by nitroman » Thu 22.09.2011, 03:00
They finally had one in stock at my Lotus dealer so I stopped by and checked it out. It's very comfortable to sit in with much more for/aft room than the Elan, but the minute I shut the driver's door my shoulder was pressing against the inner door panel. The seat controls are 100% manual. A good thing yet it surprised me nonetheless. The windows are frameless and have the same "not substantial enough feeling" as the Elan's, if anything even less so. This was the more surprising as there is not much side-window there to begin with. I got the feeling there might be lots of wind egress at hyperspeed. The six-speed shifter was very precise but yet needed only the lightest touch to move. The engineers should get an 'A+' and overtime pay for being truly shifty. Brakes likewise only needed a light touch and were very firm. They were more than adequate although not as powerful as the brakes on a brand new Corvette. Much larger rotors could have fit into the wheels. It has 4-pot calipers on all four wheels, which is unusual. The seats were ergonomically superior to those on the Elan. The interior had a very visually appealing 2-tone leather styling sweeping throughout which was soft to the touch everywhere, especially on the seats, although it didn't have that wonderful "two dead cows of fine leather" smell like the Esprits did in their latter years; a smell Ferraris do best.
All in all it's a nice bit of kit, but has enough of that old familiar "a third of this stuff will break if the kids yank on it" feeling that makes a Lotus a Lotus. The salesman said they are bringing about 300 Evoras a year stateside, of which only a pitance will be supercharged this year (he pulled the figure 17 from somewhere).
Strive for perfection in everything. (given time)
Take the best that exists & make it better. (given inclination)
If it doesn't exist, create it. (God did)
Ignore what I say. (good advice)
