Veteran’s day
The case against the Lotus? It’s old (the Evora’s been around for more than a decade, although it’s been developed throughout), it’s expensive (£80k+), its interior isn’t a patch on the others here… Then its V6 fires and we turn to one another with wolfish grins and remember why it got the invite. For total immersion, not much matches an Evora. The GT410 variant was launched earlier this year but already feels like an old friend since we took it on an epic jaunt to Scotland in CAR’s May issue. So brightly did its handling shine on that trip we decided it warranted a place in this test.
Adam picked up the 410bhp Lotus from Hethel and is besotted with it. Jake is less convinced. ‘The interior is hard to make excuses for,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘The gearchange is awkward, and there’s a disconcerting dead spot at the top of the brake pedal’s travel…’
He does have a point. The aluminium pedals are oddly positioned – I can’t quite put my finger (or toe) on what feels wrong but your clutch leg is arrow-straight while the brake pedal is a bit of a stretch to the left for your right foot, and at an awkward height. And there’s that awkward jump-in play at the top of the pedal that Jake noted, although the brakes certainly bite well when you get there. As a side note, for all their many deep-running talents none of these cars have particularly wonderful brake feel. The Alpine ‘feels like treading on a tennis ball,’ as Jake neatly puts it. The Porsche’s pedal is a little numb feeling and needs plenty of pressure, whilst the M2’s optional carbon-ceramic discs (a snip at £6250) are hair-trigger over-servo’d.
All of the cars here, on the other hand, have standout steering – but the Lotus’s hydraulic set-up is something else again. It’s weighty without feeling heavy, and brim-full of feel. You feel like you’ve been driving the others wearing oven gloves. Same story with the throttle response, easily the best here, thanks to supercharging and well-chosen gear ratios. And likewise the engine note. Never mind the venerable Toyota-sourced V6’s humble background, this is one of the very best sounding cars on sale today. No need to bother with the £5k titanium exhaust option. It already sounds like a racecar. (Especially since the redline isn’t in the right place on the tacho, so there’s a good chance you’ll snag the rat-tat-tat limiter until you get used to it.) And while there’s a little more patter over low-frequency bumps than I remember from last time, true to form the Lotus has the most supple ride too.
The GT410 is the softest Evora in years, with an emphasis on comfort (and it does roll notably more than the other cars here), but it feels the
The steering is something else. It feels like you’ve been driving the other cars wearing oven gloves
most at home of all of them at Cadwell Park, even at low speeds for the camera. It turns in more incisively than the Cayman, which has a tendency toward safe understeer, and the Evora’s steering is so detailed it feels as though you can tell how many layers of paint are on the kerbs. If, for you, nothing is more important than the way in which you and a car carve corners, this has to be your car.
Thinking back to when I tested the car at Lotus’s Hethel test circuit in the pouring rain, it’s remarkable how safe it makes you feel, considering you’re driving a mid-engined car with a fair bit of weight behind you. It never stops talking to you and letting you know what it’s up to next: ‘Just to let you know, I’m going to understeer here. After that, if you leave it a bit late to back off, I might snap into oversteer but, if I do, I’ll give you fair warning, okay?’
Photos in the bag and test over, we’re heading home under a storybook sky, the last rays of sunlight punching through pink-tinged clouds. Jake’s up front in the Lotus, Adam close behind in the Cayman (being pelted with stones from the Evora’s exposed rear tyres, the guards in its rear vents long lost in one of Lotus’s Marie Kondo component-binning sessions in the name of weight-saving). I’m following in the Alpine, windows down to enjoy the balmy summer air. On the breeze, I hear Jake drop the hammer in the Lotus and Adam follow suit in the Cayman. All of a sudden, I really wish I was in the Evora. We stop for fuel a little further up the road. ‘Okay, I understand the appeal now. It’s just… raw,’ Jake grins, reaching for the super-unleaded. Despite its GT leanings, the Evora still feels like a specialist, unfiltered driving machine. The Alpine is more cohesive, the Cayman more polished, the M2 more potent but the Lotus mainlines the biggest adrenaline rush, enough to make you forget its flaws. Enough to win this test? ⊲