If you remember correctly, one year earlier, the British automotive marquee, Lotus, previewed a new variant of its Exige vehicle model, one that would come with an automatic transmission. Now, the company has actually taken the wraps off the aforementioned vehicle officially. Lotus claims that this automatic transmission variant will prove to be friendlier to the environment as well as faster when compared to the manual transmission variant.
Dubbed with a 6-speed automatic transmission, it takes only 240 milliseconds for the vehicle to shift from one gear to another. Yet, as if that is still not quite interesting enough to attract potent buyers, the car has also been equipped with a Sports driving mode. With this mode, the throttle response of the vehicle will be significantly sharpened, the bypass valve of the engine exhaust will be opened, and the vehicle’s traction slip thresholds featured in its Dynamic Performance Management System will be increased as well.
All these elements are even further supported by a 3.5L V6 supercharged engine that is claimed to boast a total power output of 345 bhp and a total torque of 400 Nm. Lotus also claims that the new automatic transmission variant of the Exige S needs no more than 3.8 seconds to go from a complete standstill to the speed of 100 km/h. Its top speed reaches 261 km/h for the coupe version and 233 km/h for the roadster version.
But now, the question is, why is Lotus suddenly offering an automatic transmission variant of the model, considering the Lotus Exige S was actually launched quite a long time ago? Well, in that regards, Jean-Marc Gales, CEO Lotus, by doing that, the company will open up a whole new market segment for the model. This market segment is designated mainly towards those who demand to use paddle shifters for their automatic gearbox.
The Lotus Exige S Automatic is already available for booking with its automatic transmission system offered for GBP1,667 as an optional package.
