Special forces: Lotus Exige

The Lotus Exige has never been the easiest beast to live with. Aggressive and uncompromising, it snaps around with the adrenaline-fuelled poise of a hungry pitbull.

But that level of aggression obviously wasn't enough for the boys over in Norfolk. They've poked their pitbull with a sharp stick, given it a quadruple shot of espresso and insulted its mother and her bedroom habits.

And this is the result. To celebrate the Exige's victory in this season's British GT3 Championship, Lotus has released the belligerent Exige S British GT Special Edition. Yep, it's a bit of a mouthful.

Based on the Exige S, the Special Edition gets a racing-style makeover, with a quad-stripe paint job, GT badging and sports trim. It clocks 60mph in 4.1 seconds, compared to the S's pedestrian 4.3 seconds.

You'll pay an extra two grand for the privilege of a few shiny badges, which sounds a bit steep in our book. But when you bolt on the optional GT pack, things start to get interesting.

Designed specifically for track work, the GT Pack adds 25bhp to the Exige, boosting overall power to 243bhp. This brings the 0-60 time below four seconds, and increases the top speed to 155mph.

The GT Pack also provides two-way adjustable dampers and whopping 308mm two-piece front disc brakes with four piston calipers.

Due to Lotus's general aversion to mod cons, air conditioning is a cost option. Interestingly, Lotus has designed the air cooling to cut out when the driver uses full throttle, as they say this helps keep power up without affecting cabin temperature.

A fully-specced Exige Special Edition will set you back over £42,000 on the road. That's a lot of cash for something that won't even carry your golf clubs.

So make the rational choice. Give up golf, take up table tennis.

© Source: original article on topgear