Ok so the Lotus Evora isn’t new in 2020 but this was the first time I have ever driven one and man was I impressed! Huge shout out to Maserati Lotus of Greenville SC for letting me borrow this beautiful 2020 Evora GT for the weekend, my wife and I had an absolute blast!

Since I had the car for the weekend I felt like I had to take the opportunity to review the car to let you guys know what it was like for a very average 36 year old that switches between driving an 88 westfalia, 01 TDI Jetta and 99 Lazy Dazy 26 Motorhome to drive this gorgeous British exotic car as a daily driver for a few days!

If you want to see my friends and family’s reaction to this amazing car, hear the sounds and see my full review you can check out the YouTube video below. Or keep reading!

Size

Ok first off, the size. This car is small there is no doubt but I will say they have designed it to accommodate a wide range of people, I am 6’1 and I fit perfectly, I didn’t have to scoot the seat all the way back and I could get in and out with no problem at all. My 6’5 friend even fit with no issues, getting out was a little tricky but totally doable! My 4’11 and 3/4 wife also fit just fine and even drove the little rocket! She did say she wished the pedals were a little closer, maybe an inch or 2, she had to have her leg fully extended to reach the clutch…but she drove it just fine (probably better than me honestly…) you can check out the end of the YouTube video I made to see her in action!

My 4’11 and 3/4” wife driving the Evora!

My 6’1” self behind the wheel, fit just fine with room to spare!

Leg room behind me in my driving position

Interior

I found the interior of the lotus to be simple but purpose built, you can tell it’s all about the driver, the seats were amazing and hugged my 185 pound frame perfectly.



My wife said she thought they were some of the most comfortable seats she has sat in, that was after a 3hour trip up to the mountains of North Carolina!



Loving those twistys

Made it to Caesar’s Head NC

I will say the interior has more of a race car minimalist feel than a luxury car feel that you might see in a Porsche, but I didn’t mind at all. The alcantara wrapped everything was beautiful, the carbon fiber seats were stunning and the steering wheel just felt amazing. I was also really Impressed with the red accents in the interior, I normally wouldn’t like that sort of thing but I thought it was really well done.

I particularly liked the climate control knobs and the buttons for the heated seats, sport mode and exhaust baffles.



Red accents around the climate control knobs and Apple CarPlay from the alpine head unit

The buttons had a very satisfying push to them and the knobs had a very definitive click. The alpine head unit reminded me of older Ferrari’s but it had apple car play (or android auto, which I couldn’t try out, sorry iPhone family…) you just have to plug your phone into the cable in the glovebox and then yo are good to go.

CarPlay connection in glovebox

For me in 2020 if a car has CarPlay I’m totally happy. The Bluetooth worked great too. I didn’t try out the stereo all that much honestly because the sound coming from the supercharged V6 was heavenly and I wanted to maximize my time with it!

As much as I loved the interior there are some areas where you will notice you are in a limited production car with some compromises. First off the alpine head unit, then followed by the little mic for the Bluetooth and then finally the turn stalks and ac vents. All look a little cheap for a $100,000 plus car.



Not the biggest fan of the air vents or turn stalks, but I do love those buttons!



Finally we come to the rear seats. These seats are really only going to work for small kids. My 13 year old nephew didn’t want to try them out, but I do think we would have fit just fine behind my wife. But if there are 2 adults in the front above about 5’8 I don’t think anyone would fit in the back. I was able to squeeze myself in there when the seats were in my normal driving position so there is a bunch of volume but I was just wedged in, not sitting 🙂 The seats did provide for an enormous amount of storage that help to make it possible to use this car as a daily driver.



Seats are all the way back, its possible lol



Speaking of storage since this car has a mid engine it also has a trunk and a frunk. First off the trunk, it’s not huge but it is large enough to fit a bag of golf clubs, or my boosted board and Onewheel… definitely large enough for some duffle bags or groceries. The more interesting storage space is the frunk, or front trunk. Since the engine is in the middle I thought that the frunk would be pretty sizable like the Porsche’s. After you find the secret latch under the glovebox you are overwhelmed with cavernous wallet storage and access to the washer and brake fluid. I’m not sure why lotus chose to leave such little space in the front but it’s always funny to see people’s reaction to the minuscule “frunk”.



Good enough trunk storage to me (also fits a golf bag) The frunk secret latch The frunk

Driving

Ok we finally get to where this car really shines, on the road. Once you are gripped by the cabon fiber buckets, hit the start button and hear that supercharged V6 roar to life you feel like you are in a genuine exotic car, the sounds that come from that engine truly are heavenly and bring me back to the days when I used to go to F1 races and and just enjoy the sounds.

Interstate on ramps were my friend…side note, I loved seeing those air intakes in the side view mirrors!



I found myself leaving the car in lower gears because I just loved any opportunity to punch it, feel the instant grip, followed by ridiculous acceleration and then listen to the engine scream up to 7000 RPM! Man I miss that…My wife and I were lucky enough to be able to take the Evora up some twisty roads into the mountains of North Carolina for a quick day trip.



The grip around those turns was incredible, my wife said she felt like she was on a roller coaster with the G’s that we were pulling. I am very sure that I wasn’t even coming close to meeting the cars potential because I am by no means a race car driver at all.



Lovin that grip!

The grip that car has is truly amazing, the only car I have been in that is similar was the 991 GT3 ( A friend of mine has one and he recently took me for a quick spin, very very impressive).



When you point the Evora somewhere it just goes there, no questions asked, the steering is so precise it feels like you are driving a go cart, just one that goes 0-60mph in under 4 seconds! I know that words, and my YouTube video won’t do it justice so all I can say is you need to drive one to experience it…One thing I was very surprised by was the ride quality on bad roads, somehow these British magicians were able to design this to be able to scream around corners like its glued to the road but then absorb the bumps of normal city like like it’s nothing, honestly it was not a rough ride at all daily driving this car for the 4 days I drove it, I don’t know how they did it!

Summary

So unfortunately like Cinderella my dream came to an end after the weekend flew by and I had to take the car back on Monday. I had an absolute blast with the car and if my finances allowed I would absolutely buy one. I think the main competition for this car is probably some version of a 911 and I will say those new Porsche’s are amazing looking and I wouldn’t mind one at all (I still need to spend more time with one to really compare..), but I do see more of them on the road so if you are looking for something a little more rare and exotic looking then the Lotus might be for you.



For me I think I will be looking for an older Evora (Sadly without the supercharger) since those are now selling in the $30k range! And I can confirm based on a bunch of comments and videos on the lotus forums that it’s possible to get that heavenly 7000rpm V6 scream coming from a 2010 non-supercharged evora, now I just need to try one out to see if the slightly slower version still has the same sensation, or maybe test out some of the competition from Porsche…if you want to see some more details on my weekend with the Lotus you can check out my video on YouTube.

Let me know what you think about the 2020 Lotus Evora GT, and if you have cool cars that you want me to review leave me a comment below or shoot me an email at VanBoardBike@gmail.com.

till next time!

John Dyer