Revealed on 9 December 2015, the Lotus Exige Sport 350 is the replacement for the Exige S and the ultimate incarnation Lotus’ mid-engined V6 coupe. It is lighter and faster than the Exige S and is the next step on Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales' ladder to recovery for the British sports car maker. The Toyota 3.5-litre supercharged V6 underneath is unchanged, though. It still produces 345 hp (350 PS; 257 kW) at 7,000rpm and 400 N⋅m (295 lb⋅ft) at 4,500rpm. However, Lotus has been through the Exige S, stripping weight wherever possible, tweaking the chassis and generally fettling the entire package. The initial plan had been to fit the Evora’s 400 bhp engine to the Exige, but in doing so it would have meant the engineers could not get the car below the 1,200 kg target weight set by Gales. And its weight loss that has been the key focus, with 51 kg taken out of the car reducing the kerb weight to 1,125 kg. The manual gearbox has been heavily revised, giving more precise and quicker shifting. The gearshift mechanism uses light weight machined and cast aluminium components which are so technically aesthetically appealing they are no longer hidden within the transmission tunnel but exposed through an open-gate design, further reducing weight.
