The Lotus Grand Tourers

Been on the stand today working with Peter Smith Sports Cars. Close up it is just as stunning as the pictures suggest. Had the rear view camera shown to me by Roger Becker, no less, as part of a very informative conversation.
Rear seats are for youngsters but there is more space than you might believe from the outside view. The 2+2 is well disguised. No details on prices yet but there will be option packs, of course.
Not sure what the best colour will be.
Will be on the stand again tomorrow so stop by if you are there. Bring your money, deposits of £2000 are being accepted, and the first 200 cars will be top spec (all the options).

Alan - has anyone confirmed prices yet ? There seem to be lots of rumours, but no definitive figures.

And...how much for PROPER Lotus headlamps ? (pop-up)

Sorry Angus - no popups (I think the beaurocrats have stopped that), but the show car has bi-xenons.
I think that the option packs (Technical, Sports, Luxury, I understand) are going to be c. £ 2.5K.
Base price over £45k but the dealers have no data. Speculation is under £50k base price (£49995???). Fully loaded will be well into the £50k bracket, maybe towards £60K but then they might surprise us.
The new Alpine multimedia setup will be an option, etc., plus paint, trim.
Lots of new stuff like the Alpine system making its debut on the Evora.
Similarly the ABS from Bosch is new and reports from the test drivers appear to confirm that the brakes are stunning.
Rolling chassis at the show - it is definitely not an Elise, but still features glued and rivetted aluminium extrusions. Front and rear structures bolted on to main structure. Front (as shown at Geneva) carries radiator as well as suspension and provides crash structure. Forged aluminium wishbones look terrific. Rear structure carries engine/transmission, supports boot and provides crash structure. will try to get pictures tomorrow.
Haven't seen in the boot but it is wide (golf clubs) and has capacity of 160l.

p.s I drove down to London in an Elise S with David Bonsall from Peter Smiths. Impressive, especially the 40+mpg cruising at 70 and a bit (Honest).

Sorry, couldn't get a clear shot of the rolling chassis.
There will be packs - luxury, technical, sports - and options like reversing camaera, powerfold mirrors, etc.
No prices yet, and no-one is allowed to sit in it! Rear seats - think Audi TT.
Motor Show did not seem very busy for the first proper public day. The car park under the centre had many more empty spaces than occupied ones. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the time. Maybe people are put off by the "credit crunch" or the cost/difficulty of getting to the Excel centre.

alanmoss wrote:difficulty of getting to the Excel centre.

You aint kidding. I commute to London most days so am used to it, but trying to get to ExCel on the DLR is a joke - worse than the "Drain" (Waterloo and City Line) at 8.00 in the morning and the exhibition wasn't even that busy.

Sorry rant over... the Evora is stunning in the flesh, I tried out the seats that they have on the stand and I fit, yippee .I always have loved Recaros.

As for the car is quite a bit larger than the Elise and definately more practicle than anything in the current range. From a distance of about 10 feet it does look like it really will be an option for an every day car.

Interesting that many of the components on the rolling chassis were stamped "Eagle", so whoever ends up with that one will know the cars history.

There is a lot of comment around about the weight - 1350kb -which is about 12.5% more than the Excel.
A lot of this is down to modern crash regulations (long front is partly down to regulations apparently).
But in basic form it has over 50% more power and torque so performance should be as claimed without a problem.
Emissions will be below 225 grammes per kilometre.
Reports have it that Lotus can get 400bhp from the engine but that does impact emssions.
I suppose that it will be a balancing act power upgrades against the impending "Esprit".
Lotus people at the show definitely talked about the three model range - Elise family, Evora and Esprit - so I guess that there will be no secret on the name of the "supercar".
They did however register the name "Exira" as well, but no word on this was forthcoming. Could it be for an Evora variant (Elise/Exige)?
In dimension terms it is a bit shorter than an Esprit V8, the width is between an Excel and an Esprit (Stephens) and it is 102mm higher than an Elise.

Evora - Exira ! It sounds like Lotus are running out of unregistered names begining with the letter E.

Eagle was a far better name than Evora but I imagine Eagle is owned by GM or some other US firm. Ethos sounds OK to me and would make sense if Lotus applied to one of their new models but Exira is just plain ugly.

Maybe it's time Lotus ditched the fixation with the letter E if these are the best names they can find these days. Then again, why didn't they just re-use Excel on the Evora ?

A very good looking car, but when are lotus going deviate from the elise shape.

Thought this was interesting, it kind of says it is not a lot bigger, but it sure looks it in the flesh:

Now-if you could overlay the Excel-that'd be interesting!

Comparison of dimensions: (mm)
Excel / Evora
Wheelbase - 2489 / 2575
Width - 1816 / 1848
Height - 1207 / 1219
Length - 4394 / 4344

saw this at the motorshow today, in the flesh it is quite un-elise like which can only be a good thing... y did they not take a 2-11?

i like the way in the above schetch the rear passingers knees and the drivers back intersect, wheres the blody seat going to fit in this equasion...

Excel interior legroom(Autocar 1983)
Front 38"-43"
Rear 22"-27"
Be interesting to see if they've improved on this.
Of course no central chassis to worry about

Seats (made specially by Recaro) are not as thin as Elise/Exige but still quite thin (they are okay to sit on with good support - there were seats to try on the stand). There is some room under the seat for feet, but to adopt the position shown might require a "legs apart" stance. The backs of the seats are sculpted and are indented in the middle.
Although as dealer representatives we were instructed "no-one on the turntable", a guy with a "mate" on the Lotus Cars staff was allowed close in to take some pictures which include clear shots of the seats (front and rear).

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... ail%20Pics

Some more Evora stuff here

http://dennis.cerosmedia.com/1B487f128968ece012.cde