Lotus fans will be pleased to hear that the manufacturer has just unveiled their fastest ever road going car in the Lotus Evora 400. Lotus has had their problems over the last few years but this new model doesn’t look like it was thrown together by the manufacturer to fix their woes. This car is now a true competitor to Porsche’s Cayman GT4 which produces 380hp.

When Colin Chapman started Lotus after getting a loan from his better half he had the quick-wit to realise that the lighter you make a car the faster it will go. That is exactly what Lotus has done with this Evora; they have made her lose 22kg. The weight loss hasn’t meant a lower specification to this model either, in fact the new Evora 400 is said to offer higher power and higher standard specification. This car hasn’t just lost weight. We’re told more than two-thirds of its make-up is new, which tells us that this definitely isn’t just a quick fix on the older model.

So what makes this car so special? Well, as I’ve said already, this will be their fastest-ever road car. Figures released by Lotus say that this car will have a top-speed of 300km/h and will offer 0-100km/h in a not-too-shabby 4.2 seconds. I’ve had the pleasure of being in the Lotus factory before, on-site they have their own challenging test track and the manufacturer tells us that it can navigate the course 6 seconds faster than the outgoing Evora. The supercharged and charge-cooled mid-mounted 3.5litre V6 engine produces 400hp and 410Nm of torque.

Production for European markets of the Lotus Evora 400 will commence this summer.

Jean-Marc Gales, Chief Executive Officer for Group Lotus plc., said, “A requirement for all Lotus cars is to be a benchmark for handling, to be the quickest car from A to B and to provide the driver with a pure and involving driving experience. The Evora 400 is the fastest road-going Lotus that we have ever produced, possessing performance that can only be matched by cars costing significantly more. It delivers supercar looks allied to supercar performance.” Mr Gales continues, “We have always said that to make a car better, you must make it faster and lighter. We have achieved this, of course, but we didn’t stop there, as the considerable number of changes in the interior, chassis, engine and body design have warranted emphatically, the title of a new Lotus Evora.”