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Lotus Evora and 2 Eleven win highest enthusiast accolade.
Posted Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 in Featured Articles, Group Discussions
Short of me proclaiming a car “car of the year” there is only one other source you should consider, EVO magazine. Every year for the last decade (and before that when they were called Performance Car) EVO has been the last word in Drivers Car of the year. Delivering not only fantastic commentary but also industry standard photography that will either leave you breathless or reaching for your keys. It was this year with special interest that I counted the hours until the magazines’ release. WIth Rivals such as the Scirocco R ,new 997 GT3 and even the newest Beasts from Aston Martin and Nobel surely the Evora would still have the talent to be a top 4 finisher. To my amazement not only did the lightweight and modestly powered Evora stand up well, it BOWLED THEM over! taking the championship hopes away from the best car the stud garden had to offer. Boasting no less than titanium engine internals, center hub locking wheels and a power to weight ratio that has the newest Ferrari trembling, the 997 GT3 is no slouch. In stunned amazement I went out and sat in the Lotus to read the track day car of the year article because at this point I was in a Hethel Heritage Frenzy! Again, the competition was nothing less than mind bending , the latest offerings from Ariel, Mugen, an Xbow, the unbelievable Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni, and more completely mental machinery. The victor? The diminutive Lotus 2 Eleven GT4 !! Just to put this in to ULTIMATE perspective. FINE POINT clarity. That is the world’s finest drivers cars trumped (in terms of engines ) by a Camry V6 and a Celica 1.8 supercharged 4 cylinder!!!
Compliant Suspension tuning. Chassis dynamics. Low Weight and Mass. Power to Weight ratio. Lotus is a small company. Bought and sold many, many times in the last few decades. For the most part their owners looked at Lotus as just another stock in the portfolio. How much more is Lotus? In terms of racing heritage they are second only to Ferrari in terms of Formula One success. However, let’s take a look at how in the world a Camry V6 becomes a bellowing super car powerplant with what amounts to proprietary engine management, a well designed exhaust and intake and a cleaver use of factory motor mount location. Look at the spring rates, heck look at the spring size on most Lotus products and two things become readily apparent. A. they are very light almost pliable spring rates and B. they are really TALL. When you drive a Porsche, especially one with either an M030 designation or say, a GT3, what you come away with is that the cars suspension has NO give. NO sway. It is punishing the road in to submission. It isn’t so much absorbing bumps as it is FORCING the tire into contact with the surface as if by an act of sheer distain. A British car, or more specifically a Lotus ALLOWS weight to transfer, allows blows to be absorbed while keeping the tire in contact with the road surface via fairly forceful damper rates. The difference is striking. First off, where as in a car that is set up very stiff you have to filter feedback going to the wheel lest is should vibrate your very forearm into numbness, in a Lotus each and every minute detail is allowed to make it straight through to the driver. Did I just run over an ant? In a Lotus , You’ll know. Now, this is a very limited discussion of what is ACTUALLY going on, after all geometry, sway bars, bushings, all play a roll, but it illustrates a huge difference in approach. Lotus’ ethos is about harmony with the road surface, living with it, using it in a way many car manufactures never seem to think of.
The Evora, and the 2 Eleven ENABLE their drivers to use every last ounce of the cars innate ability while never loosing that smile from your face. What is pleasant from rolling off the line remains pleasant all the way up to and PAST the point where funnels of tyre smoke are obscuring your rear view. Couple that with a driving experience which is in no way fatiguing or jarring and how could you not have a winner?
Weight. It ruins many a fine road car. It cripples you on the track. The fact that these cars weigh up to 30% less than their competition is no small feat, yet on a shoe string budget Lotus manages to make it happen. While it is easy to discard the 2 Eleven as being a track day special, the Evora is DOT and TUV crash test rated, not only that it does very well. Imagine a Nissan GTR that weighed only 2800 lbs! would it need all the super computer wizardry? Would it need an alphabet soup of traction control and steering aids? Does it really need the 500 whp that most dyno’s are proving? Having driven nearly every Lotus in recent memory, and with all having south of 300 HP I have to say NO.
Lotus has accomplished no small item here. It has built two of the worlds best cars using parts bin propulsion and nothing short of genius design. Other car companies, please take note. While the 1000hp Veyron is mighty and technologically amazing, what we all really want is a car that makes us smile. From 1st gear to top gear from corner to corner and from depression to crest. Lotus has got it. The horsepower wars have brought us some amazing acceleration times (who thought an automatic Mercedes Wagon would be capable of ripping 0-60 in 4 seconds 10 years ago?) but in many of these testosterone sleds cornering with vigor is squelched by chassis dynamics that simply can’t keep up without dramatic digital aid. On the whole so high are the rigidity and cooling needs in these cars that weight has crept up so far that even 500 hp feels only marginally entertaining.
Lotus has scaled the mountain, taken everything it has learned and shown the way to a very bright future. Here’s to that future and to what comes next from the Passionate and Wise boys of Hethel!
I have never driven a Lotus. I will have to give them a chance. Thanks for piquing my interest. Love the Blog btw.
This is an awesome article. I love my quattro!
Yeah I agree. Audi hands down has the best AWD.
You know it!