Lotus Evora 400 Review - A Ferrari For $100,000?

[Music] [Applause] [Music] next to me is the Lotus Evora 400 it's name comes from the combination of the words evolution vogue and aura giving you a little hint into what the Evora is like to drive it's great-looking its lightweight it's got a perfect 50:50 weight distribution and it is a racing inspired sports car for the road what does the Evora 400 actually like to drive well today we're gonna find out exactly that I'm particularly excited to drive this Evora because I've never actually driven a lotus before they're known for their incredible handling and performance but I'd like to see if the hype is real I love the design philosophy Lotus was founded more than 70 years ago by Colin Chapman with the principle adding horsepower makes cars faster on the straight but subtracting late makes cars faster everywhere and this Lotus is no exception it weighs just 3,000 pounds it's a very small car - when you stand next to it it's actually 12 inches shorter in length than a BMW m4 the roofline is also six inches lower to the ground than a BMW m4 as well well I'm sure the Elise was incredibly fun to drive it wasn't a huge fan of the way it looked it seemed a bit feminine especially when people would add those eyelashes to the headlights please don't do that but the Evora simply beautiful part of the key to keeping the Lotus lightweight is its use of a bonded extruded aluminum chassis it's free from any welds when you weld aluminum it significantly reduces the torsional rigidity of the aluminum meaning you have to use more material and because the chassis is so stiff that means the suspension is able to work more effectively as well speaking of suspension it's got double wishbone suspension in front and rear it's got eibach springs and Bilstein dampers the side profile of the Evora is absolutely stunning up front we've got 19-inch wheels in the back we've got 20s they ride on Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires for extra grip they measure to 35 millimeters in the front and 85 in the back for brakes we've got two piece cross drilled and ventilated rotors with AP racing calipers and they stop the car extraordinarily well around back we've got a uniquely designed three-piece rear wing that looks really cool now beneath that we've got split LED taillights that look very Italian for a British car but I love the way they look down lower we've got a beefy rear diffuser and in the centre a massive single exit exhaust let's hear how it sounds shall we the Lotus Evora actually has a decent amount of storage space in the trunk in order to open it we've got the key here now to lock the Lotus there is a little Lotus insignia there's no markings on the key whatsoever below that is a blank button to unlock the car and then to pop the trunk you double tap on the button below that which is also unlabeled go ahead and do that to reveal the trunk now because of the shape of the trunk it's very long this way it's actually very practical I was able to store my tripod my slider all of my camera equipment the same cannot be said for the likes of most Porsches Lamborghinis and MacLaren's and that's not the extent of the storage capacity as well which we'll see in a minute now on to the good stuff the engine now unless you are super familiar with Lotus I kind of doubt you know which manufacturer actually produces lotuses engine take a guess well it's Toyota it's actually got the same three and a half liter v6 that comes in a Toyota Camry that's right a mid-engine sports car with a Toyota Camry v6 now like a Camry this engine is very reliable now unlike a Camry it's got an idle brach supercharger attached to it which is good for 400 horsepower and 302 pound-feet of torque and because it's a Toyota engine that means parts are readily available and they're cheap now on the inside of the Lotus you'll notice something incredibly surprising for such a tiny car it's actually got rear seats now as much as I wanted to try and climb back there and show you guys how much space there was I legitimately can't fit these are the tiniest rear seats I have ever seen now there are some benefits to having these rear seats when you can put your kids back there full-sized adults will not fit but - you can use it for tons of extra storage room which is what likely the majority of Lotus owners will do all right let's get all of the negatives of the Lotus Evora 400 ow of the way right now and they really only pertain to the interior now these seats are comfortable and supportive they're made of nice leather alike the contrasted stitching or really like the embossed logo in the headrest but for me at five foot eleven this headrest that's built into the seat hits me in the wrong part of my neck when I'm relaxed driving so for spirited driving when my neck and head are off the seat back it's not a problem whatsoever but if I rest my head back this bulge here hits me at just the wrong spot in the back of my neck not really a huge fan of that the vents for the climate control look kind of like a Ford