The folks at Lotus have formally announced the addition of a new race car – the Evora Cup. The Evora Cup is based on the Evora road car, but has been given an extensive reworking by Lotus Motorsport to prepare for heavy abuse at the track.
The Lotus Evora road car is an extremely capable and agile car as-is, but when it comes time to enter professional race circuits even the best road cars need to be extensively modified to be competitive.
The Evora is no exception as Lotus has taken the standard Toyota V6 and bumped it up to 4.0 liters and 395 horsepower in race form. The Evora Cup also features a new dry sump oiling system, a Cima six-speed sequential paddle shift dog gearbox, six-piston calipers and two piece aluminum belled brake discs.
As true with any Lotus, weight savings for optimal handling, acceleration and deceleration were a top priority, and despite the already low starting weight, Lotus was able to shave off over 400 pounds through the use of carbon fiber, high-performance parts and the elimination of unwanted materials. The weight savings provides the Evora Cup race car with a truly impressive weight-to-power ratio – befitting of a GT4 race car.
It is through these changes that the Evora has been transformed into a GT4 race car that will be eligible to compete in numerous national and international series – with options for endurance and sprint racing, according to Lotus.
“The Evora Cup racing car is the first step along the route for Lotus Motorsport to realize its racing ambitions. I am looking forward to seeing the Evora racing this year in the Lotus Evora Cup competition and I am excited by the plans for 2011, where Lotus intends to introduce a pan European one make race series for the Evora Cup,” said Claudio Berro, director of Motorsport Group Lotus.
