Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Is A Go-er

Chinese sales inspire Euro versions of racer-based Evora

Developed for Asia, now we're getting it

The Evora GTE road car revealed at Pebble Beach recently has been such a soar-away success in Asia that Lotus is going to pitch it to punters in Europe.

According to chief exec Dany Bahar Lotus sold out all 114 examples that were destined for sale in the Chinese market within days of its announcement. "In response we decided that the only logical step from a business perspective was to increase production and widen our reach," he says.

The GTE will be shown at Frankfurt later this month. Producing over 440hp from its 3.5-litre Toyota V6, it's billed as the fastest Lotus road car ever built - but no figures are available as yet. As well as increased power, carbon fibre has been used to reduce weight by 105kgs against a standard Evora.

Lining up alongside the GTE at Frankfurt will be a trio of new models, according to firm's press latest press release. The first is the Elise S, which features a new supercharged 220hp 1.8 engine and replaces the Elise SC - and the others?

Exige rally car - it's been done before

"You'll have to wait until Frankfurt to find out about those..." says the release. "But two little hints, one of these models will be one of the quickest road cars Lotus has ever built and the other marks the return of Lotus to another adrenalin filled motorsport discipline.

We think the latter will be the Exige based rally car mentioned by the firm's motorsport boss Claudio Berro at an event back in June, which we're expecting Lotus to launch as a fully factory-prepped customer car next year.