Lotus Cars ManiLa
locking, electric windows. There’s a radio, too, but
the engine precludes any need for entertainment.
Its sharp, authoritative bark is a welcome presence
inside the cabin.
Everything moves with the precision of a racing
machine. The handbrake lever lowers barely an inch
when disengaged. The clutch pedal is moderately
heavy. The gearshift, topped with an aluminum ball,
features short throws and delightfully precise gates.
The accelerator and brake pedals, both done in
aluminum as well, are just a swing of the foot away
from each other.
Lotus will evidently find a following among the
local well-heeled enthusiasts. Its cars, delightful as
they are, are primarily meant for track use. Their
very low ground clearance means they will always
find a way to kiss the concrete. We don’t dare imag-
ine what will happen if one of these cars falls into a
pothole on our hideous roads.
We imagine the typical Lotus buyer will
already have a sports car, or several, for everyday
use—a 911 or an R 8. But when he wants to head to
the track, he can bring the Lotus.
Take the owner of exotic-car tuning shop Au-
toPlus Sportzentrium, Carlos Gono. He has driven
many high-performance machines and is in the
business of making them faster. He was one of the
first to acquire a unit from new distributor Lotus
Cars Manila, an Autohub Group subsidiary.
“I ordered an Exige for my son Luis,” he says
(Luis just happens to be the 2014 Vios Cup cham-
pion). “The variant he chose is the Exige V 6 Cup.
It’s a radical track racer. It has very good power-to-
weight ratio since the Cup version is 60 kg lighter
than the standard car. It weighs only 1,030kg, and
has a 345 hp supercharged engine that can be tuned
easily to 448 hp. It also has a track-ready, fully adjus-
table height and damping wishbone suspension.”
THE LoTus cars THaT infLuEncEd auTomoTivE HisTory
not faMiLiar with the brand? it’s More infLuentiaL than you think
Type 25 Introduced at the
1962 Dutch GP, this was
the first Formula 1 car that
was successfully built using
monocoque construction.
With the body and the
frame making up a single
unit, the car was four times
as rigid as its predecessor.
Type 49 Jim Clark won
his last race in this in 1968.
It went on to win more races
driven by Graham Hill, Jo
Siffert and Jochen Rindt.
The car used the engine as
a stressed member of the
chassis. Now, all F1 race cars
are built this way.
elan The 1963 sports car
was built on a steel chassis
clad with fiberglass body
panels. It embodied Colin
Chapman’s philosophy of
having the minimum pos-
sible weight, tipping the
scales at 726kg. The Mazda
MX- 5 was inspired by it.
espriT The Giugiaro-
penned 1975 car was the
embodiment of wedge-
shaped design. It gained im-
mortality as Roger Moore’s
ride in the Bond film The
Spy Who Loved Me, turn-
ing into a submarine to
escape a helicopter attack.
elise This continues the
Lotus philosophy of being
as light as possible. The
aluminum-frame car with
fiberglass bodywork allows
a 1.8-liter supercharged
engine to deliver high
performance. The Tesla
Roadster was based on it.
is that a ManuaL
stiCk we see in there?
oh yes, it is indeed74 toP Gear PhiLiPPines WWW.ToPGeaR.CoM.PH