So, the Evora and Evora S then.
Despite yesterday being a total washout with regards to the weather, which made driving the southern section of Silverstone a bit of a nightmare due to all the freshly-laid surfaces, I can without doubt say that I had the greatest drive in any car ever yesterday.
The day was very well structured, and after being split into groups I discovered that I had pretty much the perfect itinerary for the day: Track in Evora, then track in the Evora S, then a road drive in the Evora. As said above, the track was soaking wet and I'd never driven Silverstone before which makes it very hard to get your bearings, and I have to say that my instructor in the Evora was very forgiving as I was pretty awful first thing That said, it was still a good chance to drive the car and I actually prefer driving in the wet on track, really sorts the men from the boys. A couple of the quicker S cars came past but with an extra 70bhp that wasn't surprising really! The wet line at Silverstone is a bit weird in places, and I found myself getting a bit lost pretty easily sadly, however it gave me a good idea of the layout for the fun that was to come...
Ahh, the S. Pretty much the drive everyone was looking forward to all day. Different instructor this time, and by some miracle fluke I ended up with Ian Ashley, ex-F1 driver who's driven with and against Moss and Fittipaldi in his time. Really nice guy, very much a gentleman from that era, until you sit in in a car on track. He then became the most aggressive and forceful man I've ever met, which was fantastic! He was literally shouting at me to take the right line, and he got me trail braking incredibly hard into the corners to get the weight over the front which was just brilliant, feeling the car work so hard despite the conditions. The best part was coming through Stowe at the end of the Hangar Straight, where the wet line is right round the outside and he was making me take it at a speed that I would've struggled to contemplate in the dry! I was terrified yet enthralled both at the same time, and it really made me re-evaluate my own driving skills, or lack thereof.
After a short break we had the road drive, which was a bit irrelevant really given the route (bit of dual carriageway then a pootle through the village). I'd have settled for another couple of laps in either car really, but at least the offer was there and Lotus were very generous with their cars.
So, the cars themselves then. On track they are simply incredible: The base Evora is a pretty quick car anyway, and the Toyota lump powering it suits the car perfectly and you get a wonderfully smooth delivery from it. Tbh I didn't really notice the extra power on the S too much but then I was quite busy being terrified, and the lack of any noticeable supercharger whine is a little disappointing: I like a little drama in my sports cars. Where the S does score above the NA car is the handling, as the suspension bushes have been stiffened up by 10% which doesn't sound a lot, but it makes a wonderful car into something truly special, and you then realise just why other companies pay Lotus Engineering so much to fine tune their own cars. These guys really know their stuff, and as much as I hate to repeat what every other motoring journo has said for the last two years, the Evora is simply untouchable from a handling POV. The rough circuit ring road which in under construction still has these immense potholes that the Evora just gobbles up so smoothly, when the suspension on the 911 is getting a bit jittery.
Ah yes, comparisons with a Porsche. Given that Lotus themselves have said that both the Cayman S and entry level 911 Carrera were targets for the Evora/S to beat, I don't feel bad making these comparisons. Unfortunately, this is where the Lotus falls apart as an ownership proposition. The interior is covered in leather, but it's not very high-quality stuff and there's a lot of wrinkling and panel gaps which shouldn't be there on a car costing around £70K in a decent spec. Lotus might've been better off with a decent plastic than trying leather here I feel, but it's certainly a jump up from an Elise or Europa. The seats are Recaros which are wonderful, and yet the seats in the 911 are that little bit better, even considering that mine are the adaptive sports seats. The sat-nav/ICE Alpine thing is vile and obtrusive in the car, shining a bright red glow much like Rudolph in December. The steering wheel, which looks far too big for the car at first glance, is actually a very good size in use which makes it more of a shame that it covers up half the buttons next to the dash including the vital Sport button! Tut tut Lotus, this is very basic stuff.
And yet, when you remove the comparisons, what you're left with is a wonderful sports/GT car. The chassis is sublime, with a stiffness yet compliance you wouldn't have thought possible. The S in particular, with the revised suspension settings, is a joy when pushing on and corners so flatly it's as if it was laying the rails itself. The P Zero tyres compliment the car very nicely, and give a balance on the limit in the wet that any car would be proud of at any price point. The brakes are a touch over-servoed for me, yet they stop the car well and are very progressive. There is a certain amount of criticism that can be levelled at the gear change, as the gate seems to widen for some reason over by 5th and 6th, and although Lotus also tightened the whole mechanism up on the S, it's still a bit like stirring a bucket of bricks at times.
The one thing that bothers me is that I love all things Lotus, and I love the way they go about things, and I deliberately put off driving an Evora for as long as possible as I was terrified that I might realise that I'd actually bought the wrong car. Luckily for me (not so much for Lotus), I made the right call. It's missing that spark, that magic, that little something extra that makes every drive an event. The Zed has it, the 911 definitely has it, but the Evora doesn't. If you knocked £10K to £15K off the cost of the Evora you'd have an absolute bargain, and a must-buy car that would be selling out everywhere, but as it stands it's simply too expensive for what you get. If you really don't like German cars or must have a car that no-one else has then you'd be perfectly happy in an Evora, but for the rest of us I suspect that you'd spend your whole time driving it getting more and more irked by the little things they should've gotten right rather than the things they did. Yes, of course it's vital for a car to handle and stop and go very well, but it's also important to get the tiny details right. I'm not sure the Evora is quite there, but it's given me a renewed hope for the Esprit and Elan when/if they get released in a few years time.
I'm more in love with Lotus today than I was before driving the Evora, and yet I'm less likely to buy any of their range today than I was before.
