While the Lotus Elise had to be updated to Series 2 spec to meet in order to safety requirements in 2000, the Lotus Exige Series 2 was not updated until 2004.

The Exige Series 2’s combination of air splitter, hard (fibreglass) top, engine cover and rear spoiler are enough to give the car 100lbs of aerodynamic down force when travelling at 100 mph as opposed to just 13lbs of aerodynamic down force for the soft top Elise Series 2 at the same speed.

The big mechanical difference between the Exige Series 1 and Series 2 is that the Rover K Series motor has been replaced by a 190 hp 2ZZ-GE motor designed by Yamaha and built by Toyota which provides power for the rear wheels through a close ratio 6 speed gearbox.

From rest an Exige like the 2006 example seen here at last years Race Retro will accelerate to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, reach 100 mph in 12.9 seconds and has a top spedd of 147 mph.

Since 2006 several supercharged variants of the Exige S2 have been manufactured topped by the 158 mph 265E which has an engine mapped to run on 85% ethanol.

Thanks for joining me on this “2ZZ-GE” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !