New Lotus Evora 400 Has Fresh Looks, More Power and Less Weight

You won’t mistake it for anything else, but Lotus’ Evora wants to make a splash in Geneva after going under the knife and visiting the gym where it lost a few pounds and gained some muscle.

Lotus calls it the Evora 400 after it tweaked the sports car’s supercharged and charge-cooled mid-mounted 3.5-liter V6 engine to deliver 400hp and 410Nm of torque, an increase of 45hp and 10Nm respectively over the current Evora S.

With this newly found power, the Evora 400 is 0.3 seconds faster than the Evora S in the 0-60mph sprint at 4.1 seconds (0-100 km/h in 4.2 sec), and an impressive 6 seconds faster at the brand’s test track in Hethel, Norfolk. It also tops out at 186mph (300km/h).

According to Lotus, “over two thirds of the Lotus Evora 400 is new”, and that includes the more intricate/fussy styling of the front and rear ends of the car, the redesigned cabin, the extruded aluminum chassis tub, the updated manual and automatic transmissions – the former gets a standard Torsen-type limited slip differential (LSD), new brakes and wheels. In keeping with the brand’s tradition, the Evora 400 shed 22kg or about 49 pounds in the process.

“The Evora 400 is the fastest road-going Lotus that we have ever produced, possessing performance that can only be matched by cars costing significantly more,” said Lotus Cars boss Jean-Marc Gales. “It delivers supercar looks allied to supercar performance.”

The new Evora 400 will enter production for European markets in the summer with deliveries to commence in August this year, while North American markets will get the car as a 2016 model year presentation this fall.