Over its 61-year history, Lotus Cars has spent a considerable amount of time clawing its way back from the brink of insolvency. The company’s most recent bout with financial disrepair came in the early Nineties after the front-wheel-drive Elan proved a commercial failure (surprise!) and the Esprit toiled away in the shadows of newer, more powerful supercars. As hope for the historic marque’s triumphant return began to fade, a group of Lotus engineers pooled their collective will to create an all-new, back-to-basics model that would revive Colin Chapman’s company and give hardened enthusiasts the purist’s driving tool they craved.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen a raft of super-special-limited-edition variants follow in its lightweight wake, but the ultimate version is this: the 2009 Lotus Exige S 260. Packing more power and “more lightness” than the 240 Sport we sampled last year, there’s no doubt it’s a telepathic terror on track, but we wanted to know if it was up to the depravity of Michigan roads, so we set our chiropractor on speed dial and headed out.
Bite-sized and featherweight, the Exige S 260 Sport features a supercharged 257-hp version out back of Toyota’s 1.8-liter four-pot, and with no rear window, one-piece racing seats, and door sills as wide as the Great Plains, it is blatantly disinterested in accommodating anything other than two passengers in its cramped, noisy, spartan cabin. Those with back problems will have a horrendous time getting inside, and those same problems will only be made worse after being jostled around for a few miles. But honestly, comfort is soooo not the point of this limited-run Exige.
The 2009 Exige S 260 Sport costs $76,120, and the white paint on our tester added $3300. Given that eye-popping total, it’s no surprise there are several of the original 50 units available in dealer inventory. As for additional production in the future? We’ll quote Lotus’s PR chief, Kevin Smith: “At this point, we have no plans yet to do a new 2010 version of the S 260 Sport for the street, and we currently have no plans for a Cup 260 for North America because we’re still promoting the 2-Eleven as our track-only car in North America.
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