[SOUND].
[MUSIC].
Welcome to a sleepy Norfolk it's about big lumpy thing on England East.
It's got things like lavender, crab and.
Lotus.
And we've come to have a look at it's latest motor, the fastest Lotus ever made, the Evora 410.
[SOUND]
The Evora 400 was a truly brilliant car, mid engine, 400 horsepower, rear wheel drive, looks to kill, sharp handling It was brilliant.
But Lotus being Lotus, has found a little bit more room to breathe in there.
So it's made it more powerful, livelier and a little angrier.
There's way more going on here then a simple turning up of the [UNKNOWN] and giving it a new name.
Lotus has trimmed 70 kilos of the 480 if you spec the [UNKNOWN] titanium exhaust.
How is it done that?
Well, breath in.
A carbon fiber tailgate sheds 12 kilos.
A carbon fiber roof too.
Carbon fiber front access panels, spoiler and grills is 2.5 kilos.
For the wheels say 10 single piece door panels drop two.
Carbon fiber sport seats get 18 kilos back.
A lithium iron battery sheds 11.3.
5.5 kilos of sound deadening is gone, there's a low density, foam core screen surround that saves 3.4 kilos.
The rear bulkhead glass has dropped one, an HVAC inlet thing loses 900 grams, carbon fiber rear quarter glass saves 800 grams, and the mudflaps drop 700 grams more.
That's quite a lot gone then, but if you decide you want the jazzy new look The extra power but also want some creature comforts, you can spec that back in.
For a cost of course.
You can get air con and sound deadening in the stereo and stuff like that if you really want it.
But that would rather be spoiling the point of the car.
How would you be doing that?
Well, it's quite simple.
The weight reduction, as well as lowering the car, means its center of gravity is much lower than before, which means better handling, which means better car.
And you wouldn't want to make a better car worse now, would you?
Now it's new look, it isn't just purely for cosmetics, it's actually Actually functional spoilers that are fitted on the front and back do make a noticeable effect to downforce and drag.
So this thing actually produces twice the downforce the 400 does at its top speed, and more than twice at 100 mph.
Its engine has been fiddled with, obviously.
It gives 410 horses and around 310 pound foot.
With the light weight sometimes included.
The 410 will hit 62 in four point one seconds and it'll do 190 miles an hour.
The 410 is three seconds quicker around Lotus' Norfolk test track.
The [UNKNOWN] Evora 400.
It's one second quicker than [UNKNOWN] 350.
Lotus says it's the fastest production car it's ever made.
OF course being Lotus it's fiddled with the suspension so it's got firmer dampers that work better with the light wheels at each corner.
The springs are the same as the 400 but thanks to low weight Lotus says the effective spring rates have improved.
And there's Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires on each corner.
They're the grade A good stuff.
A while ago I was in the US driving a US spec Evora 400.
And while it's not exactly the same, it's a little bit heavier.
Still it's good enough for a quick comparing And basically the weather out there was dry.
In here it's revolting.
I mean the 400 was brilliant.
Just a truly wonderful epic car.
But this just feels that little bit better, that little bit more hardcore.
So let's go with the bad things first.
You cannot see out of the rear.
Those slats, they're just, they're nothing.
You get four if your short little.
Letter boxes to see through and you can't see much through them.
Not great.
This car does have air conditioning in it and it's pretty rubbish.
It hasn't made me cold at all, so I've been sweating in this thing quite a bit.
And you have to lift up the tail gate on your own, because to save weight they've gotten rid of the gas structure so you have a stick.
School styles it.
Hey if it works for them, if it takes the kilos off, that's fine.
Because in freeing up those 78 kilos, what Lotus has done is they've made the 410 just feel lighter and more nimble.
It feels more alive.
Even more tactile.
The 400's one of the sweetest handling cars.
I've had the privilege of driving and this is just that extra step.
It's so communicative.
The steering is not too heavy, it's not too light, but you can feel everything on the road.
Every bump and lump on this track, you can feel it under the front.
When you're on the limit, when you're sliding around like an idiot.
It's so easy to control it's such a good chassis.
[INAUDIBLE] Just bang on.
It feels amazing.
Its working responses is instant.
And when you're properly on it, you get that super charging noise creeping in.
That's three and a half liter D6.
Americans may scoff because it came from a Camry.
But my God, I don't know a Camry that sounds like that.
[NOISE]
[SOUND]
[LAUGH]
It sounds fantastic.
The brake pedals quite hard, quite shallow but again it's easy to modulate.
There's not too much to play with but you can do stuff with it.
Its clutch is light, it's very The gearbox as well.
It's a firm box but it's not too difficult to use.
It's smooth, it's slick.
It's an absolute joy.
Man, this thing, you can feel can feel it through your finger tips, you can feel it through your arse.
The car moves with you, it communicates everything it's doing.
Thing.
You have to be precise with it.
If you've got everything turned off.
You can make a proper **** of yourself but it does have full stage traction.
So there's everything on and everything's fine.
Well it's quite placid and quite lovely, sport sharpens it up a little bit.
Race which is what we're in now, well it will makes it louder, it makes it angry and gives you a little bit of slip.
But it makes sliding so easy.
You can shift it with one hand.
And then you cancel everything off.
And then my she becomes a beastly, really does.
[MUSIC]
It's such an enjoyable car to drive.
It's so rare that theres something out there that feels so natural.
And we'd live in a time where everything is electrically assisted nor this fake noise pumped in.
This isn't real, you have to have the automatic gear got because it's faster and it's better in emissions, mother nature and all of that.
Where in this car It's sort of the anti-that.
It's properly set up.
[UNKNOWN] handling guys remain some of the best in the biz.
It sounds amazing, all of the controls just feel right.
It's the right car to play with.
Yeah, so the instrument [UNKNOWN] doesn't have the latest This is the LCD, LED, HDR 4K displays.
And well, I don't have a stereo in here, instead I've got a metal plate.
But this is supposed to be a lightweight limited run sportscar.
They're only gonna build 150 a year globally.
Man, it's so good.
I've found my happy place, and my happy place is the [UNKNOWN] Circuit, this Full tank of fuel.
[LAUGH]
Now I've just been playing on track but Lotus says this'll do well on the road as well.
That'll probably be if you spec the sound deadening, air conditioning and a stereo but without you'll have to be something of a masochist.
But for real world usability it's easy to get in and out of.
You can see out of the front and it's quite comfy.
And I'll certainly stand out.
Not a lot of people go for the Lotus and I think that is a crying shame.
I think they're missing out.
Admittedly, I say that with a ten year old release on the drive, I am a Lotus person.
But my point still stands, there's a purity to a Lotus, it's very analog in a world where cars are becoming less and less so, more digital.
And you know what?
That's a great shame.
Admittedly, there are still a few and local companies out there, Caterham, Lanos, Ariel but some, none of those have rules.
And they're all kind of stupid.
Okay, so it does feel hand-made in places take [UNKNOWN] what you will and it is very expensive.
82,000 pounds in the UK, $108,500 in the US.
That's Porsche money isn't it?
However, as I said years ago when I first drove the [UNKNOWN] S and had hair.
Try one before you go to Stuttgart.
It's a very raw car.
You feel the weight that's been lost.
You don't necessarily feel the extra power but you get that extra finesse.
That Lotus handling is still there and it feels utterly, utterly fantastic.
Lotus says this is the fastest car it's ever made and you know what I think it's one of the best.
[MUSIC]
