Track Test: 2009 Lotus S 260 Sport

September 23, 1:15 PMAuto Review ExaminerJohn Matras

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Like the sound of a rotary saw ripping through sheet metal, that's the supercharged four-cylinder of the Lotus Exige S 260 Sport, perched up against the firewall just behind the passenger compartment, inches from the driver's shoulder blades.

ZzwiiiIIIP! Shift! ZzwiiIIP! Shift! Zzwiiiiiah. Zwuppah. Downshift. Zwuppah. Downshift. Corner. Zuhyyahyahzzwiip! Shift! ZswiiIIP!

Dang this is fun, and the wet track and the light rain even makes it more so, the single wiper sweeping the mist off the curving windscreen, at least the raindrops that doesn't slide up and over the canopy. Talk about feeding your endurance racer fantasy. Like Steve McQueen in Le Mans. Except let's not crash. We could do this all day. All night too.

The Lotus Exige S 260 Sport is that kind of car, the kind that makes a writer Freudian slip into typing "lust" instead of Lotus. The kind, indeed, that pumps the adrenalin in the first couple laps, flushes the mental sinuses and puts the world into a crisp 20/15 focus and catches bullets in midflight like a high-speed camera.

For more views of the 2009 Lotus Exige S 260 Sport, see the photo gallery below.

Overwrought? Hardly. Again, it's that kind of car, taking the standard Lotus Exige and tightening the screws that much tighter, shaving the edges a little bit closer.

The Lotus Exige, for the initiated, is pure sports car. There's achingly little that doesn't further the cause of going quick, going fast and going around corners. It lives to the maxim of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, "Simpicate, then add lightness." Or something like that. It certainly changed slightly every time he said it, making just about every variation of the quote accurate.

The spirit was the same. He's also credited with the corollary: "Adding power makes you faster on the straights; adding lightness make you faster everywhere."

The Lotus Exige S 260 Sport answers the question does it add power or lightness with "Yes."

It adds lightness with carbon fiber panels, replacing the front lower splitter, front access panels at the base of the windshield, roof, rear engine cover, side air intake ducts, rear wing and on the inside, the one-piece dash top pane and the sill covers. The Exige S 260 Sport hits the weigh-in fifty pounds lighter than the already feathery 2009 Exige S 240.

More than the carbon fiber, the Exige S 260 Sport adds a lightweight motorsports battery, ultralight 12-spoke forged alloy wheels (saving 22 pounds alone), a revised rear engine subframe with lightweight coating and a lightweight composite bulkhead panel replacing the rear window. Hardly anything is visible out thrrough the rear window of the standard Exige anyway. Then there's a lightweight flywheel, alloy supercharger/intercooler U-bends pipes and of course, footwell pads. That brings the 2009 Exige S 260 Sport to the scales at a meager 2,020 pounds.

Then there's the power. The engine makes 257 horsepower at 8000 rpm--one of the highest rev power peaks in the world--and even if max torque doesn't hit until 6000 rpm (174 lb-ft), the light weight of the S 260 Sport keeps it from being bog slow below that. But on the track, keep the needle between those two points--or up to 8500 rpm transient for two seconds--for the lusty Lotus on the constant accel. The engine now has VVTL-i variable cam timing for, says Lotus, "a smooth and linear delivery of power from low speeds all the way up to 8000 rpm.

A Roots-type mechanical Eaton M62 supercharger runs off the crankshaft and has an internal bypass valve for part-throttle operation. An air-to-air supercharger is mounted high, with the air from the scoop that runs over the top of the cabin blown on it to reduce charge temperature. Intake tracts have been designed to be as short as possible to minimize air resistance and to reduce any delay of power delivery. Four high capacity injectors are fed by fuel pump with greater capacity, supplying the more powerful engine's greater need for feed. The supercharger, incidentally, has "sealed-for-life" bearings that don't require lubrication by engine oil.

The lightweight flywheel allows revs to build more quickly and a sport-type clutch plate and a heavy-duty clutch cover send the power through to a lightweight C65 six-speed transmission. A torque-sensing limited-slip differential is standard. Also out back is a bit of racer equipment: an Accusump, an oil reservoir backup for, as Lotus puts it, "extreme track conditions," when oil in the sump might be moved away from the oil pump pickup.

Inherited from Lotus' Exige GT3 racing program via Lotus Sport is launch control with variable traction control. The situation didn't allow us to test this feature, which allows a programmable computer-controlled takeoff with maximum acceleration. Traction control can also be set from the driver's seat to allow from zero to seven percent tire slip, or completely off, depending on the characteristics of particular corners.

The suspension features Eibach springs and adjustable Bilstein shocks, and a stiffer and adjustable front anti-roll bar to allow owners to completely mess up the, ahem, "to tailor the handling characteristics of the car to their own requirements," says Lotus. And because drivers love to whack curbs and such on track days, a double-shear track control arm brace makes it more than doubly hard to break.

Brakes aren't particularly huge. Fronts are twelve and an eighth inches diameter, but for a lightweight car, that's a bunch. The front discs are cast iron but are aluminum-belled to reduce weight, and are cross-drilled and ventilated. At the rear, discs are eleven and a tenth inches, cross-drilled and ventilated. Lotus uses AP Racing two piece radially-mounted, 4-piston calipers in front and Brembo sliding calipers at the rear, all with Pagid RS14 sport brake pads. Lotus track-tunes the ABS and uses stainless steel braided brake hoses.

