2018 Lotus Evora 400

Words by Brendan Dolan

Photos by Matt Brown

Allow me to get right to the point. I have ZERO expectations of a trouble-free ownership experience. Like my old college roommate used to say, “low expectations, low chance of disappointment.” So why did I set the bar so low? Years ago, I used to work for a Lotus franchise during the launch of the Evora, and I did events for Lotus corporate, and I’ve seen how the sausage is made, so to speak.

My Evora 400 sat unsold for two years before I took delivery of it, and within the first month of ownership I’ve noticed the following issues:

Panel gaps are comical, especially on the heinously expensive carbon fiber trunk hatch. Lane can attest that the carbon work is great, aside from the fitment.
Airbag light was on. This was fixed by rerouting the passenger side-impact airbag harness and cleaning the connectors.
Drivers side headlight moves around. The bouncing light pattern at night reminds me of my old MkII GTI.
The trunk hatch wouldn’t release. You’d hear the actuator fire, but the hatch wouldn’t open. It was out of alignment from the factory.
You have to press and hold the start button to get it to turn on. I’m used to modern cars where one quick press will make the car turn on. One morning I pressed it and released it immediately, and it stopped cranking. Fixing my mistake, I pressed and held it, and it cranked for 5 seconds before I gave up, locked the car, unlocked it and tried again. It did finally start.
The plaque on the dash stating “Hand Built in England by Carl Knights” is crooked.

Metal grates to the side of the rear hatch don’t match and have quite uneven gaps. They might have been made in Bryan’s louver shop.

Yet I do not care. About any of it.

Why? Because none of that detracts from the positively thrilling driving experience. I could complain about the head unit that looks like the last item Circuit City sold before going under, the jet ski gauges, the parking brake that sounds like a collapsing Erector Set, but it all doesn’t matter.

We all know modern cars are mostly boring. We can wax poetic about slow car fast, RADwood era cars being more fun to drive than isolated modern cars, and with a few exceptions, we’d all be right. This car is one of the exceptions. 981 Caymans? I love them. They’re fantastic instruments of speed, but you really have to hustle one on a back road before it’s fun. The Evora will happily jam along at that pace, but you don’t have to be at full tilt before it’s entertaining and rewarding.

Even my Chevy SS, a car that is universally praised for being fun to drive, has to be driven really hard before it’s rewarding. Up until that point you’re just covering ground fast, and you feel like you’re along for the ride rather than the one making it happen. The magic carpet mag ride is smoothing it out. The steering is accurate but it’s devoid of nuanced feedback. Road conditions that fluster an 80’s car are things that I’m blissfully unaware of, but expertly handling your car through those conditions is what makes driving fun.

Drive a quick but not blistering pace in the Evora, and the wheel is still alive in your hands. The car is wiggling and following the road. It washboards on power coming out of corners. You can just play with it. It’s not isolated, or numb, and everything you touch is thankfully full of feedback. Instead of being a modern sensory deprivation chamber with no sensation of speed, it just has that feeling of being alive that I love about older cars.

You can defeat the nannies, threshold brake without triggering ABS, slide it into the apex on the brakes without anything freaking out. The car just lets you drive. It feels organic, dare I say old fashioned, and it’s super rewarding. You don’t have to put the screws to it before it’s fun, yet when you do, it’s an experience that makes you feel like a hero for being the one in the hot seat who is doing the work, not the car. A GT-R or MP4-12C can carry an insane pace on the roads we love, but you don’t feel like you drove that pace; the car did it all for you.

Since I love the driving experience so much, I just can’t get worked up with the flaws. Unless you get something properly exotic, you aren’t going to have the kind of enjoyment that the Evora delivers at that price point.

Finally, let’s be honest and fair too. I’m cheating. I won’t own it out of warranty, since I know better. It’s my second car, and I think of it like a toy. Any future inconveniences will be more bullet points to add to a list of things that have made me laugh and shrug while I enjoy the ride.