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Lotus is returning to F1 this year. This is excellent news, particularly if they act on the advice of the several hundred letters we have sent, ordering them to adopt a John Player Special gold-on-black livery.
If, however, you don't happen to be called Jarno Trulli or Heikki Kovalainen (or something of similar spelling) but fancy being a part of Lotus's racing renaissance, how about an Evora Cup racer?
Set to debut this week at the Autosport Show in Birmingham, the Cup racer is a quicker, harder, track-only Evora that's ready to race in a new one-make series called, inventively, the Evora Cup.
It's also eligible to race in the FIA's GT4 series: the road car's 3.7-litre V6 has been bored out to four litres, with power rising to somewhere around 400bhp (the road car gets 276bhp). That's a fair lump of power, all channelled to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential dog-box.
With a new aero package and lots of carbon fibre stuff, it weighs it at around 1,200kg, some 200kg lighter than road-going Evora. Adjustable dampers and bigger brakes complete the picture: a picture which, in short, looks rather excellent.
The cost of all this excellence? Around £120,000 before taxes, says Lotus, which is mighty expensive by road car standards but actually fairly reasonable by racing standards. And if you're quick, you might be able to recoup some of your outlay: a prize fund of around £90,000 will be available in the Lotus Cup race series.
Maybe it's odd that Lotus has chosen to base a single-make series around its ostensibly least sporty model. But we don't care - especially if some of that extra power makes it to the road-going Evora, a car which, despite its magnificent ride and handling, we've always felt could do with a bit more pace.
400bhp? Yeah, that'd do nicely...
Now watch Clarkson thrash the 2+2 coupe:
Open Car Bar
What do you think?
Want to comment on this?
The_Monk commented on this article
at 01:08 pm on 14 January 2010
I'm still slightly ambivalent about the Evora. I wonder what else I could get for the car's £50,000 asking price and figure quite a lot, and part of me feels as if they're out of their comfort zone making cars like this and the Europa. In years to come, all sports cars will eventually look the same anyway - you just have to Google the McLaren MP4-12C to see the same sort of aerodynamic principles from the Evora coincidentally applied to that, plus a few more cooling vents and hours more drooling. GP4 Evora makes sense though, but would it be great on a road? Don't care. Want one. Now.
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FORD_FREAK commented on this article
at 01:16 pm on 14 January 2010
although it ain't a ford... I WANT ONE!!! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sambawacki commented on this article
at 01:36 pm on 14 January 2010
Finally a Lotus that has the iconic colours! They should do more like it, then more people would buy it. All the special editions should have those colours! Really the green should be metallic, then it'll look better at night.
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J4KE.H4M commented on this article
at 02:40 pm on 14 January 2010
meh. just kidding I LIKE IT!!! I WANT 1!
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J4KE.H4M commented on this article
at 02:41 pm on 14 January 2010
PUT THAAT COOKIE DAUN!!! NOW!!
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