And the Lotus Evora, well, that has an engine of some sort. It must be in there somewhere, right?

The British-built Evora uses a Japanese-engineered 3.5-liter V-6, a workmanlike device that powers millions of Toyota Camry sedans, Highlander crossovers and Sienna minivans. The S version of the Evora upgrades the base 276-horsepower V-6 with a Harrop HTV 1320 supercharger, raising its output to 345 horsepower.

The exhaust system of the S gets a bypass valve that can be activated by the Sport button on the dashboard, letting the full voice of the engine’s combustion process express itself in decidedly visceral — and un-Camrylike — terms. Acceleration is strong (0-60 in 4.3 seconds, according to Lotus) and the sprint is accompanied by a faint whistle of exertion from the supercharger. For the soundtrack alone, the Evora S is a worthy upgrade over the nonsupercharged car.

Still, the engine is a mere supporting actor in the Evora script. You get the idea that the V-6 is there in service of the chassis, to get it rolling fast enough for you to realize what a Lotus is all about. Lotus is such a handling-first company that its engineers would happily design gravity-powered Soap Box Derby racers if they could turn a profit.

There’s a road near my house that I’ve driven hundreds of times, but I never noticed its texture until I drove it in the Evora S. Suddenly the grain of the pavement boiled up through the seat, the steering wheel and even the pedals.

It isn’t an unpleasant sensation, which is the genius of Lotus chassis tuning — the Evora manages to deliver a comfortable ride while providing ridiculous levels of feedback and some big-league performance numbers (like more than 1 G of grip on the skid pad).