EVORA goes back a very long way. It’s an ancient town in Portugal, overrun by the Romans in 57BC, taken back by Portugal later, and was just the other day voted that country’s second most liveable centre.
The new Lotus of that name is also thoroughly liveable, a feature few other models of the Malaysian-owned British marque can boast.
The mid-engine sports car certainly looks the part, an up-to-date aerodynamic coupe that draws envious looks.
Except that it’s more than a coupe.
Clever styling effectively hides the fact that it can seat four.
In a radical departure from previous bone-bare Loti, the Evora is a decidedly upmarket machine, complete with aircon, Alpine audio system, hand-stitched leather, Recaro seating, power windows, and a boot big enough for a couple of sets of golf clubs.
Said to be the world’s only mid-engined two-plus-two in production, it is built on an advanced three-piece lightweight and super-stiff chassis – it has a mass of just 200kg – and is powered by a 3.5-litre V6 from Toyota’s Aurion.
Lotus uses its own engine control unit and exhaust system to give the V6 more zip, and transmission is through a sturdy six-speed manual, also from Toyota.
The 206kW/350Nm V6 isn’t the world’s most powerful, but it’s smooth, bulletproof and can take the 1380kg coupe to 100km/h in 5.1seconds.
To stop the beast, Lotus uses huge vented and cross-drilled AP Racing 4 piston brake discs – 350mm in front and 332mm at the rear – which rein it in from 100km/h in 2.5 seconds.
The handling, sorted out mainly on the Nurburgring and Stelvio Pass, makes the Evora special.
The strong clutch gives the left calf a good workout, the two-tone dash reflects quite badly in the windscreen and it has some el cheapo parts, such as the trip meter that reads only in whole kilometres.
Otherwise it remains a quite practical and very sophisticated high-performance car with forgiving road manners and stunning looks.
The Evora comes in several spec levels, priced from $149,990.