An ultra speedy Lotus Evora 400, seen at the British Motorsport Festival in Beijing. The Evora was painted in a very fiery shade of red, with a black roof, a black grille, black wheels, and darkened light visors.
Lotus used the event for the unofficial launch of the Evora 400 in China; a fully official launch will follow later this year. Price starts at 1.28 million yuan. Geely is now the majority shareholder of Lotus, so the company is reorganizing its Chinese operations and renewing its dealer network.
Lotus is still selling under the ‘Lotus NYO’ name because Youngman managed to grab the Lotus and 莲花 names in China (see here). Rumors however, say that Lotus will have its name back shortly, likely thanks to Geely pulling some strings around. It always helps to have a big baba.
The Evora 400 is basically an extra-powerful and upgraded variant of the Evora S. The Engine is a Toyota 3.5-liter V6 with a supercharger bolted on, good for 400 hp and 410 Nm. Top speed is 299 km/h and 0-100 is gone in 4.1 seconds. I was invited to sit in the car, and it looked and sounded fantastic.
The 400 also has narrower sills for simplified entry and exit, which is very important for the Chinese market where most customers don’t like the idea of having to ‘climb’ into their expensive car.
There were some other great cars, including this yellow Elise, …
… a very racy Exige with loads of extra carbon, …
… and an Evora S with a smurf blue wrap.
But the Evora 400 was king of the show. It won’t be king for long, however, because Lotus will launch the even faster Evora GT430 in China later this year.
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