Lotus Exige Roadster delivers power in the raw

THE Lotus Exige S Roadster is a great family car if you can lose a couple of family members.

The driver’s seat is adjustable by hand but the passenger seat is bolted in position

AS I hurtle towards a bend on the first lap of a private racetrack on the NSW central coast, it occurs to me that the Lotus test driver is a perfect mirror image of a spouse.

The supercharged 3.5L V6 of the Exige S Roadster is screaming behind my head, I’m worried I might go flying into the trees at any moment, but my passenger is calmly encouraging me to go faster. “Don’t brake, don’t brake,” Ben says. “Flat through here.”

I never hear that while driving the family around, but then the Lotus is about as far from a family car as you can get. A few more laps, quicker and quicker, and it becomes apparent that I will never fly off the track, because the Roadster’s almost eerie grip is several times greater than my courage.

Even when Ben urges me to corner so aggressively the back end starts to slip, the car seems to give an indulgent smile, engages its dynamic performance management system and immediately pops me back on line.

I used to own a 1981 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, an idiotically fast and slippery rally car that looked like something your mum would take to the shops but could spin its wheels in third at 100km/h. This Lotus more than matches it for the sheer thrill of driving — but without the Sunbeam’s need for a bag of cement in the boot to keep the rear wheels talking to the ground.

The convertible’s sinuous lines are to many eyes an improvement on the hard-top Exige S coupe. It has lost the aggressive rear wing and the front splitter, although its top speed is limited to stop the roof blowing away — not that you often encounter the need or opportunity to approach that velocity here in Australia.

The Roadster races from zero to 100km/h in four seconds, hits 160km/h 4½ seconds later, and reaches a top speed of 233km/h — but figures, however impressive, don’t capture the raw excitement of this car. And raw is the word. Everything is about the driving experience; the car is a minimalist expression of power and control. Compared with the Roadster, the interior of an entry-level Holden Barina is like one of the more extravagant rooms in Versailles. The wide sills mean you sort of slide backwards into the car; perhaps a term at a Swiss finishing school could teach you to enter it elegantly, but I doubt it.

The driver’s seat is adjustable by hand, forwards and back only; it’s as though the car will decide how you will sit relative to the wheel, thank you very much. But, hey, that’s more than the passenger gets: their seat is bolted in position.

There’s an audio system, but with the top removed (yes, you do that by hand too) all you can hear — or want to listen to — is the sweet roar of the 257.5kW engine as you take the revs towards 7000. There’s no power steering; that would add unnecessary weight to the Roadster’s 1166kg (as would tiny electric motors for the wing mirrors, apparently). As a result, parking is a bit of an effort, but as your speed increases, the steering comes alive — along with everything else.

And now, as the grin widens across your face, you begin to see the point and pedigree of this machine. Criticism of its spartan fittings suddenly seems petty and mean-spirited, blown away as the acceleration shoves you back into the seat and the taut chassis and steering combine to communicate every nuance of the road’s surface.

The Roadster delivers unparalleled feel, the hallmark and purpose of Lotus for more than 60 years. Its straight-line acceleration is alarming, its cornering astonishing yet so accurate and adhesive that very few people could get anywhere near its limits.

And when you want it to stop, it stops. Over and over again, from high speed, the huge AP Racing brakes let you correct any over-exuberance in an instant. And you’ll still be wearing the grin as you clamber out, pulling a clammy shirt away from your back.

You’ll average only 10L per 100 km, and probably a lot more if you’re using it properly, but if you can afford the car you can afford the fuel. There’s no doubt $126,990 is a lot of money but, as they say, everything’s relative. Look at the price of the few other sportscars that can match the Exige Roadster’s performance and you realise you’re getting the power of a genuine supercar at a third of the cost.

Realistically, this is probably less a vehicle for everyday use than a second car for a wealthy enthusiast; while it’s capable of behaving itself in city traffic, it really belongs on a track, or exploring a twisty country road. That said, if someone were to offer to swap it for my own car, I reckon I could make an eloquent case for the Roadster as the perfect family runabout. It just means the family would need to lose a couple of members, that’s all.