Have you guys seen the the Top Gear Episode when they raced a Lotus Exiege with a toyota 4 cylinder vs. 06 S197? They called it Sushi VS. Hamburger. Well, the mustang was killed That lotus is pretty freakin' fast! it did the Top Gear Lap in 1.25, faster than some ferraris. I think this car has 260 HP, and weighs in at a healthy 2000lbs.
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2006 Deluxe GT 5 Spd Manual Tungsen Grey with black painted stripes, 20 x 10 konig beyonds, kw V3 coil over kit, BMR Chomoly Panhard rod, BMR Boxed Subrames, BMR Upper Strut, BMR lower control arms, BMR Upper Control Arm, Eibach Sway bars, Prothane Eurethane bushing kit. Bassani cat back.w/ x-pipe + hi flow cats, Roush Rear Spoiler, Street Scene Body kit,Street scene grille, 3D carbon louvers, HID system, Raptor Shiftlight with Speed of sound pillar guage, C&L with Preditor 91 Custom Tune
Have you guys seen the the Top Gear Episode when they raced a Lotus Exiege with a toyota 4 cylinder vs. 06 S197? They called it Sushi VS. Hamburger. Well, the mustang was killed That lotus is pretty freakin' fast! it did the Top Gear Lap in 1.25, faster than some ferraris. I think this car has 260 HP, and weighs in at a healthy 2000lbs.
If it had that many HP (I believe it is actually 240 unless they have a newly-released one with even more hp), it was the version that is supposedly only being released in Europe, not the U.S. The Exige is a hard-top, rebodied version of the Elise and the only motor option in the U.S. is the same as the Lotus - a 190 hp Toyota engine. Still not too bad considering their handling is supposed to be pretty amazing.
I researched all this a week or two ago because someone where I work has an Elise and I was wondering about it's capabilities against a Mustang. I was confused by a statement in an article that said something like 'few things short of an exotic supercar' could keep up with an Elise on the racetrack. I found that hard to believe out of a 190hp car, but Bluestreak and others cleared it up for me - I was thinking of a round track and the article was probably talking about a road course.
Unless they have changed their minds about releasing the higher hp version in the U.S., it would be much more appropos to run a S197 GT against the 190 hp version as that is a much more likely 'real world' lineup. I'd be interested to see what the outcome of such a race would be.
doing the math real quick the 240hp exiege vs the 300hp s197...the exiege (and even the elise) would come out on top. they both have a better power to weight ratio. right when the elise first came out over here. a few companies made motor mounts for the RSX type S motor (k20a) to bolt in. with high revs and a bit more hp the car performed much better. i have only seen a few around my area and i would love to race one....but i dont see that happening
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Make no mistake about it guys, the Lotus would murder the S197. The Mustang is completely outclassed against this car. Maybe in purely straight line acceleration would the Mustang have a chance.
On the Top Gear Episode, they draged for a 1/4 mile, then they went into the twistys.. the car just murdered the S197. I wasn't surprised, this car is lighter, and has a better suspension and more sports car like. The mustang is a muscle car and if the mustang had mods it would be competitive. Since the price is almost double the mustang.....you know who really wins anyways.
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2006 Deluxe GT 5 Spd Manual Tungsen Grey with black painted stripes, 20 x 10 konig beyonds, kw V3 coil over kit, BMR Chomoly Panhard rod, BMR Boxed Subrames, BMR Upper Strut, BMR lower control arms, BMR Upper Control Arm, Eibach Sway bars, Prothane Eurethane bushing kit. Bassani cat back.w/ x-pipe + hi flow cats, Roush Rear Spoiler, Street Scene Body kit,Street scene grille, 3D carbon louvers, HID system, Raptor Shiftlight with Speed of sound pillar guage, C&L with Preditor 91 Custom Tune
Well, they sure paid enough to be able to beat the Mustang, didn't they?
Nothing some suspension tuning can't fix, I bet.