Mustang kind of cheap plastic as well a lot of the switchgear feels just a little bit cheaper than you'd expect from a nearly hundred thousand dollar car we do have nice leather everywhere and I like the way it's laid out it's very driver focused but the fit and finish is not would you'd expect normally from a hundred thousand dollar vehicle that being said this is all about the driving experience and once you drive it you forget about all that and none of that really matters I figured though it would be worth mentioning I'm also not a huge fan of the shape of the mirrors they feel a little bit of sedan Camry like a not sports car supercar like also the infotainment screen looks rather aftermarket it basically looks like you just took an alpine unit and stuck it in there which is possibly exactly what they did and a back up camera graphics are pretty lousy I do however love love love the steering wheel the shape is rather unique it has bulges and all these strange places but it feels so nice in your hands and the turning indicators as well as the windshield wipers are far enough away from the steering wheel so they're not in the way whatsoever it's adjustable and height and telescoping it just feels awesome in your hand then of course I'm not a huge fan of the fact that you can't really use the rear seats but to be expected in a car like this you can't use the seats in the 911 either lastly I'm not a huge fan of the instrument cluster it looks a little bit dated and the graphics on the digital displays to the left and the right of it look like they're from a gameboy color alright enough of that let's get onto the driving experience because this thing's been sticking alright and put it in first gear let's take off alright so block all of those negative things out of your head reset and let's get into the trifling experience of the Evora 400 because that's what this thing is all about so it's available with a six-speed manual transmission or a 6-speed automatic being a lotus being that it is a fun to drive lightweight sports car yet the manual now funny enough the manual transmission is also made by Toyota although the gear ratios are different for faster acceleration the internals have also been beefed up by Lotus to handle the extra horsepower the shifter itself feels absolutely fantastic it's metal the throws are perfect in length when you shift it into gear it slots so nicely has the satisfying little bump to it the clutch pedal is the perfect weight is an absolute joy to drive manual transmission the pedals are nicely spaced for easy heel toe down shifts actually the pedals are all really close together makes it feel kind of more like a race car now some performance statistics for you with the manual transmission the Evora 400 is able to sprint from 0 to 60 miles an hour in just 4.1 seconds so it is properly fast it also has a top speed of a pretty impressive 186 miles an hour but what you notice more than the acceleration is just how balanced the chassis is and how the power comes on we've got three different driving modes to choose from there are buttons in the center console here one labeled sport and one labeled race of course then there's normal mode when you don't click either up the buttons will go ahead and put it into sport mode which heightens throttle response and it also makes the exhaust louder after about 4000 rpms sounds really nice when in sport mode now if you want the car to be louder at all times but you don't want that heightened throttle response you can actually take it put it back into normal mode and there is an exhaust button to make it a little bit more exciting this sounds fantastic vac headed is a Camry v6 has absolutely no relevance to the sound it sounds almost like a combination of an e46 BMW m3s inline six and a 911s flat six with this little hint of supercharger whine let's give it some gas so you can hear it [Music] oh that sounds awesome Oh unexpectedly good sound from this v6 it's nice and throaty Oh especially around the four to five thousand rpm range that is nice just the tiniest little hint of wine honestly the power band is so linear the power comes on so smoothly that if you look at the engine you didn't listen for that little wine you'd be hard-pressed to tell the car wasn't naturally aspirated that's how nice the power delivery really feels now 400 horsepower in today's day and age isn't actually all that much a 3,000 pounds is quite light and the power-to-weight ratio or this chassis is honestly perfect it doesn't need any more horsepower it feels incredibly balanced and honestly it's more fun this way because you can be on the gas more often through the turns and really perfect you're driving line then you can be in a 600 700 800 horsepower car that feels a little bit more out of control unless you truly are a professional driver one of the biggest surprises I've had with the Lotus Evora is the suspension and how comfortable it rides I expected it to be firm and stiff and had a limited body roll in corner really well but what I didn't expect is on this road that I