The Lotus Evora Sport 410 GP Edition is a new version for our shores

Lotus is bringing a more powerful Evora Sport 410 to the US, in legendary GP livery for enthusiasts.

What’s going on?

I frequently look at Lotus’ lineage during my lifetime as being broken into three distinct periods. Firstly, Lotus Esprits were often broken at the local exotic shop when I was a kid,. Then, there were Lotus Elises that friends my age were actually owned and enjoyed. And Lotus Exiges and Evoras proved to me that the British have yet to slow down with their oh-so-popular-yet-historic nameplate. The thing is, the Elise may have been fast because of its ridiculously light aluminum and fiberglass construction. But it just never had the extra cylinders like one of those Esprits I remembered from the garage.

I’m here to tell you that Lotus made all my big-kid dreams come true. By taking the more powerful Evora we’ve all come to love, shaving an exciting 154 pounds from the 400 model (yes!) and painting it in classic Lotus black and gold (yes!!), they’ve created the Evora Sport 410 GP Edition. And the real winner… they’re bringing it to North America.

So why the excitement over some black and gold paint? Why couldn’t we just order black, and then have a little gold vinyl cut up for it?

Well, we’re hoping Lotus screens its buyers to prevent this sort of DIY disgrace in the future. But until then, you should know that the GP trim is based on the John Player Special Team cars that Lotus was racing from 1972 to 1986 in Formula One.

They’ve given a great homage to this bit of heritage via the gold stripes on the hood, doors, fenders, and rockers. There’s a “Wold Champions” piece on the engine cover, and 410 logo on the tail end. If you know a Lotus fanatic, you know this is very, very different from make-believe racing lineage livery slapped on mid-range sports cars. Black and gold are the colors of Lotus’ blood – and likely the color of your enthusiast friend’s underwear.

And my last bit of excitement, they’ve decided to finally bring this wonderful machine to North America. The 410 weighs just 2,921 pounds, and boasts a 3.5 liter supercharged V6 with 400 ponies, and 302 pound-feet of torque. There’s a 6 speed manual standard and a Torsen-type LSD making sure this thing doesn’t mess up that beautiful Lotus handling with all that power. 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 190 MPH round out these specs.

Going back to my earlier moment of Lotus nostalgia, it’s like Lotus took the muscle of their latest 6-cylinder platform, put it through the Elise’s fat-burning gym membership, and then brought it to us Americans in the most “gotta have it” appearance possible. The only downside (aside from hearing about this a mere 2 weeks before the IRS takes my Lotus money away), is that Lotus will only be producing 150 of the Evora Sport 410 GP Edition. You’d better believe we’re excited to wait in line for it though.

– By: Pat Miller

Source: Lotus