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On the Top Gear Episode, they draged for a 1/4 mile, then they went into the twistys.. the car just murdered the S197. I wasn't surprised, this car is lighter, and has a better suspension and more sports car like. The mustang is a muscle car and if the mustang had mods it would be competitive. Since the price is almost double the mustang.....you know who really wins anyways.
I still think the 240 hp version isn't being released in the States. Since the 190 hp version is what is being released here, meaning the S197 Mustangs are more likely to be lined up against them, they should match those two up, as well. The Exige would probably still win in the twisties, but I the 1/4 mile might be a different story.
I'm thinking it wouldnt be that hard to build a car like the lotus. I see guys with older RWD japanese cars such as 240sx and toyota corolla GTS and put 300+ hp engines in them and make roadcourse cars out of them. When i had my Camaro SS, i was killed by a modified 240sx ...it was kinda crazy...when he passed me...flames came out of the exhaust...what the heck was in that thing. I'm wondering what would be a good platform to build such a project car.
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2006 Deluxe GT 5 Spd Manual Tungsen Grey with black painted stripes, 20 x 10 konig beyonds, kw V3 coil over kit, BMR Chomoly Panhard rod, BMR Boxed Subrames, BMR Upper Strut, BMR lower control arms, BMR Upper Control Arm, Eibach Sway bars, Prothane Eurethane bushing kit. Bassani cat back.w/ x-pipe + hi flow cats, Roush Rear Spoiler, Street Scene Body kit,Street scene grille, 3D carbon louvers, HID system, Raptor Shiftlight with Speed of sound pillar guage, C&L with Preditor 91 Custom Tune
I honestly don't think the driver of that Elise is quite up to speed with his car. That seemed to be a pretty good handling Focus though.
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those lotus' have i think almost perfect 50 50 weight distribution, have 2 hundred something hp, and weigh barely over 2k pounds. pretty fast car especially the exige. did you guys see the video, i think it was one of those top gear ones, where the exige went against a black hawk helicopter, and the chopper couldnt lock on to the car on the road course. of course the chopper was flying low, and thats what made it so hard, because if he was up high, he could lock on easily. nonetheless an amusing exibition.
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those lotus' have i think almost perfect 50 50 weight distribution, have 2 hundred something hp, and weigh barely over 2k pounds. pretty fast car especially the exige. did you guys see the video, i think it was one of those top gear ones, where the exige went against a black hawk helicopter, and the chopper couldnt lock on to the car on the road course. of course the chopper was flying low, and thats what made it so hard, because if he was up high, he could lock on easily. nonetheless an amusing exibition.
The American-release versions of the Elise and Exige do not have over two hundred horsepower, unless they have recently decided to release the European-only version in the States. The ones sold here have 190 horsepower. Beyond that, European cars (as in the European-only 240hp Lotus) can be even lighter as they do not require the same safety/pollution equipment. Therefore, lining a Mustang up against a 240hp Lotus that isn't even available in the United States is a pretty unlikely matchup - at least in the States. I want to know how the 190hp version of the Lotus that is available in the U.S. would do against an S197 - since that matchup that is much more likely to happen in the real world. Or if we are going with the idea of running the 'best' example of each brand, put that 240hp (European-only) Lotus up against a Terminator Cobra and see how it turns out. Not saying the 190hp Lotus couldn't beat the S197 or that the Cobra would definitely trounce the 240hp (European-only) Exige, but I would think the results of those matchups would be much more meaningful. Oh, and did I mention that the Elise and Exige with the 240hp motor is supposed to only be available in Europe?
Top Gear is a British TV program, so they love to bash american cars. Its basically Sushi Vs. Hamburger. Since the Lotus has a Toyota Powerplant. The elise's that are here in the US are 190 HP, but some say that is very conservative and they dyno 10-20 HP more. They are 2200 Lbs and are a little heavier than their european cousins. Lotus is smart to use the Toyota Powerplant, because there is a ton of TRD go fast parts for it... Imagine bolt ons like Headers, CAI, tune etc... it would really give a lot of cars problems on the street. BTW, they did a drag race and twisty track run. The Lotus was faster than some ferraris in the twisty's .. i think it did 1 min 25 second run on the Top Gear Technical Track. Its really a road race type of car anyway..it has some really short gear ratios too.
