That's because the mightiest Lotus sports car is a track special, with technology that's not intended for simple drag racing. No, a big wing doesn't make you faster in a straight line. But as a result, the Exige Cup 430 is priced at almost £120,000, almost as much as the Audi and Porsche combined. You could start a small car collection with that kind of cash.
Let's look at the specs first. The Cup 430 has a 3.5-liter supercharged V6 making 436 PS and 440 Nm of torque. At 1,093 kg or 2410 lbs, it's over half a ton lighter than the Audi. The quattro car compensates by having two turbochargers and the only all-wheel-drive system in this race, plus a hefty 450 HP and 600 Nm of torque.
The quattro, combined with the torque of the 2.9 TFSI makes the RS5 much faster off the line. But just before the end of the quarter-mile runway, the lighter Lotus edges ahead. We think the Lotus even got a bad start here, as it's got supercar-like 0 to 60 times.
The big loser here is the Cayman GTS. It's still about 400 kg heavier than the Lotus but features a much less powerful 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. It's completely outclassed by both of its rivals. Hopefully, Porsche is watching and does something about this before the 718 series becomes totally irrelevant.
