Review of the new Lotus Exige S

If there's one place guaranteed to make a fast car feel slow, it's a Grand Prix circuit. With acres of tarmac and vast expanses of run off should you get things very wrong, it's difficult to build a perception of speed. Even on a windswept Silverstone, there was no doubt that the Lotus Exige S was a fearsomely quick car. Designed to sit above the standard Exige and below the special order Cup 240, the supercharged S model is a fully homologated model that packs a 221bhp punch and yet tips the scales at just 935kg.

Lotus bores like to point out that the original Elise was nearly 200kg lighter than this when it was first launched in 1996, but that car had 118bhp and no aerodynamic downforce. Night and day, so as to speak. Here's how the Exige S feels on a lap of Silverstone's National Circuit. The engineers have spent five minutes changing the dampers on my car from a road-biased setting to a full track mode. This is done without the need for tools, the Bilstein dampers being adjustable by hand, a favourite jape in the Hethel company car park apparently.

Helmet on, slump down in the seat to clear the limited headroom and nose out into the pit lane. The car I'm driving has been fitted with the optional Super Sports pack which includes traction control, the adjustable dampers, Eibach springs and a whole host of other goodies, so it's not totally indicative of the experience you'll have if you turn up at your Lotus dealer with the base asking price of around £35,000. Nevertheless, the amount of go you get from that Toyota-sourced engine is exactly the same. Accelerate out of the pit lane and you're in one long gently curving swoop towards the kink at Maggots. The cam-switch on this engine is relatively low at 4,000rpm, but apart from a change in the supercharger note, it's difficult to detect a surge in power. In fact, the power delivery is astonishingly linear, making Lotus' claim that this 'downsized' engine feels like a big V6 entirely justifiable. Drive the normally aspirated Exige and you'll feel a definite step at 6,200rpm when the VVT-i system gets into its stride. Just below this is a hole in the torque curve that's entirely absent in the Exige S. This is a car that feels strong from 2,000rpm right up to its 8,500rpm redline.

"Lotus claim the Exige S is as extreme as they want to make a production car"

Keep accelerating into the Maggots kink, feel the steering weight up as the car settles into the bend and then settles, ready fro the tight, complex right hander that is Becketts. The traction control system is on and to prevent power oversteer and the circuit is still slightly damp in places but the Exige chassis is so communicative that any halfway competent driver will have wound a hand of opposite lock on as the power surges in. You can beat the system. This isn't a stability control system, merely a traction control function, so bottle out halfway through a high commitment corner and the car will still spin. Exige owners are, by and large, savvy enough to realise this.

The Club Straight gives the Exige enough room to really get into its stride, accelerating to the redline in third and then fourth before the technical section that is the Luffield complex. Turn in late here and it's possible to play with the car's throttle balance through this long left and tightening right bend. Understeer is hard to generate and the traction control takes care of power oversteer, but a small throttle lift sets the tail of the Exige drifting, pointing the nose nicely at the exit of each bend. Try that tactic in an old Elise and unless you had the reactions of a rattlesnake, you'd be facing the wrong way in a fraction of a second. Then it's the blast through Woodcote, the grass on the exit coming scarily close each time before the most heart-in-mouth corner on the whole circuit, Copse. A blind, off-camber right, this would send most road cars understeering somewhere into the scenery but the Exige S holds a tight line and encourages earlier and earlier throttle through. It's enormously confidence inspiring although I didn't have the courage to play games with the car's cornering attitude here as I did at Luffield. Power out of here and that's the 1.6 mile lap. There aren't too many road cars that cost less than £60,000 that could come within a sniff of the Exige's time.

The statistics for the Exige S are impressive. It gets to 60mph in 4.1 seconds and to 100mph in a fraction less than ten seconds. It's quicker to 60mph than a Porsche 911 Turbo and within a tenth of a second of Ferrari's F430, neither of these cars having a hope of replicating the Exige's 31mpg combined fuel consumption figure. Fuel economy may not seem too much of a concern to target buyers but when you have a mere 43.5-litre fuel tank, it equates to more laps between top ups. Identifiably by its body-coloured intakes and S badging, this Exige can also be ordered with a Performance Pack which adds an extra 19bhp and a more focused approach for a £3,000 premium.

Lotus also offers two optional Touring packs that take the edge off the car's rawest qualities and there are also two Sport packs that enhance this car's headbanger appeal without too much of an extra outlay. The Touring pack includes electric windows, leather and suede upholstery, carpets and additional noise insulation. The Super Touring pack adds twin front airbags, more interior storage and an entirely superfluous engine start button.

The Sport pack features twin oil coolers and Lotus's switchable traction control system. A Torsen-type limited slip differential is available as an option designed for what Lotus calls "tight, low speed, high acceleration driving (such as auto tests)." Also included are sports seats and a T45 steel rollover hoop and harness bar for the aftermarket fitment of four-point harnesses. Opt for the Super Sports pack and you get ultra lightweight forged split seven spoke alloy rims, track suspension with Eibach springs and Bilstein one-way adjustable dampers, adjustable front anti-roll bar and a double shear track control arm brace which helps when throwing the Exige over race track kerbing. A bubble roof panel for taller drivers would be a nice option but is sadly not offered. Quite why there is a rear view mirror when there is no rear visibility is also a little odd. Wasn't it Colin Chapman who said "To add speed, just add lightness"?

Although it may be a little too focused for some, the Exige S nevertheless offers a fun factor that is tough to beat at any price.