Lotus Exige Scura

Lotus has unveiled this Exige Scura.

The Exige is one of our favourite coupes on the market, a lightweight track focused car that isn’t exactly lavished with sanity. Happily, none of that changes with this new Exige Scura, revealed by the British sports car firm at this week’s Tokyo motor show.

Lotus is one of only a tiny handful of European manufacturers who’ve flown across to the Far East for the show, ensuring the Scura’s grabbing a fair few headlines.

It gets the supercharged 257bhp 1.8-litre engine from the Exige Cup 260 we drove earlier this year, the most potent unit in the car’s range. That makes it good for 0-60mph in 4sec and 0-100mph in 9.9sec, with a top speed of 152mph.

Coupled with the Scura’s low weight (925kg) and trick six-speed manual gearbox, the performance is teamed up with fairly low emissions at 199g/km – about the same as the Renault Clio Cup.

Suspension-wise there’s Ohlins two-way adjustable dampers (with 60 compression and 22 rebound settings) and tweakable ride height (between 120 and 130mm) so that drivers can fine-tune the car to their needs. There’s variable traction control, too, as well as launch control to optimise the car’s acceleration from a standing start.

For many people, though, the Scura’s main talking point is the rather nifty matt black paint scheme, while inside there’s a plethora of carbon fibre elements to help extend the lightweight image.

If the Exige Scura takes your fancy, then get on the phone to Lotus quickly – just 35 are being made for all markets. It’ll set you back £45,950 to get one on the road, an extra three grand more than a standard Cup 260.

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