Thursday 8th September 2011

Driven: 2012 M/Y Lotus Evora

Now with added engine noise, and a satisfying thunk...

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Anyone else remember 'doors that close with a satisfying thunk'? They came from the same lexicon of motoring clichés as 'controls that fall readily to hand', a tome that helped to feed many a freelance motoring hack paid by the word in the 1980s, and possibly well before.

I'd love to know who coined the phrases, but they were fresh and original a long time ago. So I'd also like to know which dentist's waiting room in Norfolk still has an ancient copy of What Car? buried amongst the yellowing Woman's Weeklies and Readers Digests on the coffee table - and who from Hethel has just been to have their tartar scraped.

Yes, news sometimes travels slowly through the fens, which is why I find myself writing about a 2012 model-year Lotus Evora distinguished - in part at least - by doors modified to 'close with a satisfying thunk'. It's also distinguished by a much improved gearshift action, significantly upgraded interior trim, and (wait for it...) some properly sporty engine noise. Amongst all that good news, it would seem churlish to point out that some of the minor controls still don't 'fall readily to hand', but give it time!

Yes, Lotus has listened to those customers, dealers and reviewers who've lined up since launch day to say "it's brilliant, but..." about the Evora. Sadly, received wisdom about a car that might have sold like hot cakes is that it handles and rides exactly like a Lotus should, but the interior looks crappy for a £50k+ motor, the gearchange is horrid, and the engine sounds like... well, why can't you hear the engine?

They've not only listened, they've acted. And the result is (I think) an entirely credible package of upgrades that bring the Evora much more closely into line with competitors it aspires to rival. (You know, the ones who've had whole departments working on door 'thunk' since 1975.)

It's the new door action you'll appreciate first, unless you're very good. In which case you might spot the new seamless (and much tidier) door-seals through the window glass on your approach. Open the door, and the new weightier, 'quality' sound and feel is immediately obvious, achieved by renewing the entire 1960s-style latch mechanism with an up-to-date system.

Then the interior trim upgrades will hit you. That horrible plastic interior door-handle has not been binned, but it has been trimmed with attractive foam-backed leather, and suddenly it's both good to look at and nice to touch. In fact, all the leather trimmed parts have been worked over - starting with higher grade and more expensive cows, and ending with much finer detailing for stitching and the like. Coupled with a new range of leather colours and textures, the result is to give the Evora cabin the 'bespoke' feel it always deserved.

OK, it's not yet up to the standard of Porsche or Mercedes ergonomically, and some of the details still grate. But the key difference is that those details are now relatively minor ones - the electric window switches and interior door releases could be nice aluminium instead of cheap plastic, for instance - but the Lotus guys promise they'll get around to those too in due course. Meanwhile, they've swapped in a new steering wheel that's anatomically designed to move your hands from ten-to-two to a 'racier' quarter-to-three, and changed the gear knob from an aluminium barrel to something that looks 'designed'.

From a driving perspective, one of the big news items is that the gearshift action has been significantly improved with lower friction cables and some other tweaks - including a lightened flywheel that reduces inertia and helps swift shifting. As a result the change is suddenly more positive, smoother and 'mechanical'. It still requires a firm hand, but finding the right slot is a lot easier and faster - and if a ten minute 'back-to-back' drive with the old car is enough to draw conclusions from, entirely more rewarding.

The Norfolk roads were the slipperiest they've been since Noah and the Flood when I went for the briefest of spins in the 2012 Evora IPS auto and S, alongside a 2011 S earlier this week. But while the drive was a little on the tentative side, the new car still felt rewardingly sporty in ways the old one didn't - and a new exhaust set-up gets the credit for that.

There's some new pipework, and the 'noise' butterfly valve now opens from 1500rpm in Sport mode. The result is a pleasing growl that develops into a proper howl at high revs - it really adds character and colour to the Evora experience, although I reckon the car is still only 70 percent as noisy as it should be. (When I mentioned this to our hosts, I got one of those winks that implies 'watch this space'...)

All in all, it's a great start to an evolution programme that now looks like being carried on until at least 2014 as part of a strategy that - with the help of new model derivatives like the GTE and others in the pipeline - should help bridge the gap until that famous 'Lotus 5 year plan' is fulfilled.

