Re: I could be wrong on this but...
jdw5155 said:
Um, your friend's Sentra appears to be a purpose prepped race car that isn't road legal anymore. Apples and oranges (unless the Exige in question is prepped too, I didn't read the article referenced).
That said, it's pretty impressive that a road legal, straight from the factory Exige can come within 2.9 seconds of a dedicated tuned race car.
Jim
You are wrong. The Exige is not street legal. It was in the RWD unlimited class and it had a KA20 Honda engine making 247 whp. Last time I checked the S1 Exige had a 190 CRANK hp Rover engine. The car does not even have its stock engine anymore. The links above tell you about the engine in the Exige. Please click on the link and read it.
The Exige got its ass handed to it by a Sentra. The Sentra had a stock engine with a turbo added to it. It is the same engine that I run on my race car. We buy them for $300 a pop from SOKO, a JDM engine importer. The engine is BONE stock. I know this Sentra very well, it far from sophisticated. The suspension is single adjustable shortened Koni. The suspension on my race car is more sophisticated than the suspension on that Sentra.
The Exige is probably more than THREE times as expensive as this Sentra, has a better hp/weight ratio and a better suspension geometry (double wishbone). The prototype racing web site does not mention the suspension the Exige was running, but I bet you it is far and away better than that of the Sentra.
Give credit where it is due. The Exige got owned by a Sentra and so did many other cars. The Sentra took fifth overall, not bad at all for running a used JDM stock engine with a turbo and a single adjustable shortened strut.