Lotus Exige Cup 430 and Cadwell Park race circuit are a perfect match

[MUSIC] [SOUND] Tight connection and Lotus into your search bar and you'll find high production value in depth reviews on pretty much every model Lotus has to offer. And I only say pretty much because unfortunately every once in a while one will fall through the cracks which is why I'm so happy to be able to report that we're finally getting a chance to drive the absolute weapon that is the 2017 exit 430 cup. And absolute weapon indeed if you had online you'll find an abundance of forums and comments about how people have swapped their bonafide supercars for one of these. Last year we were lucky enough to drive the 311 and one of the Lord March track days you You can imagine the kinda clientele that were there, and the 311 ate them for breakfast. And when you look at it, this is really only 30 brake horsepower down on the 311 whichever I think around a narrow twisty track like cuddle Park, we're not gonna feel that shortchanged. And I'm just gonna say that this thing will blow anything out of the water here today. Stick around and find out. [MUSIC] Welcome to track mode.. This week we've come to Carol park to find out why it's twisty technical major has earned its reputation of being the UK his very own meaning [MUSIC] While the actual Nurburgring is being constructed across the channel, Mr. Mansfield Wilkinson of Louth has just bought the former landscape park of Caldwell Hall with the intention of turning it into a shooting ground, however, His son Charles, had other ideas. [SOUND] Cody is not again. Dad can acouple of my friends come over for a bike ride this weekend. Yeah, fine. Just only a couple of them. Okay? [SOUND] [MUSIC] Sadly for Mr. Mansfield Wilkinson his plans were basically over the cattle park story had just begun race. Launch Lotus held the seed for 30 the fastest road car and nowadays avire aside, it's still kind of is with the 430 brake three litre supercharged V six dragging me 1100 kilogrammes thanks to Tim 60 carbon fibre bits. It's good for nought to 60 in 3.2 second, the six speed manual gearbox makes for a guaranteed visceral driving experience and as expected Come to the legendary Lotus handling a standard. All of this isn't exactly cheap though. Coming in at a whopping let's be real. Are you really gonna care when you're flying past the usual attractor suspects. Dude, pull up behind you its one pull up behind you babe. Come on. In this instance though, we soon found out that the challenge here wasn't going to be other cars but the track itself. Been one of only a few circuits in the UK that was not based on a disused airfield of some kind cattle boasts mostly narrow and twisty corners with some crazy elevation changes and not a lot of runoff area. The lap kicks off with coppice and Charlie's one and two, a crucial section that requires a confident approach. To sy the least. Might as well pull it forwards [INAUDIBLE] this is wow. [INAUDIBLE] both two. [INAUDIBLE] both two. [INAUDIBLE] three. [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH] Onto park straight which really only straightens out just in time for your hard breaking inter park corner [MUSIC] Providing you don't miss judge this, Chris Curve is next, a long right hander that sets you up for the gooseneck. a corkscrew type corner with some wicked camber that allows you to take it faster than you'd initially think. Mansfield is one tight left hander though, so you better be ready to scrub all that speed off. Then it's time to get psyched as you go under the bridge towards the Carroll Park crown jewel, the mountain. [MUSIC] Take this up hill left right come where the right speed and you'll get some liftoff. Mind your landing though, as if you're not on the ball. You might get a tank slapper at best and a visit to the barriers of worse. [LAUGH] No time to dwell on that though. As you have hall bends hairpin immediately after. A sequence of ever tightening corners that you have to negotiate wisely before hitting an early apex barn and sailing off into the sunset down the stock [UNKNOWN] straight to do it all over. For a game. [BLANK_AUDIO] It just feels so light and I enjoy a light. Absolutely, it fells mega through here. If it wasn't for the fact that I think it just feels like a sort of under the rev range what you get that talk. Just try and keep your head up [BLANK_AUDIO] It's all right. We're good, we're good, we're good. We're pushing the limits guys. We're pushing the limits here. I think we found the limit of >I wonder [LAUGHS] Thank God it's not carbon fiber. Right. Lemme just pop the mirror back out. [WHISTLES] Don't be suspicious. There we go. [SINGING]Don't be suspicious. [NOISE] We are getting some over the mountain. You can see it a little bit a little bit. It feels like we're flying over it. I mean it's literally wheels off the ground. Yes, exactly British supervisor [MUSIC] Hikes in cadwell Park are indeed a match made in heaven right from the very start. But just as this relationship was flourishing, World War Two rodents racing sadly had to be put on hold forever unlike most of the circuits in the UK, cable was never requisitioned by the mid and so it was able to reopen as soon as the war came to an end. Making it the go to spot all sorts of events in the late 40s bikes, trikes side cars, even greyhounds. At this point everything addressed at Caldwell, everything apart from cars, you see measuring only three quarters of a mile. It just wasn't a very car friendly track. With this in mind, some alterations were made over the years with five minute extensions being added. So now data for successive zones of the Wilkinson family and one being left up to the public to decide, and the public chose to name it. Why? Anyway, this meant that finally in 1962, the circuit was able to host its first digit car races. [BLANK_AUDIO] The floodgates were open and from then on cars hooning around cadwell Park became a thing Over in the Leeds office of the BRS CC. Secretary Shelley wood is already hard at work preparing for the next meeting at cadwell Park. Spectators were able to enjoy their favorite saloon car drivers in the sixties. James Hunt and even Ayrton Senna briefly in Formula 3 in the 70s. And now, us, here, today. I wish the seats were better. Or maybe they are actually, I'm just not fat enough to fill them. [LAUGH] I think there is a bit of that. All right, you're it. [INAUDIBLE] Damn, she thirsty. Let's go do it. [MUSIC] Yeah, all right, good. You can do that. [INAUDIBLE] Like it's not comfortably [BLANK_AUDIO] [UNKNOWN] But I guess he's fairly short wheelbase, isn't it? So I'm being slightly unkind to it. Well, we have a lotus technician here today. [BLANK_AUDIO] Not [UNKNOWN] but smile when you drive it. I love the fact that you can see the throttle cable in the rearview mirror. Every time you do healing [MUSIC] and you can just see it [SOUND] Yeah. I'm doing it. That's it. That was a bonus. Okay, we need to talk about the gear box in this car. Of course, we know better than to judge a model base on a single press car that has been through the hands of countless journalists. But it did seem to have a bit of a habbit of not cooperating. All right, especially in high gear changes. One workaround for this problem would be to dial back the aggression and simply admire the stunning exposed linkage. However, we found that dialing back the mechanical sympathy a few notches also seemed to work pretty well. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH] Right! [SOUND] [INAUDIBLE] That's it, that's it. I didn't really wanna drive a lambo. [INAUDIBLE] I figured exactly that's the case. I love it. I think it's everything you want from the track to the car. Lovely, [INAUDIBLE] I don't know who you are, if you come to Cadwell Park, but I do like this. Struggling like this, Ada have the best time [INAUDIBLE] In 1987 Cadwell Park changed hands for the first time when it was taken over by Brands Hatch leisure group. On the one hand this was great news as it got a shiny new paddock and a bar. On the other hand it controversially last two bits main landmarks the barn which had given barn corner its name was removed to allow our competitors more runoff area. Up to that point the circuit license actually stipulated that the barn doors had to be open during race meetings to ally competitors to margin for error should they operate themselves. [SOUND] And if you think that's just Telltales tell it to Doris, the old lady who for many years lived in a cottage just outside hairpin bend. Doris was cool. She wasn't interesting, but she also wasn't into spoiling everyone else's fun. So whenever there was a race meeting on she'd head out to visit friends and family. Which was just as well, because one day while she was gone, someone allegedly invited themselves over for tea by driving a Mitsubishi starion through her living room. Despite circuit officials trying to convince her it wouldn't happen again. Doris decided to move out for fear that it just might. Turns out that even nearly 40 years later, she was absolutely right. [BLANK_AUDIO] Red flag mate. Red flag? Someone's binned it at the hairpin, they called for maintenance as well so there might be a bit of barrier work. [BLEEP] Okay. you wanna go back up, we'll open the gate for you if you wanna go back. Thanks mate. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you. [SOUND] But the sun threatening to set over the horizon, we weren't left with much time to record our usual clean lab guide of Caldwell Park, but that didn't stop us trying [SOUND] They don't squeeze on the brakes and as fast as you can [INAUDIBLE]. [INAUDIBLE] Come on. And into the inside turn and [INAUDIBLE]. [SOUND] [INAUDIBLE] All the way. [SOUND] [INAUDIBLE] into this. [INAUDIBLE] on the curb. Use all the [INAUDIBLE] on the way out. Chris [INAUDIBLE] Nice to fly all the way around here in a nice straight line to break him off the brakes to get into the right use or the curb weight for elevation change and blacked out down the hill more. On the brakes fairly late in second but not too late to rewind, remember it is downhill. All right on the way back. [INAUDIBLE] Utilize all the curves left and right. Think about your end user that happens right on right here's exactly here. Just **** it Be patient and then flat out again. No threes on the brake at the front and then some cars you have to share from the end dentistry [UNKNOWN] [NOISE] In 2004, capital was acquired by motor sport vision, and this customer with all MSP circuits. A lot of improvements were made to spruce up the place. Fortunately cattles rollercoaster like layout which entered the moniker of the mini Nurburgring was left untouched. But why do people keep calling it that. Is it really worthy of such comparison? Well, hollywood certainly seem to think so when they use it to double up as the Norwich lifer and a few shots during the infamous German Grand Prix sequence in the movie Rush, and it was totally believable. In fact, you don't need to squint too hard for the pedestrian bridge before coppiced To look a bit like the famous bridge on Antonis Bush, even the whole bin section feels a bit like a tighter shorter Hatton bar and come to think of it every time I close my eyes as I'm driving over the mountain. It does feel just like taking off overflow. Usually, if you felt inspired to tackle Cardwell Park and you can't make it to the circuit for some reason, we recommend finding it on automobiles to to or R factor for a crazy realistic experience. Or if you're after something a bit more casual. You can also find it on Project CARS. Well, we were here before sunrise today and we're still here, way after sunset. Is there a better sign that we had a mega day on track at Cairo park. Yes, there is the Lotus is parked at the bottom of the hill with no fuel. So [LAUGH] we're doing a very quick conclusion here because we need to go and get it. I love today I think cattle is a super underrated circuit. I think it really deserves the likeness to the Nurburgring. I'd go as far as saying that German people should come here and drive cattle on its own merits. Yeah, completely agree. I think Cardwell is a little bit underrated. I think everyone from across the world should come and drive casual Park. For that reason, I am going to score it in eight. I'm gonna have to agree I think even though it can be a little bit frustrating when you're racing you know it is a bit narrow and it's difficult to overtake as a track to test yourself against yourself. I don't think there's many better than this. I guess further so on say that it's probably one of those technically difficult tracks in the world. I would agree, but I guess we'll only find out once we've driven every single track in the world. So let us know in the comments below which track you think we should tackle next, comment like subscribe, you know how that helps and we'll see you on the next one. Catch in a bit. Cheers and shout out to MSVT as well. Honestly, today was super well run. Obviously with this show, we're looking at track days all over, and I don't think there's anywhere else or any of the country where I've done a track day, that where you can just go, right. I find, see doing a track like this very week and there's always something there. So they put on a good show. And people keep coming back and stay in there until it's dark.