It all comes to raw numbers like this: According to Lotus, the Exige S 260 Sport nails 60 mph from a dead stop in 4.0 seconds, is at 100 mph in 9.9 seconds and tops out at 150. At 100 mph, the aerodynamic package is producing more than 88 pounds of downforce. Brakes? "Anchors" was never a better synonym.

But how it all works in harmony is more important. Just getting into the Lotus Exige is like joining a secret society. One needs to know the proper handshake, or at least which body part to start with. Once inside it's as if the car has been shrink wrapped around the passenger compartment as well as the rest of everything. The view ahead is, in our case, between two orange mounds of fenders. To the back, the side mirrors must suffice, the rear windows, as previously noted, having been replaced by that composite panel. The rear window never provided much of a view anyway.

The shifter has the feel of metal on metal. We're not sure but there are probably some Heim joints between handle and gearbox. The lightweight flywheel makes itself known in (a) how quickly the engine reacts when the throttle is blipped and (b) how unforgiving it is to sloppy clutch engagement. We didn't stall it but not by much...

Then there's the aforementioned acceleration and the appropriate din that accompanies it. Corners in the wet feel dry, or at least at our introductory velocities--though far removed from trundling around a familiar track--show no signs of slip. Out on the back straight, 100 mph arrives like now. Heel-and-toe? Don't wear your big feet. Normal shoes are OK, driving shoes are not an affectation.

Steering is direct as an IRS audit notice but a lot more fun and the Lotus can be placed on the track like a jeweler's next whack at a diamond.

We carry a passenger, negating the weight savings of the Lotus Exige S 260 Sport, but the Lotus is still an automotive Nureyev even to one who doesn't know anything about ballet. On the track, the Exige S 260 Sport isn't a car a driver can complain about. The Exige S 260 Sport is a car that can complain about the driver. Done right, there are few ways faster to take a license plate around a road course, and those will likely cost much more. And fewer still will provide the thrill of doing so much with--literally--so little.

So pardon me, if you will. I was somewhere about...here: ZzwiiiIIIP! Shift! ZzwiiIIP! Shift! Zzwiiiiiah. Zwuppah. Downshift. Zwuppah. Downshift.

Yeah, that's it.

Illustrations: 2009 Lotus Exige S 260 Sport. Photos by John Matras.

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2009 Lotus Exige S 260 Sport
Standard Equipment and Options

Standard Equipment
Exterior and chassis structure:
• Aerodynamic bodywork for increased downforce includes the following CARBON FIBER pieces: front splitter, hardtop with full length intercooler air scoop, rear engine cover, rear wing, side scoops (2), front access panels (2)
• Black mesh front brake ducts, radiator outlet and engine bay outlets
• Lotus-designed lightweight epoxy-bonded, extruded aluminum chassis
• Integral steel seat-belt support structure and lightweight steel rear sub-frame
• Hand-lay composite fiberglass body
• High intensity projection beam headlamps
• LED taillights with integral reflectors and daytime running lights
• Aluminum alloy fuel filler door
• Standard paint - Ardent Red or British Racing Green

Engine and Driveline:
• 257 horsepower supercharged and intercooled 1.8 Liter, mid-mounted 4-cylinder engine
• Multi-point fuel injection system with electronic ignition and throttle control
• Synchromesh 6-speed transaxle with lockout reverse gear
• Variable slip traction control
• Torsen (Torque-sensing) limited slip differential
• Launch Control
• Uprated clutch plate and cover to handle the increased power and torque
• Lightweight Motorsport Flywheel
• Lightweight Intercooler U-Bend Pipes
• Twin oil coolers
• Accusump
• Lightweight Motorsport Battery

Suspension and Braking:
• Fully independent suspension with unequal length wishbones
• Adjustable front anti-sway bar
• Adjustable Bilstein dampers with threaded spring perches and remote front
reservoirs
• Damper compression and rebound are adjusted simultaneously with single knob
• Power assisted 4-wheel ventilated/cross-drilled disc brakes with 308 mm. front discs
• Lotus/AP Racing & Brembo calipers with anti-lock braking system (ABS). Uprated to four-piston front calipers and uprated pads front and rear.
• Lightweight 12 spoke Forged Alloy Wheels in Gun Metal Grey finish (NEW) – 7JX16 Front, 8JX17 Rear
• Yokohama Advan A048 LTS tires – 195/50-16 Front, 225/45-17 Rear

Interior:
• CARBON FIBER Dash Panel top and Sill Covers
• Trimmed rear bulkhead
• Black Leather & Cloth sport seats with Probax anatomical padding
• Sensosoft “soft touch” dashboard paint finish
• Alpine stereo with in-dash CD player – 2 rear speakers (only)
• Leather-trimmed Momo steering wheel
• Aluminum handbrake and gear knob
• Intermittent windshield wiper and interior trunk release
• Air conditioning, starter button, tinted glass and carpet foot mats
• DELETED: rear window, passenger foot rest and interior rear view mirror

Safety and Security:
• Dual supplemental restraining system with seat belt pre-tensioners
• T45 steel main roll hoop with harness bar
• Factory anti-theft alarm system with engine immobilizer
• Tire pressure monitoring system, progressive shift lights in new instrument cluster
• Power door locks with remote control and concealed radio antenna

Options limited to special paint.

Price: $74,995

Warranties:
• 3-Year/36,000 mile limited warranty
• 8-Year chassis corrosion warranty