The Evora 400 Has Plenty Of Esprit

by Jack Baruth

Published: February 18th, 2015

The Lotus Evora is one of my favorite cars ever. The new Evora 400 makes history by eclipsing the twin-turbo Esprit V8 as the most powerful production Lotus road car to date.

With 400 horsepower and 302 pound-feet of torque, courtesy of a revised supercharger and a water-to-air intercooler, the Evora should easily hit its claimed top speed of 186mph. (Insider tidbit: the sum total of internal changes made to the Camry V6 to prepare it for supercharged duty is… none.) The car’s also dropped 49 pounds thanks to some material changes. It’s scheduled for US distribution in 2016. Let’s cross our fingers.

Oh, one more thing: I’d be shirking my duty as a lifelong Lotus Esprit fan (a friend of mine owns three S1 Esprits, one of which I’ve towed a few times behind my Land Rovers over the years) if I didn’t note that the Esprit V8 could have easily made more than its rated 350hp. The problem was the transmission, which dated back to the four-cylinder Esprits and couldn’t handle any more juice.

Jack Baruth

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2 of 46 comments

MRF 95 T-Bird on Feb 18, 2015

Since it has the Toyota drivetrain maybe a hybrid version would help to increase their meager sales numbers.

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Stanczyk on Feb 20, 2015

This car will be crazy-fast , and it's got sleek, elegant design( i.e Alfa 4C is too small , and too 'crumpy' to looks sexy..) .. but Yes, relatively high price ,and plebeian Camry engine are a bit 'problematic' here .. (ussually, small brand-manufacturers problems..) Ford's V6 EcoBoost(especially, if they prepare some 'sportier-versions' of it, as they promise) sounds a better fit here , and .. Jaguar's F-type('british-connection' here) supercharged-V6 would be even better ..

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