And... another new Lotus Evora 430

I like the nose of that a lot better than the 400.

 

Agree about the nose. The 400's isn't as pretty as the original Evora's in my estimation.

 

Now I could see myself buying this. However, the Lotus site says only 60 for world wide production.

 

They are taking a page out of Porsche's playbook. Seems to work well for them.

 

Lamborghini is the poster child for this marketing tactic.

Good looking car. To me, rear wing is OTT.

 

Glad to see more cars from Lotus but id really love it if theyd market the 400 better here in the US. The car is amazing, I absolutely love mine and yet I doubt I'll ever see another one on the road. Its a real shame. I like a lot of the new aero bits. The rear wheel vents, front louvers, rear clam shape, all look good. I like the harder more aggressive look of the 400's front end over this one but I like the mesh on this. After 10+ years of Elise/Exige driving I've grown tired of the cartoon smiley face front end. I like that the 400 moved away from it a bit. Still, another special edition of a car so rare its practically nonexistent. Bring on the targa!

 

430 is going to be quite abit more $, body is all CF thats how they got the weight down. Also I question whether a USA version will have the light weight. The USA 410 is really just 400 with different suspension.

In any event Lotus claims close on 311 times for the 430 at hethel which is really moving.

Lotus is imo the last real sportscar company left. No one buys one for the badge or status, its all about the drive. Go toa track day and you see a large percentage of loti, compare that to the numbers sold and Lotus probably has the highest track usuage by percentage of production of any sportscar marque, by far. There is a reason for that.

 

Very cool but that "boy racer" wing on the back just ruins it. Love the wide body though.

 

They did this with the Exige. First the 220, then the 240.. then the 260 and on and on.

 

Form follows function here.
Maybe for the street its boy racer. My bet is a large percentage of these 430 cars are going to the track where the wing has purpose. Think of ti as the lotus Gt3 Rs.

They say only 60 430's globally. There were 30 exige v6 cups in the USA and those are track only.

My bet is the 430 hp motor becomes the regular exige motor.

Interesting also where lotus goes for motors now that they are part of geely, do they stay toyota?

 

The exige though was mostly a power and suspension upgrade through the iterations.
This car has a near all CF body and is some 200+lbs lighter than a 400. More like a 211 and 311 in that its a very special item, and due to the materials used lotus is limited in their production ability.

Still its a good sign of where Lotus may be heading with its lightweight future when some new models come out. A sub 2800lbs near on 500hp car.

Right now I am running a 2400lbs 360Hp lotus. On a big track like the glen it runs with
GTRs till they fade, and will happily outdrive a new z06 vette through bends which means that the lotus corner exit speed is high enough that the vettes extra power cant help it.

The only place where the hipo 600+hp cars have an advantage is coming out of a slow corner and going up hill like coming out of the toe of the boot.

The only car I cant tangle with is a new paddle shifted 991 Gt3rs.

Back to that sub 2800lbs near on 500hp future lotus, pretty much unbeatable. Past a certain point extra power is bragging rights, lighter weight is true performance.

Today many many driving enthusiasts take their car to the track, its why manufacturers make trackday versions, like Gt3s and Gt4's etc. For these enthusiasts the measure of a car is not some esoteric race win on a car that superficialy resembles a street car, but rather how an out the box car performs.

The reality is Porche GT3 is the top dog, followed by vettes and loti. The vette is more comfortable on street and more acessable, the lotus has a slight performance edge.

There are of course true track built cars that are faster. But the porches, Vettes and Loti are factory turn key reliable, needing only fluids pads and tires to keep going. Of those a Lotus is by far the most economic to run in terms of consumables. Thats a very healthy niche for lotus.

By my estimation there are something like 30k track "capable" cars being sold by manufacturers now. At any DE event lotus is slowly winning the race and building a great reputation amongst future customers.

I strongly encourage anybody who has a remotely track capable car to attend a few De events, you get to actulay use the car.