Lotus Exige vs Audi RS5
What's the difference?

Lotus Exige

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2017 price

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Audi RS5

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2021 price

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Mercedes-Benz C-Class

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Mercedes-Benz C63

Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class

Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Mercedes-Benz E53

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Summary

2017 Lotus Exige

2021 Audi RS5

By Stephen Corby

By Andrew Chesterton

Safety Rating

Engine Type

Supercharged V6, 3.5L

Twin Turbo V6, 2.9L

Fuel Type

Premium Unleaded Petrol

Fuel Efficiency

10.1L/100km (combined)

9.4L/100km (combined)

Seating

Likes

Unassisted, unadulterated steering (at speed)
Beautiful balance and stiff chassis
Gearbox

Potent engine
Supermodel looks
Premium and polished interior

Dislikes

Sheer impracticality
Heavy steering (at low speeds)
Getting in and out of it

Tight rear seat in Coupe
Gearbox can feel fidgety at speed

2017 Lotus Exige Summary

Driving naked is ill-advised, and possibly illegal, but taking a spin in the Lotus Exige 350 Sport is as close as you'd ever want to get. It's not so much that you feel you've left your clothes at home, but that the car has shed its accoutrements, and indeed its very flesh, leaving you with a kind of skeletal vehicle; just bare bones and muscle.

What this punishingly hard and fiercely focused machine does to your bones and flesh is best described as extreme chiropractry - in particular the stress of ingress and egress - but fortunately it makes up for the moans, bangs and bruises by fizzing your adrenal glands in a big way.

The question is whether the fun is worth the suffering, and the $138,782.85 price tag.

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2021 Audi RS5 Summary

Audi's A5 Coupe and Sportback have always been good looking cars. Yes, yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but seriously, just look at one and tell me it's not handsome.

Happily, the just-updated RS5 doesn't just build on the looks of its more sedate sibling, but on the performance, too, adding near-supercar speed to those supermodel looks.

Sounds like a pretty good match, right? Let's find out, shall we?

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Deep dive comparison

2017 Lotus Exige 2021 Audi RS5

Verdict

To say the Lotus Exige 350 Sport exists at the very pointy end of motoring is a sharp understatement. It is, in essence, a track car that you’re somehow allowed to drive on the road, which means it's hugely compromised in various ways as a vehicle for day-to-day use, yet it's not really fair to criticise it for those failings, because commuting was never its intended purpose.

While it would obviously shine in its natural environment of a race circuit, the fact is you could also enjoy it enormously between track days if you pointed it at a suitably smooth and winding bit of country blacktop.

The performance, handling, steering and stopping are all fantastic, in the right conditions, and you can see how someone might justify it to themselves as a far cheaper version of a ($327,100) Porsche 911 GT3. The difference being that a Porsche doesn't make you fold yourself up like a pocket knife every time you get in.

The Lotus, then, is a car for the extreme enthusiast, only. And possibly for nudists, too.

Verdict

Good looking, good to drive, and good to simply sit in, the Audi RS5 range ticks plenty of premium boxes. Whether you can live with the practicality pitfalls of the Coupe is up to you, but if you can't, might I suggest taking a wander over to our RS4 Avant review?

Lotus Exige vs Audi RS5 What's the difference?

Summary

Deep dive comparison

Verdict

Verdict

Lotus Exige vs Audi RS5
What's the difference?