And at the very least, the 2012 changes definitely make the Evora worth another look, especially as although the modifications have added something like 3 percent to the Bill of Materials, Lotus has very decently decided to 'split the difference'. So expect to pay an average of 1.5 percent on top of 2011 model-year prices, if you're newly tempted.

[Richair]

So could it actually be that the 'new' lotus isn't just all theatricals and they are serious...

It looks promicing from where I'm sitting, but I hope they don't lose focus with the Elise.

[Oddball RS]

Looks better, i thought there were to be some styling changes to the outside as well?

[TheOrangePeril]

Interior finally seems to befit the rest of the car (and critically, its price tag) - good to see Lotus! Still unsure about your rapping friend but at least the cars are being updated more sensibly towards the company's aspirations.

[Bill Carr]

I like that.

[GroundEffect]

Would love an Evora. Maybe in a couple of years.

[Schnellmann]

All sounds good...unless you own a pre-facelift Evora, whose residuals now look even worse.

Why wasn't the car launched like this from the start? First impressions count for a lot and it is questionnable whether potential customers put off by the interior, lack of noise, gearchange, etc will give the car another look.

These changes don't address the fundamental problem (for me as a potential purchaser) of what this car wants to be. It is a 2-seater Cayman rival? Or a 2+2 and a 911-rival? If the former, it needs to be substantially cheaper than the Cayman. Lotus may bluster about wanting to move up-market but they are not there yet and they are going to find (already finding I believe) it difficult to get new customers to the brand willing to pay such prices. If the latter, it needs to have rear-seats that a) a child can use without having to saw off their legs first and b) even n place, the leg-less child doesn't complain the whole journey because they are can't see anything and feel trapped. Some people may have children (boys?) willing to put up with such discomfort for the benefits of being flung about but those with children of more sensitive dispositions may find it difficult getting their offspring in the back. Of course, one advantage of the Evora is once in the back there is no way for them to get out without assistance!

[herebebeasties]

Why is it that people keep insisting that Lotus cars have to be considerably cheaper than the equivalent Porsche? Do you want them to go bankrupt? Why shouldn't they charge the same money if their product is as good?

[Frimley111R]

Oddball RS said:

Looks better, i thought there were to be some styling changes to the outside as well?

No, that was the prats at Autocar magazine who photoshopped one just to sell more magazines.

[kambites]

All very well, but I can't help but feel that it's too late. The car should have been properly finished from day one; it's very hard to shake a bad image once the car has got it.

[adeelster]

This is all very well and good but it all smacks of poor professionalism that the car wasn't launched like this in the first place. How can people have any confidence in the product? I suspect a lot of poor sods that have bought the current Evora will be apoplectic now. This doesn't happen with the germans. They do have facelifts but not so soon after launch.

The price of the car is all wrong. Most people think of it as a Cayman rival but it is priced closer to a 911. And because of all the various issues I would rather have a Cayman. I am no Lotus-hater, I would love them to do well to give us all a credible rival to the boringly ubiquitous germans but this is not the way to do it.

Seems so harsh to be criticising a car in this manner when it is one of the finest handling cars on sale...

[Goldmember1]

I do like that..tho will prob never own one .. Out of curiosity , why LHD?

[HeMightBeBanned]

herebebeasties said:

Why shouldn't they charge the same money if their product is as good?

Because it's only better in parts (ride & handling) and worse just about everywhere else.

[Thorburn]

adeelster said:

This is all very well and good but it all smacks of poor professionalism that the car wasn't launched like this in the first place. How can people have any confidence in the product? I suspect a lot of poor sods that have bought the current Evora will be apoplectic now. This doesn't happen with the germans. They do have facelifts but not so soon after launch.

I've been looking at 118d and 120d's as a daily driver and the Efficient Dynamic cars started to appear pretty much bang on 2 years after launch and are much more appealing to me.

Original Boxster the 2.5 quickly got replaced by the 2.7 and 2.5 values suffered.

Boxster 987 the engine sizes got bumped from 2.7 and 3.2 to 2.9 and 3.4 a couple years after launch.

So yeah, the Germans do do this.

[f1ten]

I drove the standard Evora an early 2011 car, £48k they wanted on a 2000 mile demo car in black.

