LOTUS EVORA

It may not have sold in the numbers Lotus hoped for, but the original Evora was an eCoty winner and as we're about to discover remains a dynamic paragon to this day

-  JOHN BARKER

THIS ROAD IN SOUTH WALES IS AS LUMPY AS A sack of spuds, but not much of that turmoil is reaching us through the seats. 'My car was terrible when I came down here for a recce earlier,' says photographer Aston Parrott, slightly bemused. The Evora feels astonishingly good as if the road has been resurfaced in the last couple of hours Still got it, then.

The Evora's ride is still outstanding because, along with its power-to-weight ratio and torque-to-grip, it's one of those characteristics that doesn't age. In fact, the general trend towards firmer cars means that in 2022 the Evora feels even more supple than when it was launched in 2009.

It's almost a lost art. The Alpine A110 is the only modern sports car that shares the Lotus approach to lightweight build and an absorbent ride, but there's a key Lotus characteristic Alpine hasn't yet delivered: connected, talkative, engaging steering. The Evora had great steering right from the start. I remember on the launch leaving the hotel and being struck by its quality before I'd got to the end of the driveway. It's another feature that's more impressive now because it's hydraulically assisted, a rarity today. Electrically assisted systems have made great strides but there's still something more natural and nuanced about a hydraulic system. It's why McLaren uses hydraulic and why it's been retained for the Emira.

With that memory of delicacy and subtlety in my mind, I was a bit surprised to discover that the steering of this beautiful Evora is pretty heavy initially. It's a 2014 car, one of the last naturally aspirated versions: a Sports Racer model, with wheels an inch bigger than the original - 18inch front, 19-inch rear-shod with appropriately upsized tyres. Maybe that explains the low-speed heft, though it's great to discover that as soon as the speed picks up, the steering is as bright and biddable as the original's.