The Lotus Evora is hailed as one of the finest handling cars in the world. But can it show its prowess against the best of them on a race course carved of snow?
THE BACK END slides round and the rear tyres scrabble for grip as I wind on the opposite lock through the apex. This is common ground for the Lotus Evora, hailed as one of the finest handling cars in the world right now. But today is a more complex day because this is no ordinary road. This is the Andros Trophee race course at Serre Chevalier in the French Alps and it is literally carved into the ice and snow.
It’s an extreme way to demonstrate the pure handling prowess of the British sportscar that has swept the board in the handling awards this year. But with just a set of WRC-spec spiked Pirelli Sotozero tyres to help it on its way, the Evora carves through the bend in a gracious arc and fires out of the bend on to the short straight. It’s all happening in slow motion, at 50km/h rather than 200km/hr, but it’s serious fun.
This was the end game that awaited us after almost 200 miles of driving through the Alps from the Swiss capital of Geneva.
With a 5am start things like raw speed come a distant fifth to heating, comfort, visibility, the ride quality and the Alpine touchscreen SatNav as we battle through Geneva’s minus four degree weather to hit the highway. Then something shocking happens, as my assigned car buddy stretches the car’s legs and heat wafts through the cabin, I fall asleep.
That would never have happened in the Exige, which feels like an earthquake in a sardine tin, but the Evora is more relaxed. This isn’t plush, but the supportive seats are well appointed, the leather and metal cockpit are a world away from any Lotus that has gone before, as is the giving suspension.
There are sacrifices: the 100km/h mark comes up in 4.9 seconds and it runs out of puff at 261km/h. There are saloons that will push it hard, according to those raw figures. Of course this is the Lotus way and we can expect to see much more powerful supercharged versions, but right now the Evora is less than startling in a straightline and even the exhaust note of the Toyota-sourced 3.5-litre V6 doesn’t rasp though the cabin. Until you want it to.
Because although these things are important and ease the passage through Geneva, the real fun comes as the road tightens up. Here the mid-engined, 276bhp rocket tucks away its near 3,000lb kerbweight and becomes a full-blooded Lotus once again. It carves up the inside, outside and straight through more powerful machines. Even with the traction control nibbling at the wheels as we plough through crisp white snow.
There’s no rocket science at the core here, Lotus simply works wonders with double wishbones and a Bilstein and Ohlins set-up to create a near spiritual drive. And as we finally roll through the shocked skiers and come to rest at the ice racing track, where bemused punters are waiting to go out in the much more sensible Subaru Impreza. They bolt on the studded tyres and we set about proving the prowess of the Evora.
Even our instructor for the day, Julian, has his doubts about our chances. “This is a good car, but the ice is something different,” he explains. “Here, this is really not a good car.” We ignore this, and set out on the exploration laps of this short, half-mile track defined by two major hairpins and two daunting chicanes. The snow banks that line the course are far from soft and though it wouldn’t be like hitting the wall on a race track, they would certainly make a mess of the bodywork. Even at the speeds we’ll be travelling at, as the whole course is tackled in second gear.
On sheet ice, with a wall coming up, even 50km/hr feels bullet-train fast, especially when hard braking results in the juddering noise of ABS and not much else.
The ice accentuates every mistake, turning every subtle hint of incorrect technique into a glaring error of impending accident proportions. And the biggest enemy is understeer.
Once flicked into oversteer the Evora carries a dancer’s grace and poise into and past the apex, as long as you’re fast with the opposite lock. A plume of ice kicked up by the tyres makes me look, for a fleeting moment, like a rally God. But getting it there in the first place takes momentum, nerve and fast hands, as there is no letting go of the wheel and letting the car find its balance on the ice. Sportscars, even a Lotus, are set up for safety first these days and that means understeer – it’s the only way to stop the punters spinning into trees and dying on a damp road back in the real world.
So there is only one answer, and as the time closes in on our time on the track, go for the “Scandinavian flick”. This tried and trusted rally technique is a staple diet of Imprezas and Evos worldwide, but this felt like new ground for a Lotus. I brake harder at an opposite angle and facing nowhere near the bend start to feed in way too much power and prod the brake with a nervous left foot.
Finally it happens, the Evora arcs round to face the hard snow on the apex of the bend and keeps going, the steering rests on the lock stops and the only thing we have is power. Somehow it doesn’t spin, it keeps trailing through the corner, the back end doesn’t bury itself in six feet of snow and ice and somehow we find ourselves powering through the bend, on to the straight and towards the next bend at a mildly uncomfortable speed and round the outside of the Impreza up ahead.
And once again the Evora had carved up a more powerful and more appropriate car, thanks to that inimitable Lotus handling DNA.
