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Automotive history books are filled with lusty machines wearing the Lotus roundel and the initials of the British automaker’s famous founder Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. The phrase “simplify, then add lightness” has been accredited so frequently to Chapman’s creations that it’s practically a sacred text engraved on the hearts of auto enthusiasts worldwide – at least those who have experienced its true meaning behind the wheel of a proper Lotus sports car. But does every car wearing the Lotus badge have to be stripped down to the point that it’s useful for nothing but blasts down curvy strips of blacktop? Fans of the Lotus Evora have reason to believe otherwise.
The Lotus Evora is a true sports car. But it’s a style that homeowners can live with every day without dressing up in their discomfort like a car sweater. Lotus boasted that the Evora could be compatible with a full set of golf clubs in its shipping domain and said it was designed to combine “track functionality with sumptuous in-car comfort”. We’ll counter this by admitting that the Evora isn’t a luxury car, but the fact that it has so well combined those two probably opposite elements means it has the means to publish its name in the annals of the series.
But the history of Évora is limited to that. Here are five more reasons why the Evora earned a spot on our list of long-running classics.
There’s a reason the most successful racing machines use mid-engine designs. Putting the biggest single lump of weight in the center of the chassis results in an ideal balance between the front and rear. And unlike some vaunted sports cars like the rear-engined Porsche 911, the engine of the Lotus Evora is located right where God and Colin Chapman intended: in the middle of its award-winning chassis.
While there’s a lot of debate about whether it’s more productive to have exactly 50% of a car’s weight on each axle, there’s no doubt that the Evora’s 50:50 distribution produces sublime behavior. If the ultimate grip is the lever through which cornering performance is measured, many versions of the Evora pull more than 1G on the drift deck. But what stands out is the Evora’s adorable forced hydraulic steering, which provides the perfect feel on the road.
Don’t get me wrong. Two adults will cram into the two rear seats of the Lotus Evora with a smile on their faces. The same can be said of sports cars 2 2 at most, such as the aforementioned 911. The Ferrari Mondial uses the same design as the Evora, and while criticism of the Italian styling is, to put it kindly, varied, few people complain. the seductive lines and curvilinear appearance of the Lotus.
Lotus offered the Evora with or without the rear perch, so if having the extra pair of little buckets is important to you, be sure the car you’ve got your eye on has them.
Not all Evora models are the same. When it was launched in 2009, the Evora could only reach a top speed of over 160 miles per hour. Not bad, but until the end of production in 2021, the Evora GT could reach just 188 mph. Some previous special editions might have cost a little more, but either way, the Evora is the fastest car Lotus has ever built.
Production of the Evora has ended and Lotus’ replacement, the Emira, didn’t go as quickly in the most sensible sense. Lotus has since introduced its all-electric Evija, which has a top speed of over 200mph. However, the Evora remains the fastest car made by Lotus, powered by an internal combustion engine.
Toyota doesn’t currently make a whole lot of cars designed to set enthusiast hearts aflutter. What the massive Japanese automaker does make a bunch of, however, are solidly reliable passenger cars powered by really good engines. And one of those Toyota-made engines powers the Lotus Evora, in either naturally aspirated or supercharged guise.
Toyota’s ubiquitous 2GR-FE can be discovered under the hood of cars around the world, adding some Avalon, Camry and RAV4 styles sold in the United States. It also equips certain cars that carry the Lexus badge. In modified form, engine control software developed through Lotus, Toyota’s 3. 5-liter V6 develops a minimum of 276 horsepower and up to 430 galloping horses, depending on which style of Évora it’s in. .
The Evora’s transmissions – both automatic and manual were offered – were sourced from Aisin, a major Japanese supplier that has done business with just about every automaker in the world. Including, naturally, Toyota.
Lotus loves the letter E. While under development, the program that would eventually result in the Evora production car was known as Project Eagle. The name didn’t stick. Instead, Lotus says Evora “was created from the words evolution, vogue, and aurora.”
We have no problem buying the evolution part. Although the Evora was not based on any previous platform, it shared structure techniques (its lightweight aluminum tub is mated with a metal rear subframe and 6000 series alloy extrusions bonded with an epoxy adhesive that is then riveted in combination) with earlier models such as the Elise. . . And fashion means trend with style, so it makes sense. But Aurore? We have no idea where this is coming from. Well, in combination, the so-called Evora is memorable and, unlike some coat racks (Volkswagen Tiguan, we’re looking for you) it’s even easy to pronounce.