Lotus Evora Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Lotus Evora
Prices: £47,500-£49,875 – on the road
Insurance Group: 19 [est]
Emissions: 205g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 5.1s / Max Speed 161mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 22.8mpg / (extra urban) 43.5mpg / (combined) 32.5mpg
Safety: ABS, traction control, EBD, two-stage front airbags
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4342/1800/1300 [est]

EVORA OF INVINCIBILITY?

Our Rating: 7.4 / 10

Lotus has high hopes for the Evora as it looks to unsettle the big players in the sports coupe market. Steve Walker reports.

Lotus has always been able to do driving enjoyment as well as anybody but the rest of the package sometimes left a little to be desired. The Evora is the British firm’s attempt to break into the mainstream sports coupe market where quality and image are as important as handling and performance. The likes of Porsche and Audi should be concerned.

There are plenty of car manufacturers that would kill for a little bit of what Lotus has got. The Norfolk-based manufacturer oozes credibility with its single-minded sportscars beloved of enthusiasts and its fifty-year philosophy of performance through light weight looking ever more prophetic in the era of spiralling fuel costs and environmental pressures. Realising this undoubted potential has been the problem for Lotus but we could be seeing the beginnings of a more concerted effort to challenge the big players in the performance car market with this model, the Evora.

The Evora’s debut at the 2008 British International Motorshow came a full thirteen years after Lotus unveiled its previous all new car. The iconic Elise spawned Exige, Europa and 2Eleven models in the intervening years that shared the same basic underpinnings but the Evora is original from the ground up. It’s a highly significant car also because it sets out to broaden the appeal of the Lotus brand. With its upmarket interior and 2+2 layout, the Evora is targeting the customers who would otherwise have turned to leading sports coupes like the Porsche Cayman and the Audi TTS. It’s a very different market from the track day regulars and driving enthusiasts who would opt for the hardcore Elise or harder-core Exige. Has the Evora got the right stuff?

Like the Elise, the Evora relies on Toyota for the contents of its engine bay but unlike the zingy 1.8-litre VVT-i engine in the impish roadster, the Evora’s engine is a 3.5-litre V6 that has previously seen service in the Lexus RX350 luxury 4x4. It’s not the kind of powerplant you’d instantly associate with Lotus but the 276bhp unit has been thoroughly revised to give it the edge that Evora customers will be looking for. Throttle response has been sharpened through the use of a more sophisticated ECU and there’s variable valve timing for both intake and exhaust cams to increase efficiency and flexibility. The maximum power output arrives at 6,400rpm and

The gearbox also comes courtesy of Toyota and it’s a six-speed manual but Lotus is at work on its own close ratio manual box for a more focused future Evora variant as well as the sequential auto that will be a must if the car is to succeed in the lucrative American market. This being a Lotus, we can expect a finely honed chassis with real agility, Lotus having benchmarked its own Elise as the standard for the car’s handling dynamics. The braking and suspension systems draw on the know-how of some of the biggest names in motorsport with the Bosch brakes using four-pot callipers from AP Racing, the suspension springs supplied by Eibach and dampers from Bilstein. The Evora rides on purpose-designed Yokohama tyres and Bosch was also involved in the creation of special ABS and traction control systems that allow the Evora’s performance capabilities to shine through without intervening too early.

The Evora’s designers had the unenviable task of reconciling the need for a bewitching exterior with the car’s 2+2 seating configuration and the stringent requirements of modern crash tests. The result is an elegantly proportioned car that lacks the curvy aggression of the Elise but still manages to look taut and purposeful. The real innovation lies beneath the bodywork where the firm’s extruded aluminium Variable Vehicle Architecture is employed to reduce weight and maximise rigidity. Under this design, the roof and body panels are stress-bearing and attached directly to the chassis helping the Evora achieve its modest 1,350kg kerb weight.

The Evora’s packaging is also noteworthy. At 2,575mm, the car’s wheelbase is only 275mm longer than the Elise but it manages to cram in its mid-mounted V6 engine along with rear seats that, Lotus insists, are large enough for passengers of up to five feet in height. There’s also a 160-litre boot that’s said to be capable of carrying a set of golf clubs, but a visual appraisal of the space suggests you may have to melt them down and pour th