430 horsepower may not sound like all that much these days. Not when hypercars are routinely kicking out a thousand or more. But Lotus has made a business out of doing a whole lot with very little.
Just watch its latest creation do what it was designed to do in this video. The little monster in question is the new Exige Cup 430, which takes Lotus’ biggest engine and drops it into its smallest chassis.
That engine, incidentally, is the built around the same block you’d find in your average garden-variety Toyota Avalon or Lexus RX350 – a 3.5-liter V6 that Lotus has supercharged to that headline figure of 430 horsepower, with 325 lb-ft of torque to back it up.
With just 2,328 pounds to motivate, that engine will propel the Exige Cup 430 to 60 in 3.2 seconds and on to a top speed of 180 miles per hour. More tellingly, though, is that it will lap the automaker’s legendary test track at Hethel in 1:24.8, making it the fastest production car ever to hustle its way around the circuit.
That’s pretty impressive considering the performance machinery that Lotus has made in the past, but that’s what the “more power, less weight” formula will do for you.