People love to point out that the Lotus Evora is old, with only incremental changes and an ever-increasing performance capability that lets it just keep up with all of the next-gen competitors threatening it. But even still, none of them sound quite like this.
In the latest Harry’s Garage video, Harry has the new Evora GT410 Sport, a car dragged through the last decade and slowly given incremental upgrades.
The benefit of that, though, is the latest car is bolted together airtight, weight has been stripped down, and performance from the supercharged Toyota V6 engine has only gotten better and better with time. The Evora is truly in its prime now more than ever, and a fun argument that there’s a lot of benefits to keeping a fun car around for nearly a decade.
That brings us to the GT410 Sport, a car that’s been stripped of its sound deadening materials, given a carbon roof and hatch for a decent reduction of weight, which still offers air conditioning as an option, doesn’t have arm rests, and is still available with a six-speed manual. It is a car straight from the pages of recent history, and it’s still kicking ass.
But the real kicker, after all this time, is just how damn good it sounds. Halfway through Harry’s video, after he goes through how dated the interior is, how weird the climate controls are (when you optioned for them), and how the car has gone performance-feeling focused where many of its rivals have gone for a more every-day approach, you hear the sound.
And it is an incredible sound. It sort of drowns out Harry, which I don’t mind much in this specific case, because it’s just so delightful to hear. And you can see just how much it adds to the experience in his expression. He says it reminds him of the “good ol’ Alfa days.” That’s a high compliment.
It leads Harry to conclude that perhaps the nature of Lotus not really being able to do anything but make better versions of its aging cars for the last 10 years makes them stand out, keeping a tight, viscerally engaging character the new Audi R8s and 911s have slowly edged away from.
It may be old, but it doesn’t seem like the Evora’s time has come just yet. It’s still a lot of car (maybe for too much money) but it’s also still quite an experience. That should be worth a big financing payment for a few years, and Harry bets these things will be quite desirable in a few years time. I want one now.