Trulli in the latest Evora Cup racer
It's great to see Lotus hard at work leveraging its new (and historic) F1 links, as evidenced by this newly released shot of Jarno Trulli giving the Evora Cup racer its first shakedown at Snetterton.
Since former Ferrari cheese Dany Bahar (and the rest of his Italian mafi... er, 'coterie') took the reins at Hethel, we've seen a greater intensity of interesting PR activity around the firm than we can remember. Could we really be witnessing the dawn of a new golden age for Lotus? (And if so, can we call it the Italian renaissance..?)
Postulating aside, the Evora Cup is the latest addition to the Lotus Motorsport racing stable, and the company says its first two day shake-down test at a wintry Snetterton circuit in Norfolk ended yesterday.
Clark and his Lotus Cortina tricycle
Lotus says its motorsport division is conducting an extensive development program for the Evora Cup, with Jarno Trulli and his Race Engineer, Gianluca Pisanello bringing their racing, development and engineering experience to fine tune the mid-engined racer. And in case you thought it was just a PR stunt, the company says Trulli and Pisanello provided specific input into the aerodynamic balance for slow, medium and fast corners, guidance on the racing setup of the suspension geometry and direction on the engine's calibration.
Said Trulli after the event: "I believe that the Evora Cup will be a very competitive race car package. It was very rewarding to be the first to drive the Evora Cup race car even though the snowy conditions at Snetterton were fairly challenging at times!
"The car will continue to be developed with new updates coming soon, but even after the initial drive it is obvious that the car has huge potential. I look forward to working with Lotus Motorsport in developing the car further and I know that my years of motorsport experience will help make the Evora Cup race car even better."
Clark again... no wheels this time
Claudio Berro, Director of Motorsport at Group Lotus is quoted in the same press release: "It is a privilege to work on the development of the Evora Cup race car with such an experienced driver and engineering team as Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello and I believe that this collaboration will produce a great race car for a range of motorsport applications. It is a very exciting time for Lotus and I am honoured to be leading the motorsport programmes at Lotus, starting with the Lotus Evora Cup racing car and race series."
In the past a number of Lotus F1 drivers have successfully raced or assisted in the development of Lotus Cars including F1 World Champions Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell. Jim Clark was a great exponent of the three wheel drift in his Lotus Cortina, campaigning the Lotus to win the British Touring Car Championship in 1964. Whilst Nigel Mansell raced for Lotus he was involved in the development of the prototype Active Suspension Lotus Esprit.
And 'our Nige' in action in 1984. Yay!!!
The Evora Cup race car is an evocative sports car that will offer a great platform to race in high level motor sport. The GT4 race car will go on sale starting at £120,000 excluding taxes for the sprint racing version, with the endurance specification race car £150,000 excluding taxes.
The final design, aero' package and technical specifications will be presented at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010, says Lotus.