A Certain Romance: Lotus Evora GT430 Sport
We can’t help but gush over the fastest Lotus ever built.
There’s a certain romance exuded by British sports cars that warms the hearts of even the most jaded of automotive journalists. They have a way of pulling out all of the stops in our brains that normally prevent superlatives from spilling forth like an oil leak. Indeed, an ad campaign for the classic MGB was simply the word, “Superlative.”
The Lotus Evora, in all of its myriad forms, is, simply put, a masterpiece. It represents the ultimate evolution of the Lotus road car concept, and we’re certain that Colin Chapman would be proud.
Never one to rest on its considerable laurels, Lotus is always looking for new ways to improve on their definition of perfection. When it came to the Evora, they opted for an approach that is, at parts, both familiar and yet somewhat uncharacteristic of the brand. It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that Colin Chapman’s evergreen philosophy of “simplify, then add lightness” was carried out to great effect. The liberal use of carbon fiber has trimmed the already svelte Evora down to a waif-like 1,258 kilograms.
That, however, was not enough for the engineers at Lotus. What do you do when you have added as much lightness as possible? You move into new territory – Power. And lots of it, too. The supercharged V6 in the Evora is good for a whopping 430 horsepower, and gives this new model its surname: the GT430.
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The end result is one of the fastest road-going Loti ever produced (we’ll get to the fastest in a moment). Equally at home on the street or on the track, this video from Carfection tells us all of the important details. 0-60 happens in 3.7 seconds, and top speed is slated at 190 miles per hour. That’s pretty earth-shattering by anyone’s standards for a sports car.
But stats don’t tell the full story, and that’s why this video is important. Driven on the Hethel test course used by Lotus to develop the car in the first place, it’s the ideal way to experience the GT430’s numerous charms.
The aerodynamic accouterments added to the GT430 add a considerable amount of grip, and confidence, to the Evora’s already impressive handling. They make the most of the prodigious horsepower on tap and make it that much easier to explore the full capabilities of what is, quite possibly, the best Lotus ever produced.
Should you find yourself put off by the wing, Lotus is happy to oblige, offering the GT430 Sport. While cornering speeds do suffer a bit by the lack of downforce, the trade-off is a higher top speed: 196 miles per hour. This is the fastest Lotus sports car ever sold.
Whether you opt to order your Evora GT430 with or without the wing, you can rest assured that you will be driving a piece of Lotus history, an instant classic that will go down in history as one of the greatest cars to ever wear the iconic green and yellow badge.
