Review: Lotus Evora Sport 410

Since the last championship win in 1978 and the death of Chapman in 1982, the company has passed through the hands of several owners under several chief executives with various degrees of success. Now owned by Malaysian car maker Proton and its parent, DRB-Hicom, the last general manager, the egregious Dany Bahar and his cadre of managers were cleared out in 2012. Aslam Farikullah was appointed chief operating officer and in 2014 Jean-Marc Gales hired as chief exec.

This experienced team have been cutting back the old firm, again and again. Bahar's grandiose model plan has been deep sixed and the workforce heavily pruned. Making money building British sports cars is never easy, but Gales has tried to make more of what he inherited, including the Evora coupé, which this year was given a complete makeover including losing 42kg, with an increase in quality, a revised interior and an inlet-charge cooler for its supercharged 400bhp 3.5-litre V6 Toyota engine. Called the 400, the new £72,000 Evora 400 was introduced in the US this summer and is thrilling serious road testers out there.

Well they've been at it again and this autumn, the company releases the Sport version of the 400, called Sport 410 with a price hike to £82,000. What your 10 grand buys is a further weight loss of 70kg to give a kerb weight of 1,325kg despite the addition of a gearbox oil cooler. This has been achieved by jettisoning the occasional rear seats making the car strictly a two seater. Also in the bin are the air conditioning, stereo, rear bulkhead glass, sound insulation, door trims and even the mud flaps. New carbon-fibre panels for the roof, rear deck, and front and rear valances are joined by bucket seats in carbon fibre, a lithium-ion main battery saving 11.3kg and an optional titanium exhaust system which sounds saucier and is lighter. A new front splitter and rear spoiler raise downforce from 8.6kg to 18kg at 100mph and 32kg to 64kg at 150mph.

Suspension changes include revalved dampers and an effective spring-rate increase thanks to the lighter weight. The hydraulically assisted steering and AP racing brakes remain the same, as is the geared Torsen-type limited-slip differential and it runs on forged Magnesium wheels shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 19in/20in tyres front/rear. The engine has been tweaked up to produce 410bhp at 7,000rpm and 302lb ft at 3,500rpm, which gives a 190mph top speed, 0-60mph in 4.0 seconds for the six-speed manual and 3.9 seconds for the six-speed automatic. Combined fuel consumption is 29.1mpg and CO2 emissions are 225 for the manual and 230 for the automatic.

So this is a quick car, supercar quick. Lotus says it's 3 seconds faster round its test track at Hethel in Norfolk than the 400 model. But it's on the road where Evora Sport feels hair raisingly fast, thanks to a wonderful combination of low-rev pulling power and a lightweight body shell. The blower whirr joins with the Toyota Camry mill's high tech howl and the Evora's nose sprints for the low sun in the Norfolk horizon. The sense of acceleration is dizzying and the only thing which holds you back is your own sense of propriety. Sadly the quality of the gear change doesn't match the rest of the experience. That cable shift is baulky and stiff and apart from the jarring dissonance, you are continually worried about wrong slotting a ratio.

Perhaps it's worse because the quality of the rest of the drive is so remarkable. The sense of control is amazing. Where rival supercars frighten you with blinding reactions, a jangly ride quality and very little feedback, Lotus engineers have wrought a car that rides remarkably, steers like a dream and positively encourages you to drive nearer the limits. You feel profoundly on top of this good-natured car and where you might expect it to slide wide or worse spin when you take power away, it merely tightens its line. I spend my life trying to explain what good handling and steering is, then a car like this comes along and all I can say is: "That's it!"

Sadly the cabin isn't as classy as the dynamics. Better built and trimmed than ever before, it might be, but Evora isn't in the same league as the competition. Old Ford steering column stalks and still haphazard layouts don't cut the mustard when you are laying out 82 grand. Those bucket seats are comfortable, though, the driving position is better than any Lotus has a right to have and the Alcantara covered steering wheel is beautifully tactile. And the quality of the coachwork paint and fit and finish was some of the best I've ever seen on a Lotus.

If this were just about the quality of chassis dynamics, the Evora Sport would be streets ahead of the competition. I'd no idle boast to say that this is one of the best handling cars I have ever driven. But it's not and while they aren't as wieldy, Porsche's 911 and Cayman S, Jaguar's F-Type coupe and even Nissan's GTR offer enough thrills and performance, plus better quality of cabins to be compelling alternatives. If Lotus has that bit more money to invest, it could build a world beater. As it stands, for enthusiastic drivers, the Evora Sport is too good not to consider.