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Photos: Lotus Evora

Lotus finally makes a play for the Porsche 911 crowd with its new Evora, which goes on sale in 2009.

Derek Fung
Derek loves nothing more than punching a remote location into a GPS, queuing up some music and heading out on a long drive, so it's a good thing he's in charge of CNET Australia's Car Tech channel.
Derek Fung
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London Motor Show 2008 Lotus finally makes a play for the Porsche 911 crowd with its new Evora, which goes on sale in 2009.

When you're looking at the photo gallery, there's also our video of the Evora from the 2008 London Motor Show.

The Eagle has landed
Codenamed "Eagle", the Evora is the first truly new Lotus in over a decade. Unlike the current range of Elise-derived models, the Evora has seating for four people — albeit two adults and two children. The new model is more road focussed too, with niceties like satellite navigation creeping in for the first time.

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Is that a Toyota in the window?
Living under the rear window is a 206kW, Lotus-tuned version of the Toyota's 3.5-litre V6. This is the same engine that's used in the Camry, sorry, Aurion. According to official testing, the Evora will drink 7.8L/100km.

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The anti-Elise
Anyone who's sat inside an Elise will know how spartan it is — not to mention how difficult it is to get in or out, unless you're an Olympics-grade gymnast. The Evora, on the other hand, looks plush and comfortable. The large 7-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dash drives an Alpine audio system with satellite navigation, video, Bluetooth hands-free, iPod connectivity and a reversing camera.

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Toyota versus Porsche
With 2+2 seating and a 3.5-litre V6, the Evora's most logical competitor is Porsche's 911. The 206kW Toyota engine is down in the power stakes compared to Porsche's 254kW 3.6-litre boxer six, although the Lotus fights back with a lower kerb weight — an estimated 1,350kg versus the 911's 1,415kg. According to Lotus, the Evora will sprint from 0 to 60mph (96km/h) in under five seconds; the 911 does 0 to 100km/h in 4.9.

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A Lotus for the whole family
Technically it can seat four people, although as you can see from this technical diagram, you'll either have to be a midget or under the age of 10 to fit comfortably in the back seat. Hence Lotus designating it as a 2+2 seater, instead of a true four seater.

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Stocks are limited
The Evora will go on sale in Europe around March 2009 with production limited to about 2,000 units per year.

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How much izzit?
No idea yet. The official line from Lotus is that "final specifications, options and prices of the production Lotus Evora will be published closer to the sale date".

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