Exige vs Elise

[RoadStar]

Is 100lbs of downforce really worth the extra $10K?

[Yeti]

No it is worth more. Thankfully they only asked 10k more.

Seriously, this isn't a nuts and bolts thing. The pricing difference has as much to do with exclusivity as it does with downforce. Drive them both with the same equipement. Then you can answer it yourself. The answer was the Exige for me...

[kusheen]

Originally Posted by Yeti

No it is worth more. Thankfully they only asked 10k more.

Seriously, this isn't a nuts and bolts thing. The pricing difference has as much to do with exclusivity as it does with downforce. Drive them both with the same equipement. Then you can answer it yourself. The answer was the Exige for me...

Driving both is the best way to go. Don't know about th exclusivity re pricing, as both of these cars have extremely narrow niche markets. Everyone wants to look at them, touch them, take pictures of them, ride in them, talk about them, but the world of people who will actually live with and own them is pretty small, and it's likely that even with only 350 examples or fewer in country, 'used' Exiges will depreciate considerably.

The extra downforce will only make a difference to you on a race track, by that I mean a road circuit, not autocross.

All tests say the car glues down better than the Elise in high speed sweepers and through the esses.

Otherwise, though, the Elise is a tad faster in acceleration and top end than the Exige. On paper (the R & T road test summaries) the speed advantage to the Elise is more pronounced than most other testers are getting.

The cars are mechanically identical, and the interior/driver's environments are identical. So, if you want the downforce for the track, or like the fastback shape of the Exige better (I think the Elise w/hardtop makes for a better looking coupe, but at least that bulbous looking fastback on the Exige has function in the form of downforce and providing room for a future supercharger), then you need to decide if it's worth the extra $10K.

For me, for what amounts to a (not better) cosmetic difference, it's not worth the extra $$$. If I were seriously tracking it, maybe, but not for street use, back road blasts, and autocrossing.

[Allan Gibbs]

Actually, the difference is not $10K. An Elise with sports suspension and a hard top is $4,000 less than an Exige.

If you wanted a Elise without the sport suspenion, then the question is: Is the sports suspension and extra down force of the Exige worth the $10K difference of a base Elise. And at that point, I'm pretty sure you'll start to notice the handling differences.

[RoadStar]

Thanks Kusheen...

Those were my thoughts.
I was curious about the "real world" aka serious owners like y'all here, concensus/opinion.
The salesguy near me and I had this very discussion whille tearing it up on the test drive.
He said it was no problem for me to get an exige, he had 2 coming in next week. But after we spoke about the "use" of the car, and seeing the use on track will be short compared to my use of the car elsewhere...

There are elements I like/dislike about the Exige.

Roadstar



PS - without going through the entire contents of the site/gallery, would anyone know if there are owner examples of some Elise's with items added to them such as :

• Superchargers/turbos
• Front splitters/rear deck spoilers
• lowered?
• differant wheel options
• anything that is past stock basically.

Thank you

[RegGuy]

The top does not come off the Exige. After tooling around in beautiful weather on Saturday, I think much would be lost not being able to pop the top and enjoy.

[Allan Gibbs]

Some thread on Elisetalk mentioned the Exige's roof can be removed but it's a bit more complex:

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...ige+top+remove

Also, there's some info on Turbos and body works here:

http://www.sector111.com/

http://www.forcedfed.com/

http://www.ragnorakracing.com/page/page/2234132.htm

[kusheen]

Originally Posted by RegGuy

The top does not come off the Exige. After tooling around in beautiful weather on Saturday, I think much would be lost not being able to pop the top and enjoy.

Actually, the top does come off. As another email points out, it's been covered extensively in Elisetalk, and the recent R & T review of the Exige mentions that the roof is removable. It does not have the fittings the Elise has to install the soft top (like the recesses for the top supporting rods), but the dealer can get the parts necessary and it's been reported that it's a fairly easy install.

Removing the top of the Exige does not in any way compromise the rigidity of the frame. It supposedly effects downforce related air flow, AND of course if it were a supercharged Exige, it would render useless the built-in scoop on the roof, which is blocked off on the superchargeless federal Exiges.

I've seen pix of it, doesn't look too good w/out the roof, either.

[RegGuy]

Humm, the dealer in my town told me it does not come off. That was when it first arrived, perhaps he was misinformed, or didn't understand what I was talking about. Or maybe I didn't listen to his answer to understand it. Who knows.

[kusheen]

Originally Posted by RegGuy

Humm, the dealer in my town told me it does not come off. That was when it first arrived, perhaps he was misinformed, or didn't understand what I was talking about. Or maybe I didn't listen to his answer to understand it. Who knows.

Here is a link from Elisetalk that covers the removable roof issue pretty thoroughly.

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...ght=Exige+roof

On the second page are a couple photos of an orange Exige with the roof off.

[john86]

I like the Exige better. I think it has a more serious look to it. The Elise is nice, and my initial impression is that it looks like a happy, fun drive around everywhere type of car. But the Exige seems to have a more serious, "I have an agenda" type of look, and nothing is going to get in my way.