An insider's view: how Lotus makes its new Evora

The doubters have been silenced. Lotus's new Evora was an instant hit at its recent international media launch and it has been racking up awards and, more importantly orders, ever since. To gain an understanding of what goes into a virtually hand built, near-£50,000 sports car that will be sold globally, Yahoo! Cars visited the Lotus factory in Norfolk and watched the Evora being made.

Hallowed ground of Potash Lane

From the A11 south west of Norwich, the B1135 becomes Wymondham Road. It's a smooth, sweeping piece of tarmac through typically flat Norfolk countryside and it'd be all too easy to miss the turn off into Potash Lane to the Lotus factory. Despite covering 55 acres of ground, the site is barely visible from the main road, yet it features a 2.5-mile test track on which the company develops its cars. Drawing up to the swish security reception, we're ushered into an anonymous looking factory unit, the only clue to its contents being a line of freshly made Evoras sitting outside awaiting delivery.

Airfix on a grand scale

Some of you may have dabbled with Airfix kits when you were a little younger, well that's what the ready-to-assemble bodywork of the Lotus Evora looks like before it's painted. Even in this state, with the composite body panels mounted to a metal frame, the Evora's Lotus design heritage is apparent. Although it's a very different design to the company's Elise mainstay model, it's still instantly identifiable as a relative.

Not so heavy metal

In April 1975 Tony Rudd, Director of Engineering at Lotus, wrote a memo to the company's founder, Colin Chapman, defining what makes a Lotus just that: "A Lotus provides its owner with prestigious efficient transport. Prestige is given by exclusivity and racing heritage. The designer gives it efficiency by light weight, effective use of economic material and the maximum return for fuel burned in the engine and in cornering power." Although Chapman died in 1982, the company has vowed to stick to that philosophy for all of its own cars and the Evora is no different.

The Evora is actually the first production car from Lotus to utilise the company's Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA). Bonded and riveted aluminium extrusions are combined with simple folded elements creating a structure that is both very light and very stiff.

There are three distinct parts to the Evora's VVA, with the centre occupant section the largest. The front module is bolted on and incorporates a crash structure to absorb collisions, though as we witnessed in the factory, it also holds the front suspension, cooling pack and the air conditioning and heating system. At the rear, a third sub-frame holds the engine and transmission, along with the rear suspension. Once these three are bolted together the Evora looks almost ready to drive, though we were warned not to get anywhere near the super-glue dispensers the factory workers wielded...

Under the bonnet - kind of

If you've been reading carefully you'll have noticed that the engine is in fact at the rear of the car. Technically it's in the middle, as the powerplant is mounted well ahead of the rear axle line. Lotus has secured the supply of a 3.5-litre V6 from Toyota for the Evora, plus a six-speed manual gearbox. That's not a combination you'll find anywhere in the world in a Toyota or Lexus so there was a significant amount of development required to make it all work. Not that you'd think it seeing the crates of engine/gearbox combos ready to be popped into the waiting sub-frames. For the record, in its standard state of tune this engine produces 276bhp at 6,400rpm and 258lb.ft of torque at 4,700rpm. It also sounds fantastic.

Safety built in

Lotus has built a high standard of inherent crash safety into the Evora with its ultra stiff chassis and deformable front and rear sub-frames. Additionally, active safety features are standard, including driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes and traction control. The passenger airbag actually deploys vertically and is then deflected by the windscreen rearwards - apparently to protect children as well as adults.

Nearly there

We suspect most kid passengers will end up in the 'cosy' rear seats so it's comforting to see that they have their own tubular steel seatbelt anchorage frame. A tour around the expanded Lotus trim shop reveals just how much manual labour goes into each Evora, and the standard leather-bound seats are as nice to sit in as they are to look at.

At this stage of the production line the cars are really nearing completion. There are boxes of components by the side tantalisingly full of tasty wares, including cross-drilled brake discs and the Evora's Alpine stereo and satnav systems, some of which are being fitted into the cars before our very eyes.

Lucky so and sos

None of those niceties are quite as tempting as the finished product though. Watching each new car roll out of the factory door it becomes clear that some lucky so and so will soon have the keys to that car. We have no doubt they'll love it.

Shane O' Donoghue