From thSeries 1 Elise next to a practicality scalee moment you plonk yourself down in the slim seat of a Lotus Elise you realise it is something quite special. Then again, a Mazda RX-8 ‘40th Edition’ is quite special, likewise a whole page full of sports cars and other variants campaigned by very correct enthusiasts. No, the difference is the moment you turn the steering wheel to manoeuvre a series of corners in an Elise. This is when you realise that the steering and handling are so revolutionary that a comparison of the experience with anything else is like chalk and, well, The International Atomic Energy Agency Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium. Added to this, everything you drive afterwards automatically feels like a rather large bus.
Without wanting to sound like a complete and utter buffoon of motoring sexuality, it is a life changing moment in the sensory career of a car enthusiast. I imagine, for example, it is in a similar vein (no pun intended) to when that posh but loveable Scottish rogue describes his very first go of heroin in Trainspotting. Basically, try as you might, nothing will ever compare and be as good ever again. Period.

Hang on though, before you give up on the rest of this article thinking that I am misleading you with the title, have faith. An Elise has that winning unadulterated steering feel and handling for the exact same reason that it has its downfall in modern life. Although the technology and engineering are nothing short of supreme, this is only half the formula. The other half is derived from a notepad, a test person, and a list of things that can gradually be crossed off to reduce overall mass. Sat behind that perfectly proportioned wheel however, you care about the lack of these items as much as I do for Strictly Come Dancing.
Unfortunately, driving is one thing, living is another. People only stay young for so long, and even then there are a limited number of years where youth might coincide with an Elise budget. Added to this, nights out become partners, become Labradors, become Christmas trees, become sprogs, become bloody DIY. We can all have a chuckle about the versatility of a car with two seats and a tiny boot when we buy a 6 foot high ‘Pratto’ cd rack from Ikea and drive home with it sticking out of the convertible roof. Until it rains.
It is possible to drive something so impractical every day if you are committed and live alone, single and hardcore. Unless you have one other car available for domestic journeys though, you are doomed to a life of no offspring, pets, or furniture. On one hand this might sound ok, but it is not realistic.

Usability:
So is this where the Evora comes in? Well, let’s get this bit out of the way first; I had a try at sitting in the back. Much like my participation in ‘Liveoke’ the night before (you sing with a live band instead of a cd), it seemed like it would be fun, whereas it was actually just humiliating. As per usual, 2+2 is merely a mathematical check for the rear seat passengers; as soon as they are old enough to know the answer they’re not going to fit.

No, what the Evora does so very well is bridge the gap with enough practicality to use most of the time, day in day out. A bit like, well, a Porsche. There – I said it.
You sit low but in comfort, you feel connected but not hard wired, you feel cosy but not vulnerable. Shut lines are tight, the exterior design is worthy of the price (in my opinion) and the interior is the crowning glory.
Apart from a couple of niggles such as sun visors that quite clearly are going to look grubby before the tyre treads, the cabin is a very well thought out place to reside. The dash, for example, is of the type that you would imagine TVR to have sketched up in five years time from now, except with modern art as opposed to modern medication for inspiration. Yes that is an aftermarket touch-screen stereo in the console, probably glued in behind the scenes with some mdf strip and an ounce of jiggery pokery. Yes there are a fair few familiar switches that doubters will tell you will be the longest lasting part on the car. It doesn’t matter one quark though, managing to be so cohesive and impressive for what mustn’t be forgotten is a small volume, hand built sports car.

On the road:Red Evora? Your Nan would think it was a Ferrari
Performance from the Toyota V6 isn’t ferocious, but it is very usable with enough flexibility and poke to dispatch most sports cars and pop its head through the doorway of the junior supercars’ meeting room.  Like the Elise that ran before it, the pace isn’t an issue and ‘ample’ has never been so true as it is with the Evora, making it perfect for 21st century driving when you actually want to keep that little pink card in your wallet.

It is well documented that Lotus still have a secret ingredient lurking somewhere in their pages of design calculations that no other manufacturer has managed to derive quite so spectacularly. It is their magic secret and enables characteristics so desirable that I imagine Tom Cruise is probably trying to steal it for Mission Impossible 5, hanging from a wire over the heads of Norfolk’s finest with a promotional Scientology branded memory stick (128Mb).
In the rules of car suspension, if x=ride quality and y=handling tautness, generally the increase in one has a resultant decrease in the other. ‘Mutually exclusive’ if the textbook definition be told. But this is never the case when Lotus are involved, they always manage to insert a factor into this equation and exhibit world leading handling with a ride that is nothing short of spectacularly compliant. Nowhere has this been more in evidence than in the Evora, the car in which these qualities so desperately needed to impress, even more so than for the Elise and its less arthritisiced owners. On B roads it tip toes the fine line perfectly, offering feedback in purest form, telling you exactly what the wheels are up to at each corner but passing this information through a Lotus filter that removes all of the harshness normally associated with this precious feedback. A bit like the automotive version of Wikipedia if you will - removing all of the unwanted white noise and leaving just the necessary vital information. That and the fact that it is put together by real people.

Standing side on to the car, the word ‘packaging’ hasn’t provoked as much thought from inside my head since I first looked inside a Russian doll. The nose (and hefty front overhang) houses all the usual front gubbins like the brake reservoir, screen wash and radiator. Following the lines backward lets you see a wholesome front passenger compartment and then a boot atop the rear wheels. The strange thing is that in between those last two areas lie not only a couple of rear seats but also a six cylinder engine and drivetrain. It is not a particularly new approach to packaging and the back seats are bathed in less light than a dungeon, but for some reason there is something deeply impressive about the way the new Lotus conceals its innards from the outside world.

All about the formulae:
What the Evora does best then, is offer an experience Even includes a huge Rolo on the steering wheelso pleasing that it is equally as impressive as that first Elise hit. The steering, handling, ride quality – it is all there, 98% of what impresses about the original sports car, but with an improvement of all the more sensible factors to such a dramatic margin that it is more than enough to make up for that teensy little 2% and make the whole package equally eye opening.
If the price is ignored for a second, it is to the Elise what the Elise was to the Caterham Seven.
So, there is another simple mathematical formula in evidence, except this one was surely derived in the marketing as opposed to engineering department. If happiness equals driving pleasure multiplied by amount of use, the Elise would have, let’s say, 100% of pleasure x 70% frequency of use (being generous). The Evora on the other hand gives 98% of that pleasure 90% of the time.
No, it is still not suitable for carrying furniture (or a family), and the price will undoubtedly be the deciding factor, but this aside it would be a perfect everyday and long distance companion. Research and statistics (probably) tell us that the more fun you have in life the longer you will evade cancer. So frequency is the winner, and so therefore, is the Lotus.