I had the opportunity to drive a 2010 Lotus Evora at Jaguar of San Jose. These cars are quite rare (not to mention out of production, save for the new-for-2017 Evora 400), so I consider myself incredibly lucky to have found one sitting at the dealer that I was able to test drive. Here are some impressions of the car.
- I can barely push the clutch all the way in with the seat in the frontmost position.
- Massive B/C pillar blind spot.
- Short brake pedal travel.
- Light clutch. Acceptable clutch engage feel, though nearly stalled the car on a couple occasions.
- Shifter is complete trash! Felt like stirring very thick soup/jello. Known as a vague shifter. Putting shifter in gear is not crisp. Supposedly 2012+ shifter cables make the shifter feel better.
- Lift gearshift collar for reverse.
- Hard to heel and toe on first try for street use due to short brake pedal travel and sloppy gearshift.
- Heavy steering that transmits every single road detail.
- Good engine note, especially 5k and above.
- Sit low to the ground and bucket seats really give a sense of transmitting information from the chassis.
- Car was nicely planted and felt balanced in an onramp. I didn't push hard at all to reach any limits. I would have loved to take the car on some back roads or to an autocross course.
- Makes the [Porsche 911] 997 feel incredibly insulated!
I love this car so much that if the vague shifter was fixed, then I would seriously consider one of these. Reviews indicate that the Evora 400 has a delightful shifter, so that's super tempting!
