Yesterday evening at the Monterey Jet Center, Lotus unveiled the Evora GTE Road Car Concept, a tribute to the Evora race car that was created to compete in the GTE race class. The car looks eerily familiar to the Mansory-built Evora shown earlier this year, and the badge on the back of the spoiler is evidence that the Swiss company was involved with this concept. Even so, the car is tastefully done and looks fantastic in person.

The Evora GTE Concept isn’t just about looks, though. Behind the rear seats is a 420-horsepower version of the supercharged four-cylinder engine, running through a sequential AMT gearbox. Lightweight racing wheels with center-lock hubs are wrapped around sticky Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires.

You can view live photos of the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept in the gallery above, or follow the jump to read the official press release from Lotus.

Continue reading Lotus unveils Evora GTE Road Car Concept at the Jet Center

Lotus unveils Evora GTE Road Car Concept at the Jet Center originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monterey weekend is almost upon us, boys and girls. The event at Pebble Beach is consistently packed year-in, year-out with mouthwatering classics, record-breaking auctions, historic automobile races and even a few new vehicle debuts. And this year, Lotus has some big plans.

No, it’s not about to unveil six new concepts at once like it did at the Paris Motor Show last year, but it does have a couple of tricks up its proverbial sleeve. First up is the Evora GTE road car concept we’ve been anticipating since last month, which looks poised to take a page out of the less weight, more power playbook employed on such favorites as the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. The concept starts with the Evora GTE race car and retunes it for the road, with 420 horsepower on tap, a competition-spec sequential gearbox and center-locking forged aluminum wheels.

If you’re looking for something more tangible than a concept car, though, Lotus will also be unveiling the Exige Matte Black Final Edition. Exclusive to North America, the special Exige, as you might have guessed, bids a fond farewell to the lightweight sports car with a matte black paint job, plus black Alcantara interior and a 257 horsepower upgrade. Only 25 individually numbered examples will be made, and you can follow the jump for the full press release on both these new debuts.

Continue reading Lotus presenting Evora GTE concept and matte black Exige in Monterey

Lotus presenting Evora GTE concept and matte black Exige in Monterey originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a whole raft of new models in the pipeline, Lotus has some very big plans for the future. But what does that mean for its existing lineup – most notably the Evora, the newest among them? Earlier reports indicated that Lotus was working on a substantial facelift for the mid-engined 2+2 to bring it in line with its more aggressive new design language. And it very well might be still. But that’s not what Lotus has in store for the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.

Instead, Lotus is asking the public, “Is it always wise to customize?” Well from our point of view, it’s certainly not always prudent, but it can be sometimes. From our perspective, precious few of those times, unfortunately, are realized when Mansory is involved, as the tuner dubiously improves on production vehicles as it typically does with outlandish paint jobs and garish interiors. But every once in a while, Mansory gives an existing car a re-skin – usually in carbon fiber – that makes us stop and take another look. Like the Aston Martin DB9 Cyrus and the Bugatti Veyron Vincero. And so it appears to have done with the Lotus Evora.

Commissioned by the factory, Mansory’s take on the Evora is meant to demonstrate what’s possible in the aftermarket. It looks kitted-out with enough carbon to make an F1 car jealous, but we’ll reserve final judgment for when we see it in person at the fast-approaching show. In the meantime, you’re invited (lucky you) to follow the jump for the official statement and check out the pair of images released in the gallery below.

[Source: Lotus]

Continue reading Geneva Preview: Lotus Evora by Mansory

Geneva Preview: Lotus Evora by Mansory originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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