I couldnt believe when i looked in the back seat to find a cloth rear bench that looked like something out of a 1980s Land Rover County.

for a small bespoke car maker, the finish was nothing special. fine they cant get hold of chrome switches for all the electrics without having them made, but no excuse for not trimming all the inside of the car with leather. the roof lining in the cars i looked at were like a ford fiesta - the cheapest tacky thing Ive seen. Not the quality of my Suede headlining in my 996 porsche. the Vanity mirrors were again horrible plastic things, fine no illuminated mirror but cheap plastic is not acceptable on a bespoke car.

the car i drove had a sport package with sport exhaust, absolute tinnie engine sound. the toyota v6 is not really a bird puller either... what engine have you got in that - a toyota one... doenst impress anyone. Ohh and agreed on the gearbox, absolute wobbly and shocking.

the standard evora had no guts to it at all for a £45-50k car. my old 996 c2 wiped the floor with it, the second you hit third gear, nothing happened.

what i would say is a big plus about the car - the dealers are very very freindly... the way Mercedes and Porsche dealers used to be 15 years ago (when I went with my dad!)

its a good car and I applaud anyone that buys it because its good to be different and not follow the masses, but when it came down to actual performance and quality and engineering, I had to give in and buy another porsche (albeit an older car). My view is that this Evora is a £35k car and if it was then they would sell thousands of them... its not in the league of even a Cayman let alone a 911 Im afraid.

[herebebeasties]

adeelster said:

Most people think of it as a Cayman rival but it is priced closer to a 911.

Evora: £50k
Cayman S: £47.6k
911: £67.3k

Add in Porsche prices for options, and that just doesn't ring true.

[John145]

f1ten said:

Stuff

Well done for not reading the article.

[hornetrider]

Looks good to me with the following caveat - I've never sat in one. The design of the centre console doesn't look right with the double din AV unit in there - it doesn't gel. That apart, I like it, although it is expensive. More so than a Cayman S I believe... hmmm.

[markiii]

now we just need the convertable to arrive and I might have to raid the piggyback

[900T-R]

Strangely the last thing I look at when in a mid-engined sports/GT car is the roof lining...

Having had the disposal of an 09 example from the factory for the best aprt of a week back then, i disagree with the former poster. The Evora feels a lot more special, more 'junior supercar' than a Cayman/Boxster or even a 911 - especially the dashboard of the Porsches looks and feels very mass produced, being all un-upholstered plastic mouldings and silver-painted facings and very, well, normal from a cabin architecture POV.

The fly in the ointment was always the gearshift while the engine could bear sounding and responding a bit more sportscar like - I'm glad to hear those points finally have been tended to.

It's true that the engine's delivery doesn't feel at all special in standard guise - but most of it is down to the long standard gearing. On the rollers the engine put out a very healthy 298 bhp with a wide, flat torque curve so I'd seriously doubt whether there'd be anything much in it between it and a Cayman S.

[Thorburn]

900T-R said:

Strangely the last thing I look at when in a mid-engined sports/GT car is the roof lining...

Having had the disposal of an 09 example from the factory for the best aprt of a week back then, i disagree with the former poster. The Evora feels a lot more special, more 'junior supercar' than a Cayman/Boxster or even a 911 - especially the dashboard of the Porsches looks and feels very mass produced, being all un-upholstered plastic mouldings and silver-painted facings and very, well, normal from a cabin architecture POV.

The fly in the ointment was always the gearshift while the engine could bear sounding and responding a bit more sportscar like - I'm glad to hear those points finally have been tended to.

It's true that the engine's delivery doesn't feel at all special in standard guise - but most of it is down to the long standard gearing. On the rollers the engine put out a very healthy 298 bhp with a wide, flat torque curve so I'd seriously doubt whether there'd be anything much in it between it and a Cayman S.

Went out in a 2010 Evora S and 2011 Evora IPS last week and I've got to agree with this, both had the Premium Pack fitted and I thought the interior was really nice. Only things I picked up on were the switches are a bit hard to read and the door handle is a bit plastic, although nicer feeling than the one in my parents Z4.

Personally loved both cars I drove, and am saving up to try and buy a 2009/2010 Evora in a couple years - not because I don't think they're worth the current price but I'd have to sell my house to afford one, and that would make my missus very very angry.