I had to disguise myself as a qualified dentist along the same lines as my dentist and friend Angelo to sneak my way past the dealer and into the driver’s seat of the new Evora.
Why do you say? well he got a very lucky drive of the car just last week as just one of the select chosen few as the car isn’t even shipping to customers in Australia yet.
Would you believe it, the $2 disguise worked, it was that good and I managed to get a good 45mins drive of the Evora around the eastern suburbs twisty roads.
‘intelligent’ glasses and ‘Qualified Dentist’ stick on post-it note disguise
Ok so what did I think? Well you can really feel the Lotus DNA from the Elise/Exige/Europa shining through in spades. I can best describe the ride and chassis feel like an Elise/Exige with a bit more weight which allows the imperfections in the roads to be soaked up better, akin to a more German chassis setup.
What does that mean? Well there is all of the mechanical grip and feeling like you get from an Elise/Exige, but with none of the crashing when you drive over potholes or large joins in the road.
Outward visibility, I noticed the rear view is obstructed quite heavily by the plastic engine cover shroud. Although the side mirrors are much larger than on the Elise/Exige, and more than make up for the lack of view from the center mirror.
Steering is precise and communicative like in the Elise/Exige, if a little more weighted in feel, great.
The gear action is similar to the Elise R/SC/Exige’s 6-speed but with a slightly less ‘notchy’ feel which suits the cars character better. The pedals are perfectly spaced like on the Elise/Exige for heel and toeing although I found the engine doesn’t respond as quickly as the 4-cyliinders when carrying out a heel & toe change.
The 6 cylinder engine idles and plays out its song much more beautifully than the 4 cylinders we are used to in our cars. Its vocals over around 3000 rpm sound lovely, not throaty or raw, but rich and warm, defiantly nicer to listen to over the Elise/Exiges standard exhausts sound.
The performance, well I think I’m spoilt a little coming from a 4 seconds flat supercharged car but it was a little lacking for me in a straight line. There is more show of torque when flattening your foot in a high gear on a hill, but for me where the perfections of all other areas of the car excelled, it desperately needed more power.
Don’t get me wrong though, as I said I’m a bit spoilt so if you came from a naturally aspirated Elise/Exige you would be happy with the performance until inevitably an official or 3rd party supercharger kit will come out for the car and you’ll be laughing all the way to the track. =)