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2006 Deluxe GT 5 Spd Manual Tungsen Grey with black painted stripes, 20 x 10 konig beyonds, kw V3 coil over kit, BMR Chomoly Panhard rod, BMR Boxed Subrames, BMR Upper Strut, BMR lower control arms, BMR Upper Control Arm, Eibach Sway bars, Prothane Eurethane bushing kit. Bassani cat back.w/ x-pipe + hi flow cats, Roush Rear Spoiler, Street Scene Body kit,Street scene grille, 3D carbon louvers, HID system, Raptor Shiftlight with Speed of sound pillar guage, C&L with Preditor 91 Custom Tune
Top Gear is a British TV program, so they love to bash american cars. Its basically Sushi Vs. Hamburger. Since the Lotus has a Toyota Powerplant. The elise's that are here in the US are 190 HP, but some say that is very conservative and they dyno 10-20 HP more. They are 2200 Lbs and are a little heavier than their european cousins. Lotus is smart to use the Toyota Powerplant, because there is a ton of TRD go fast parts for it... Imagine bolt ons like Headers, CAI, tune etc... it would really give a lot of cars problems on the street. BTW, they did a drag race and twisty track run. The Lotus was faster than some ferraris in the twisty's .. i think it did 1 min 25 second run on the Top Gear Technical Track. Its really a road race type of car anyway..it has some really short gear ratios too.
Yeah, I'm certainly not saying the car is junk, just that I would like to see how the American version, with less horsepower and saddled with the same rules and regulations as an American car such as the Mustang, would do in the 1/4 against an S197. I have little doubt that the outcome in the twisties would still see a stock S197 beaten. Of course, one article I read about the Elise (a very enthusiastic, pro-Elise article, I might add) said that driving one is like sitting on a thin piece of padding in an aluminum tub. Sounds like a fun (although expensive) toy but not something I would want to spend a lot of time in. More like a grown-up version of a gocart than a car.
I know you're right about the Brits (and everyone else) liking to bash American cars. For me, though, the bottom line is that the Mustang is still the better value. I mean, I could pay $40k to $50k for a new Lotus that would be fun but, by someone with my 6ft/295 pound frame could only be driven in short bursts or I could pay a good bit less for a Mustang - even a new 'vert - that is comfortable enough to use as a daily driver or take day trips (I've had no problems doing both in my '02.) That being said, if I suddenly won the lottery and could afford to have a collection of cars, I would have to consider a Lotus - after I had bought several classic American muscle cars, a Terminator Cobra, a 'New Edge' Mach 1, and built a custom streetrod out of an old T-bucket. Now, if someone were foolish enough to ask me if I would like to take their Lotus for a spin then I would jump at the chance. There's a little stretch of road near here called the Tail of the Dragon that would be just perfect for putting that thing through its paces.
I hear ya man, i just thought it was a cool car, but i would never buy one. If i had my collection of cars it would be 60-70 muscle cars from Mopar, Ford, Chevy, Olds, Buick...etc... Maybe a Javalin in there someware. I would also like a 30s ford 5 window, 55 chevy belair... there are so many. you just can beat american classics.
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2006 Deluxe GT 5 Spd Manual Tungsen Grey with black painted stripes, 20 x 10 konig beyonds, kw V3 coil over kit, BMR Chomoly Panhard rod, BMR Boxed Subrames, BMR Upper Strut, BMR lower control arms, BMR Upper Control Arm, Eibach Sway bars, Prothane Eurethane bushing kit. Bassani cat back.w/ x-pipe + hi flow cats, Roush Rear Spoiler, Street Scene Body kit,Street scene grille, 3D carbon louvers, HID system, Raptor Shiftlight with Speed of sound pillar guage, C&L with Preditor 91 Custom Tune
Lotus Exiege Vs. S197 GT 
