Even with all the controversies and troubles surrounding the British sports car maker , Lotus are still able to put their focus where it should be and continue producing cars that could not be matched by others. And with that, their 2012 Exige S managed to grab the top honors by winning the prestigious Evo Car of the Year award for 2012.
Securing the top spots for the grueling ‘Car of the Year’ test from evo magazine is no easy feat as flaws and weaknesses were not overlooked. But the new Exige S, weighing like a feather at 1176kg and powered by a 3.5-liter V6 amazed the evo’s panels of experts so much that it ties with the much more powerful and expensive Pagani Huayra for the first place.
The new mid-mounted supercharged V6 churns out a chunky 345-horsepower at 7,000rpm, giving it an impressive weight ratio of 293bhp/ton and a speedy 0-100 acceleration in just 4 seconds. Already packing up a hefty punch for its size, the Exige S had to face a number of tough competitors on its journey to the top like the Alpina B3 GT3, Toyota 86, Mercedes C63 AMG Black and Morgan 3 Wheeler.
But all those did not impress the judges like how the Exige S did, where motoring guru and evo contributing Editor Richard Meaden expressed his impression on the new Lotus sports car.
“I adore its looks, its presence. It’s like a little shrunk-down, condensed, distilled supercar. And I love the fact that when you’re on the road and going for it, it just takes off”.
So for a RM263,000 sports car coming in tie with a RM4,000,000 hypercar is really an impressive feat, and is the best way to show that Lotus still has the X factor in making cars that are truly different than others.
