Sidelined five years ago in ex-boss Dany Brouhaha's tragi-comic plan to produce a string of reimagined Loti for the kind of money Ford spends designing a new cup holder, the Evora is back with a bang, pop and a Waaaaaaaahhh! from its new sports exhaust.

The 2016 Lotus Evora 400 isn't just the best-sounding Lotus since Hethel stopped fitting sidedraft carbs to its U.S.-bound Elans the year before Armstrong walked on the moon, it's the fastest production Lotus road car ever. Zero to 60 mph is dispatched in 4.1 sec and the top speed is 186 mph. Next year's stripped-down, muscled-up Cup version will go even quicker.

The 400 tag refers to the pony-count of its Toyota Camry-derived V6. That represents an increase of 56 hp over the old Evora S, a feat made possible by the addition of a charge cooler to the Edelbrock supercharger, which also bumps torque up 7 lb-ft to 302 lb-ft between 3500-6500 rpm. Five grand is where the real action starts, pushing you deep into a new lightweight Sparco bucket, but 1500 rpm later it's all over if you're in the default driving mode; Sport and Race give you an extra 500 rpm to play with. A neat trick is the ability to switch out the active exhaust even in Race mode for stealthy attacks on roads lousy with law enforcement, or circuits with overzealous noise limits.

This still isn't a hugely charismatic engine, but it's substantially more engaging than the last one, and mated to two improved transmissions. The six-speed manual gearshift—still knucklier than a skeleton's hand—feels meatier and shorter-of-throw, and the optional automatic (Intelligent Precision Shift, once Lotus-speak for a six-speed Aisin unit, is no longer the preferred nomenclature) is also vastly better. A traditional torque-converter slusher, Lotus knows it's no match for a Porsche PDK, but shift times are down to 100 ms from a slothful 240.

The straight-line lunge is now more pronounced, but as on all Lotus cars that's almost incidental to the curvy stuff that bookends it. The rack is still hydraulically assisted and full of feel, there are stiffer springs and dampers, and with a curb weight of 3075 lbs—93 lbs less mass to deal with. You notice the better body control in transitions and under braking, and the massive increase in mechanical grip everywhere.

Flatten the right pedal as you sail past an apex and the combination of Michelin Pilot Super Sport Rubber, clever four-mode Bosch ESP, and an LSD—previously avoided by Lotus for the loss of purity, but considered essential at this power level—means there's barely a wiggle from the rear. The absurd 7 sec a Lotus test driver cut from the old Evora's 1:38 lap time at Hethel's test track suddenly seems credible.

But what's even more significant than the dynamic improvement is the transformation in cabin quality. Some of the changes are simple logic: instrument graphics that are actually legible, a wider footwell and longer seat travel, a lowered sill making it easier to get out, and a redesigned door panel that no longer takes your kneecaps out when you're doing it.

You still have to put up with a fiddly aftermarket infotainment unit, but start prodding switches, touching surfaces, and twisting dials and it's clear this is all light years ahead of where Lotus has come from—if still not quite up to Porsche standards. That stuff tends to matter to people spending $90,000 on a car, and it'll certainly matter to the next generation of buyers Lotus wants to woo.

Improbable as it sounds, in the longer term, Lotus sees a future dominated by the Chinese-built four-door, all-wheel drive crossover it's currently prototyping. At the other end of the range there'll be a replacement for the almost 20-year old Elise and its Exige spinoff—currently only available for off-highway use in the U.S. since an airbag exemption expired a couple of years ago. Both the crossover and the next Elise will come to the U.S., which is still Lotus's biggest market, accounting for half of all sales.

Lotus

For now though, the focus is on Evora. The 400 lands here in January 2016 as a 2017 model, followed by a Roadster in July, whose two carbon fiber roof panels weigh just 3.3 lbs each and store in the space occupied by the coupe's larger rear seats. The Evora Cup launches at the tail end of 2016, but if it does come to the U.S. (still undecided) it won't be as light as the Euro version, which can live without side airbags.

Send an Evora 400 down a proper road and there aren't many places you'd rather be. Lotus's rate for converting test drives to sales already stands at 30 percent, three times the norm, and you wouldn't bet against it pushing higher with the massively improved Evora and expanding U.S. dealer network.

Boss Jean-Marc Gales, who's driving Lotus to profit for the first time in six decades, assures us that some of the quality glitches in our two test cars (intrusive transmission chatter and wind noise from the driver's door) will be fixed on production cars. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, that's what loving Lotus has always been about, right?

This article has been updated to clarify a few points.



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