What is the Lotus

At last, after a lot of pre-production publicity, the Lotus Evora is on the road. And the question being asked is whether it is a sports car or supercar. With a top speed of 162 bph and a 0-60 mph time of 5 seconds it is right on the borderline. Also, because the engine is further back than in most supercars, the weight distribution is not ideal. On the other hand, the weight distribution is a good deal better than on the Porsche 911 supercars.

Recently, though, supercar and exotic car makers have been tweaking their cars to get more power - anyone would think they had never heard of global warning or Peak Oil. Of course, so few supercars are produced that they hardly affect the overall consumption of fossil fuels, so the quest for more power might seem logical.

Not all supercar makers are going after power madly, but engines in supercars do seem to get more powerful every year.This race for power makes absolutely no sense in an era when some governments are promoting electric vehicles – forgetting that they are powered by fossil fuels – and when you don’t need a crystal ball to see that power will become politically incorrect quite soon. In the current environment, the Lotus Evora seems to be an ideal supercar.

Unusually compared with most supercars, the Lotus Evora is a two+two, although a two-seater version is available. There are plenty of two+two around these days though. With 270 bhp, the Evora wold be on the bottom of the list for supercars, but Toyota has a supercharged version of the same engine which develops 325 bhp. Lotus does its own supercharged versions of Toyota’s four-cylinder engine, so it could easily produce a 350 bhp Evora, but that would not be a good idea. Why not? Because Lotus is at an advanced stage of development with the new Lotus Esprit, which will share the same chassis as the Evora, but will be a supercar. Clearly, Lotus wants the Evora to remain a sports car so the Esprit can challenge the supercar world.