drive every day that to be honest is relatively bumpy and in a car like a gt3 RS or a gt2 RS it almost feels like the suspension is too tight like it's jarring in it is unbelievably smooth the only sports car that I've driven that has suspension that parallels this in terms of its ability to be smooth over bumps when you're just cruising and also have limited body roll and incredible performance honestly is the McLaren 720 yes and given the fact this cost a little bit less than $100,000 and a 720 s is well over $300,000 yeah I think you're getting good value for the money there in terms of the suspension geometry then at higher speeds eight corners so so unbelievably well I'm a huge fan of the steering feel it has the perfect weight to it and combined with this really nice to hold steering wheel it's an absolute riot to throw around the turns and then you add in that manual transmission and have a driving experience of the Lotus is flippin awesome oh man this thing is fun I like how manageable it all feels it really is awesome and the brakes on this flippin amazing while the Evora is a very small car on the outside once you're inside of it it's actually pretty spacious so we've got plenty of headroom and shoulder room and legroom you're not too close to your passengers and visibility out of the front window is phenomenal out of the side windows it's good as well out the back gets relatively limited but you're used to that in sports cars but what I really love is the seating position they absolutely nailed the seating position on the Evora you can see right over the hood down to the road the two haunches where the front wheels feel like sites you can place the car perfectly wherever you need it to be and despite being really low down to the ground I almost feel a little bit higher up in the car that gives me a better visibility of the road we still have an incredibly low center of gravity but my visibility just feels improved I'm not so low down in the cabin that I don't have this really long dashboard and really long hood I like you get in a Lamborghini Huracan where it was a tiny bit intimidating the road feels so far ahead of you but in this almost feels like a little go-kart having driven shifter karts yesterday I know exactly what that feels like oh my gosh this thing is a blast and a tremendous amount of grip too for being a rear-wheel drive on michelin pilot super sports of course we can have a bit more grip if we had cup twos but it really doesn't need it [Music] amazing a part about these cars is because they're lightweight because of the way they're designed relatively easy on all of the cars components you take this to intense track days and the brakes and tires are going to last you a lot longer than you're typically used to in a normal sports car because you have that Toyota powertrain it's gonna cost last if things break but out on the road is this phenomenally plug this is like the perfect power level for this road it really is that sound is addicting oh my god you put it in a race mode traction control turns off you've actually got a press and old yeah the level of grip even with traction control off is is astounding it's confidence-inspiring to a whole another level everything is so balanced the steering is so tight the brakes are so good the throttle response is so predictable that it honestly makes you feel like an expert driver and because it's not too fast you can really start to actually push the car and explore the limits of it now not to say it's slow in any way it's absolutely exhilarating but it's not so crazy that you're nervous to drive the car just a diptych I literally don't want to get out of this thing put it back in the smart mode oh it actually gets exceptional fuel economy as well this thing as a press car has been driven intensely as averaged 18 points seven miles per gallon that's most sports cars can't do that honestly my favorite part is just the smile it puts on my face oh man I finally get it I get it 70 years ago when this company was founded based on the principles of weight savings man they have developed awesome cars over time and I think we'll be seeing more from Lotus in the near future because of some recent investments so I am very very excited about that after getting behind the wheel of this thing poof so with that I had an absolute blast with the Lotus Evora one of the most fun cars I've driven in a while I'm gonna leave you with a little point of view drive because that's what this thing is all about show you what it's like to drive first person I hope you guys enjoyed this review like always please browse the channel and subscribe I look forward to seeing you next video [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Vehicle Virgins

Views: 195,714

Rating: 4.8167496 out of 5

Keywords: vehicle virgins, parker, nirenstein, exhaust, first, drive, review, test, how to, tutorial, lotus evora, 400, ferrari for 100000, top gear, motor trend, doug demuro, streetspeed717, jay lenos garage

Id: R3JywSeEOEk

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019