUV owner (as opposed to 'driver') failing to see our low-slung and diminutive Lotus Elise S.But the bovine look on the dials of most we've been obliged to upbraid suggested they'd have been unaware of an Abrams tank.Wing mirrors, it increasingly appears, are considered useful primarily to assist reverse parking.If the greatest caveat to Lotus ownership in the automotive Sleepy Hollow of this metropolis is a very real danger of becoming a speed bump for an SUV, against that is the immense satisfaction of eschewing the prevailing decadence.A Lotus, especially the ultra-light entry-level Elise S, remains one of the most unadulterated, one of the purest, public road-going vehicles available. If you've the least sniff of petrol about you, you owe it to yourself to have a go at a Lotus at least once.Even if you're not so disposed, perhaps especially if you're not, then you ought to at least stick your head inside one. Then you'll see that it's possible to not only survive without the plethora of extraneous and distracting comforts with which most modern passenger vehicles are burdened, but to actually thrive in a way you've probably never considered.Not that Elise does without niceties. Unlike the hardcore Exige S, the rear-view mirror is made useful by there being a rear window you can see out of. There's also a stereo, twin Probax seats and even electric windows. It's just that there's no danger of mistaking the interior for a Mercedes-Benz SLK. Or even a Mazda MX-5. Unlike these, there's no push button to fold the roof away, it has to be manually disassembled and stowed. And, as with the most full-on Lotus, you lower yourself over a sill into what is a cockpit, not a cabin.The air of spartan functionality is relieved only by such inner door padding and dash materials that won't add to the weight. You need to be on good terms with your passenger who, if he or she is tall, will need to mind their knee and elbow so you can manipulate the gear stick freely.To look on it, the Elise is a desperately sweet little thing. Indeed, in the gleaming alloys shod in 16-inch Yokohama Advan Neon rubber at the front and 17s on the back, it's as cute as any number of buttons.If you're not beguiled by the Elise, you probably hate puppy dogs too. Turn the key, switch off the immobiliser and stab the start button and you'll notice that not only is there not much by way of sound deadening to mask the engine noise, but the engine is mid-mounted right behind your head. The impression forms that this is going to be a ride to make your normal daily conveyance seem like a Jason Recliner Rocker.The remarkable thing is that the engine chosen for this piece of relatively affordable exotica is actually derived from something so humble as Toyota's Celica. The 1.8-litre VVT unit delivers only 100kW/172Nm, but that is enough to get the Elise to 100km/h from standing in a Porsche Boxster S-beating 6.1 seconds. And the latter costs $140,000 ...This is what happens when extraneous items are discarded to achieve the lightest kerb weight of any car on Australian roads.At only 860kg the Elise is positively anorexic. Yet it's an almost benign daily proposition.For the rarefied nature of the beast in question, the combination of Eibach springs and Bilstein telescopic dampers is inspired.The Elise rides the worst the road can throw at it with, if not ease, then disciplined composure, without compromising those crucial Lotus values of intimate body control and utterly intuitive handling.The rigidly mounted rack and pinion steering is, of course, wonderfully unassisted and thus full of feedback.A 2.8 turns lock-to-lock, it's also instantly responsive and direct, so that when you're properly on the thing, changing direction seems to be a matter of osmosis. While maximum power, such as it is, occurs near top revs at 6200rpm, all the torque is at 4200rpm, making all the mid-range you need and even allowing for occasional use of fifth gear.There is no sixth gear, but you won't feel the want of it.To rev the Elise up past 5000rpm as the good Lord intended, though, is to reap a whirlwind of sharpened acceleration and shrieking exhaust note until the warning light flashes on just shy of redline.This surfeit of feel translates to the stop pedal which has just the right amount of retardation built in before the ABS threshold is breached. The Elise experience is visceral in a way that the cars we've chosen as ostensible 'rivals' have been plucked out of fairly thin air. Each are abundantly rewarding in their own ways, but none emulate the immediacy and rawness. Seldom has being so 'un-Australian' been so cool.If $70,000 seems steep, remember that you can also buy a hatch as well for getting the groceries and still have change from $100,000.

The GT inspired two-seater is aimed at providing Lotus customers with a spectacular sports car featuring higher levels of practicality and refinement compared with the sport-oriented Lotus Elise and Exige models. The new model has a larger boot and luggage compartment as well as a higher roofline and lower sills for easier access.Despite extra size and features the Europa S maintains Lotus's reputation for light weight, tipping the scales at just 995kg. The low kerb weight combines with a torquey 149kW, 263Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine to give the Europa S a supercar-like power-to-weight ratio of 156kW/ tonne. The Europa sprints from 0-100km/h in just 5.5 seconds. Maximum speed is approximately 225 km/h (140 mph).Lotus has again employed advanced materials including its highly rigid extruded and bonded aluminium chassis, composite body panels and an advanced composite energy absorbing front crash structure.