It's now 20 years since Lotus put a solid roof on the top of an Elise, cranked up the power, stiffened up the suspension, and called the resulting rocketship the Exige. To celebrate the anniversary, there's an inevitable special edition.
Reminders of the original Exige
The Lotus Exige Sport 410 20th Anniversary comes with a body-coloured roof, side air intake pods and rear wing, plus the black 'shark fin' stone chip protector ahead of the rear wheel. The whole idea of the styling package and the colour schemes is to try and put you in mind of that original year-2000 model.
There's also a '20th Anniversary' black silhouette logo which shows the outline of that original Exige, and you'll find that on the front wings and the rear bumper, along with a '20' logo on the rear wing endplates. It's also stitched into the headrests of the seats which are, in Exige tradition, wrapped in Alcantara suede. Each seat is also decorated with panelled stitching which echoes that of the original car.
In terms of colours, you can pick from Chrome Orange, Laser Blue and Calypso Red, while as special options there are Saffron Yellow, Motorsport Black or Arctic Silver.
Adjustable dampers
More important are, of course, the chassis tweaks. As standard, the Exige Anniversary gets Nitron three-way adjustable dampers. Their bump and re-bound settings can be tweaked to suit a driver's style, or for maximum performance on a particular track. The front splitter, front access panel and rear tailgate are all made from carbon fibre.
Inside, there are some luxury touches. These include DAB digital radio with Bluetooth, cruise control, ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels and an Alcantara steering wheel. Remaining options include carbon fibre sill trim, lightweight lithium-ion battery and titanium lightweight exhaust.
How much? €83,613 before tax, to you squire. Hope you spent the last 20 years saving up...
The Lotus ethos
Ema Forster, Head of Product Marketing, Lotus, said: "The Exige Sport 410 20th Anniversary builds on the Exige's unrivalled levels of handling and performance. This special edition of one of our most acclaimed sports cars ever will continue the Lotus ethos of being born for the track and bred for the road."
Gavan Kershaw, Director of Vehicle Attributes, Lotus, added: "From the very first drives of the development car the Exige displayed new levels of ability. It set new standards for Lotus road and race cars, perfectly illustrating our core values of performance through lightweight, aerodynamics and handling. It really is a race car for the road; I've competed and won races in every version of the Exige, from the Series 1 to the Series 3, and always walked away with a grin on my face."