03-turbo911

A friend has been running his E36 M3 Four Door for years now in the Nurburgring's VLN races. Few changes just like your friend plus some KW's and he's been winning his class or coming second at least.

blake

I think the rails will help give 1-2 inches of headroom between the "tilt" and the "lowering". For me personally, this will not be enough. I have a very long torso. It took me about a year to get the right set-up in my GT3 w/helmet...

-Blake

Jon70

I have an S2000 of which I can't speak high enough of. I have yet to track it, but plan to. The Exige entices me, but it would be about $40K plus my S2000 for the exhange.

mooty

if you dont lower the s2k, it's hard to drive.
if you lower the car, you will get bump steer.
goto tcdesignfab.com and get bump steer kid.
i drive my on track with oem tires, what fun.
everyone though i was out of control, i just drive the thing sideways all through the sweeper like rally car. i drove it with stock pads too, cant stop just throw the car sideways into the turn... most fun i have had!!!

lotus is much better stock to stock, but also much much more $$$

Yargk

I don't see a huge handling difference between a sport package elise and 06 exige (am I wrong?), most seems to come down to the great aero package on the exige. However an aftermarket front lip and rear wing should do the exact same thing for a sport package elise and you'll save a ton of cash. (aero really isn't that voodoo, just a little voodoo, like did you know that putting the rear hatch down on a pickup truck actually increases drag and also makes the car more unstable?)

340Elise

Correct. The Elise has about 10 to 20 lbs of down force front and rear while the Exige is closer to 50 front and rear. At speeds of 100 + mph in some long sweepers the Exige will be a bit more planted. Kind of like our regular GT3 and the RS.

However, you can get a serious wind tunnel and track tested adjustable rear wing from Reverie for the rear of both the Elise and Exige, and the Reverie front splitter and canards for the front of both models. This will then significantly increase the downforce of the Elise and Exige and make them equal after these mods. With a 12 degree angle of attack on the rear wing and the attached splitter and canards, either car will produce 488 Newtons of down force on the front and 837N on the rear at 100 mph. The stock Exige does 174N front and 300N rear at 100 mph.

Oh, and my vote on some entry level track cars (this is an old thread I know) would be the Miata, Elise, Boxster, E36 M3. I would personally go with a good 2005 Elise for about $30-35K without the sport pack and put on a set of Ohlins for $2,500 and a really, really nice set of ultra-light forged wheels for $2.5 to $3K with some Toyo R888 tires for about $800. This can definetely be thought of as a momentum car with the NA motor and can teach you lots on the track. Later you can always add one of the two top notch SC kits available for about another $6K installed. You may want to do the supension later also because the base or sport suspension from the factory is unbelievabel right out of the box with these 2000 lb cars (just make sure you get a good alignment; just like our beloved GT3's). The base suspension with the 175 mm front tires is actually more fun because it is more nimble and sharper than the sport pack with the 195 A048's. Don't let those skinny little tires fool you, as a base suspension Elise can still pull 1.00 G on the skidpad, but the real magic is much more than a silly skid pad test, and must be experienced first hand to be fully appreciated.

Oh, and one more thing. These cars have terrible resale values, so don't even think about buying a new one (if you must have a new one) at MSRP. Some dealers actually still have brand new '06's on their lots and some unbelieveable deals can be had on these left-overs. As for a brand new 2008; you can get one at $1 to 2K over invoice no problem. Which is really sad because these cars are incredible. The problem is that all the hard core enthusiasts already have theirs and the "hey look at me" clowns have also already owned and sold theirs. And since these cars are about as opposite as you can possibly get from the ideal American car, Lotus can forget winning anyone else over here in the US. I fully expect the same to happen with the Elise and Exige as what happened with the Esprit (which was a piece of junk btw, unlike these low maintenance and highly reliable Elises and Exiges) towards the end. Brand new 3 or 4 year old cars still sitting on dealer lots with unheard of discounts. This will be good for me when I am ready to add another Exige S to my GT3, but still sad. They are already almost there if they still have 06's on some lots.

mooty

silicon valley auto group has two 2007 exige S right now.

340Elise

Yeah, if I were to pick up a new Exige S right now, I would go with a leftover 2007 for sure. I drove the 2008 240 version and could not tell the difference in power; which was not at all a surprise.

Jack

This one is track ready and loaded, and I'm sure the price is somewhat negotiable....

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f94/...0-miles-54882/