Another year, another new Lotus Evora. This time they’re calling it the 2020 Lotus Evora GT, an evolution of the Evora 410, which itself was an evolution of an evolution of what’s now a 10-year-old car. It’s now a little more powerful, a little faster, and still asking for almost $100,000.
Just to point it out, the Lotus Evora launched in March of 2008, over 11 years ago. In the last four years alone, we’ve gotten the Evora 400, the Evora GT430, the Evora 410, the 410 Sport, and now the 410 Sport has been replaced by this new Evora GT.
The 2020 Evora GT’s supercharged V6 now makes 416 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque when optioned with a six-speed manual transmission, or 450 lb-ft of torque if you get it with the automatic.
Despite more torque on the auto, the manual-option cars get from 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, 0.1 seconds quicker than the auto, Lotus claims. Manual cars are also fitted with a torsen limited slip differential.
Just get the manual. It’s a Lotus.
Beyond more power from the same engine, this “new” Evora GT also gets reworked aerodynamics to minimize airflow under the car with a new front lip behind the grille, louvres have been added on the front wheel arches to vent high pressure, and there’s a tweaked rear diffuser.
Curb weight stays at 3,175 pounds for the manual car, with carbon fiber a-panels, rear-wheel ducts, sill covers, and rear bumper, and the optional carbon fiber package throws on a carbon roof panel, funk lid, and one-piece tailgate, which further reduces weight by 49 pounds. A little more weight can be cut with the optional titanium exhaust, too.
Perhaps the only notable change to the interior is that the car can now be optioned as a 2+2 with rear seating once again, so your friends can be closer to that sweet sweet Toyota V6 while you tell them about all the money you spent on options to make up for their additional weight. (This also makes it one of the very few mid-engine 2+2s still on the market, too—it’s this and the BMW i8, pretty much.)
The “new” Evora GT starts at $96,950 MSRP, but the options are going to push that price way beyond. You can see a full option price breakdown from Lotus here.
At this point, we’re going to be writing about this car into the 2030s as they debut the Evora 523 GT, and model with one more horsepower than its predecessor, with some sort of NASA aerogel frame and composite panels with holes drilled into them, and it will cost a quarter of a million dollars. Sounds pretty cool.