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That’s a quick-looking Lotus…
It is. The fastest road-going Lotus ever, in fact. If you get the one without the tail wing, it’ll go very close to 200mph.
The version with the wing, and balancing aero at the front, is dragged down to a piffling 190mph, but at that speed it makes the same downforce as the Lotus 72 grand prix car in which Jochen Rindt won his posthumous world championship in 1970.
Obviously downforce slows it down on the straights, but what about corners?
Good point. At a track the GT430 is also the fastest ever number-plated Lotus. Even quicker than the road version of the 3-Eleven.
How’d they do that?
Not just the wing. New vents are carved above and behind the front wheels, and behind the rears, and there’s underbody shaping too. The greater half of the bodywork is now carbonfibre.
Factor in the pricey adjustable Ohlins/Eibach suspension from the race-winning Lotus Evora GT4. The exhaust system is fashioned from titanium, which saves 10kg and is a £5,500 option on other Evoras.
The wheels are new forged jobs, stronger than before to bear the downforce. Kerb weight is down to a kilo under 1,300kg. Bet that’s pure coincidence.
I’m not expecting this to be cheap.
Sit down. It’s £112,500. And you’ll be wanting the £1,500 air-conditioning because sweat is as heavy as a heat-exchanger.
That’s Porsche 911 GT3 money. Can it be as amazing?
In some ways. The chassis is the prime star here. On an interesting road, one with corners and bumps and unpredictable changes in speed, you and the Evora find a harmony and intimacy.
It works with you and communicates what it is doing, so you learn the depth of its reserves of grip and power and the immense security of its brakes. Mind you, without a track you’ll never really plumb those reserves.
Does it feel good?
An engineering precision permeates the whole thing. The calibration of all the big controls adds to your intimate connection with it.
The steering isn’t so high-geared as to be nervous, but it’s precise and staggeringly alert. And for a powered system the feel is as vivid as it gets. The gearshift is narrow across the planes, but soon you and the lever have a co-ordinated handshake and you appreciate its precise movements and mechanical click.
What does the lightness mean for the performance? Isn’t 430bhp a bit underwhelming these days?
As the name implies the supercharged V6 is ramped up to 430bhp here, thanks to new mapping and cam timing. But what matters is the delivery. None of the top-endiness of natural aspiration, none of the lag of a turbo. It just goes.
Almost the whole sweep of the rev-counter is thickly layered with this generous propulsion. But there is a reward for going high. Beyond 4,500rpm and up to the 7,000rpm cut-off, the sharp-edged baritone of the titanium exhaust makes things sound as mesmerising as any V6 out there.
No, it’s not as good as a 9,000rpm Porsche GT3. But the GT430 does 0-62 in 3.8secs, so it has the stats to match the price.

Anyone get sick of the Lotus, it seems to always be the same thing over and over again, light, fast but never able to meet the speed that is promoted.  I don't know i like them, have driven one, never be able to afford one so I guess my opinion is just that an opinion.
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