2010 Lotus Evora First Pictures

Lotus is set to give the all-new Evora its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday, November 20. This is an all-new mid-engine 2+2 — the only such car in the world.

The Evora is powered by a 276 horsepower Lotus-tuned Toyota-based 3.5 liter V6, but, more importantly, weighs only 2976 lbs. Lotus remembers what most other marques have forgotten; that ‘adding lightness’ can do more for a car’s performance than just throwing raw horsepower at a heavy car.

One of our readers (photo credit: Laura Burstein) caught this pic of the Lotus Evora in California before the official debut at the LA auto show:

Despite the Elise DNA in the Evora’s appearance, it is designed to seat two 6′5″ adults in the front seats and “smaller adults” or children in the rear seat. The trunk (”boot” to the British) has a 5.7 cubic foot capacity, which is a decent size and can hold a full set of golf clubs. In case you are worried about the mid-engine layout making for a toasty trunk, Lotus thought of that: the trunk features a fresh-air vented cooling system.

Compared to the Elise and Exige, the Lotus Evora features slimmer door sills and larger openings to make the sporty 2+2 more liveable on a daily basis. Lotus even put a flat-bottom steering wheel in it to ease ingress and egress for the driver.

We were amused to find out that Lotus will be limiting production to approximately 2000 Evoras per year. Such production numbers will indeed insure exclusivity of the Evora, but they represent a large number for a car manufacturer who just 5 years ago was bringing less than 100 Esprits per year into the USA. While other car manufacturers are struggling, Lotus is using its superior engineering and innovative products to grow in the marketplace.

We have a lot more to say about the Evora, but we’ll wait until we officially can get our hands on one so that we can give you a proper review.

The following link may interest you:

Roadfly’s Lotus Forums

Special thanks to Laura Burstein for allowing Roadfly to post the photos.