The latest in a succession of ever more exciting Exige variants, the Lotus Sport-built Cup 255 raised the game of this already formidable track-day weapon to an even higher level on its introduction in 2007.

Lotus Sport is Lotus Cars’ performance and competition division, developing products that offer maximum performance while retaining the company’s hallmarks of minimalist design and light weight wherever possible.

Built for the Lotus Cup Europe Regulatory Race Series, the first ‘Cup’ variant of the Exige sports car debuted in 2003.

Asian GT Championship ‘V6 400’ and GT3 racing versions followed, the latter underlining the Exige’s competition heritage by winning the British GT3 Constructors Championship in 2006.

The introduction of the Exige 240R in 2005 marked the first time that its Toyota engine had been supercharged, and that limited-edition model was immediately followed by the 240 Cup.

Having added a supercharger to the stock Exige to create the 240R/240 Cup, the engineers...