It’s that feeling. You’ve felt it too, although probably not recently. You get into a car you’ve not driven before, but within seconds feel completely at home; the response to each input is exactly what your brain thinks it should be. By the time you’ve left the car park you already know this car wants to be driven, and it wants to be driven by you. With gusto, preferably. Could this be the definition we’ve been looking for in trying to establish what constitutes ‘peak car’?
That was the experience I had pulling away from Bell & Colvill one sunny Saturday in August 2020. The trusting sales manager, Jamie, tossed me the keys and told me to bring the Evora GT410 Sport back in an hour. If Carlsberg made test drives…
But let’s jump back a decade or so to the birth of the Evora, and what Lotus was trying to achieve. The concept made perfect sense: everyone loves the Elise, so let’s make a grown up 2+2 version with a Toyota V6 that can take on (but undercut) the Porsche 911. The aluminium chassis, plastic body and Camry engine will last forever, instantly negating the infamous Lotus backronym you all know so well. It’ll sell like hot cakes.
