DonCorson shares his initial impressions of the Lotus Evora, offering a direct comparison to his previous Elise. His detailed review highlights the Evora's enhanced versatility, power, and comfort, while still retaining the exceptional road-holding characteristics Lotus is renowned for.
Evora first impressions Don Corson
Silky smooth power.
Summed up in 3 words that is the result of the first month with Evora.
Of course the comparison is direct with Elise before.
A
very different car. Evora is much more versatile. Whereas Elise just
loved mountain roads, the highway was less her domain. Above about
100kmh the wind noise becomes very tiring. On the highway Evora is
simply quiet and contemplating. What I hadn't expected, however is that
Evora is just as happy on the mountain roads, with much added spice.
Power.
Whereas you could floor Elise at just about any time without
grave consequences, with Evora one learns quickly of the necessity to
modulate the pressure with the right foot even with traction control
turned on. Coming out of sharp hairpin curves, for example, is simply
another experience. You can cause oversteer at will, with or without
traction control.
Evora's suspension is more comfortable than
Elise's, whereby one could not really say that Elise' suspension is
uncomfortably hard. What both cars share is the fact that the
suspension is always under control and the wheels planted firmly on the
ground. Lotus simply has the suspension down pat. As the seating is
higher in Evora one has less of the famous Elise go-cart feeling. But it
is easier to get in and out. There is a little body roll in the
curves, but I would claim that is sticks to the road even better than
the Elise. Does having a wider stance make the difference through the
curves, or is it the claimed 4 times stiffer frame of the Evora? The
number of country roads where I can just dial in the speed limit and
drive without slowing down at all has increased some more with this
vehicle.
The road holding is fabulous, but the motor is not any
less good. The Toyota supplied naturally aspirated V6 as tuned by Lotus
takes the gas without hesitation and loves reving high. I find myself
driving at much higher rpms than I have in the past or is needed just to
have the quick response and silky sound. The sound goes from almost
inaudible when cruising at Swiss highway speeds, to a warm growl when
demanding power at lower rpms to a controlled snarl when pushing at high
rpms. The biggest impression is the silky smoothness (am I repeating
myself?). At all regimes and demands the motor takes the gas eagerly
without hesitation. The shifting feel of the Toyota supplied 6 speed
transmission is in a completely different class than the Elise, but that
isn't hard. That connection between the shifting stick and the
transmission itself is one of the Elise' weakest points.
The
interiour is nicely done, but not outstanding. The Riccardo seats are,
however, outstanding giving great support and sufficient padding for
long trips. Of course the added space will make packing for long trips
much easier. Most of that added space is a shelf behind the seats. The
2+2 version of the Evora has that space upolstered like seats, but I
don't think that anyone over 8 years of age could ever fit on those
seats so the packing shelf is more useful.
What are the
negatives? The buttons on the dashboard are all illuminated, but
completely unreadable except at night. You have no idea if the lights
are on or off, for example. The "entertainment center" from Alpine is
one of the most difficult things to use I have ever seen and I can not
find a way to turn off the voice giving directions on the navigation
system. And of course the gasoline consumption is about 50% more than
Elise. Have you ever seen a speedometer where the tick marks are spaced
every 15kmh and not every 10? It takes some getting used to.
Do these things have anything to do with the driving pleasure? No.
As a talking point the Evora seems to draw even more comments than Elise did.
(An
aside: there is a woman at work in the accounting dept. who has been
there at least 10 years. I have never seen her smile or heard her say a
word even though I always say bonjour as one does when we cross in the
halls. The other day we crossed in the hall, she had a wide smile on her
face and asked if she could borrow my car! So she
can talk, but no
way!)
The Lotus Evora has touring car qualities that the Elise
does not. This makes me think that I will be keeping it quite a while
longer. Up 'til now I am very pleased with this new acquisition.
Just to share some of my pleasure below are two videos. Heading up
to our local mountain and then back down again. At least some nice
pictures of the beautiful countryside in Canton Vaud. Note the last
pictures of the first video in the parking lot of the elementary school
in Bullet. That school has the best view of any school I know and the
whole valley side is windows. It's a good thing I didn't go to school
there. I wouldn't have learned a thing, just looked out the window,
even more than I did in my school.
Don
(PS: there have
been complaints that the video server DailyMotion has long ads before
the clips. This appears to be only in the US and I am told that a
standard brouser ad blocker takes care of the problem. Sorry for the
inconvenience.)
