Lotus Exige Cup 380 revealed

Lotus has revealed a new lighter and more focused version of the Exige, the Exige Cup 380 which will have a limited production run.

With a dry weight of just 1,057kgs the Lotus Exige Cup 380 is the leaner version of the Exige Sport 380. Lotus has dropped the weight of the Exige Cup with help of comprehensive use carbon fibre and clever engineering. The Exige Cup gets a one-piece tailgate made from carbon fibre which allowed 6.5 kgs being shaved off. In addition to that, it also helped in removal of gas struts which saved another 1 kg and new carbon fibre side pods saved another half a kilo.

As the heart, the Exige Cup 380 has a 3.5-litre supercharged V6 engine 375bhp at 6,700 rpm and 410 Nm of torque at 5,000 rpm. The engine comes as standard with a close-ratio, six-speed manual transmission with a open gated shifter. The traction control allows the driver to chose between four setting which sharpen up the throttle response and lower traction slip thresholds and remove understeer recognition to provide a finer degree of driver control before intervention and utilises an engine exhaust bypass valve which reduces exhaust back pressure at higher engine speeds. The modes are named as Drive, Sport, Race and Off.

Lotus claims that with the new carbon fibre aero package on the Exige, it created up to 200kgs of downforce, and accelerates from 0-100km/h in just 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 281km/h. The Exgige, despite being a track focused car, is still road legal and runs on 285/30 ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 as standard wrapped around ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels. However, buyers can also equip the cars with FIA compliant roll cage, full race harness, electrical cut-off and fire extinguisher controls as well as airbag deletion and a non-airbag steering wheel.