Lotus Evora GT430 2017 first drive

The Lotus Evora’s transformation from sports car to supercar is complete with this: the Lotus Evora GT430. Since taking over at Lotus in 2014, company boss Jean-Marc Gales has been incrementally improving the Evora (as well as the Lotus Elise and Lotus Exige), and perhaps no bigger step has yet been taken than with the new GT430.

The name suggests the GT430 has 20bhp more than the Sport 410 on which it is based, and it does. But it’s so much more than that; the GT half of the name actually gives more away. For this is in effect a road-going version of the GT4 race car, which is conveniently driven by Lotus chief engineer Gav Kershaw, the man who’s led this car's development.

So with that extra power comes three other key race car ingredients: less weight, a completely new aerodynamic package and adjustable suspension lifted straight from the race car.

The Evora GT430 comes in some 36kg less than the Sport 410. There’s such a vast amount of carbonfibre used on the body that more of the bodywork is made from it now than composites. Even the washer fluid bottle isn’t spared in the drive to reduce weight elsewhere.

Aero wise, that huge rear wing is the most obvious part of an aero package that results in downforce of 250kg being produced. The package is so focused and extreme that Lotus will even sell you a ‘Sport’ version of the GT430 with it toned down and the wing deleted if it’s too much for you.

As for the race suspension, it’s sourced from Ohlins and has spring rates that increased by a massive 47% at the front and 20% at the rear over the Sport 410. It’s manually adjustable within two basic settings: road and track.

New lightweight alloys, a Torsen limited-slip differential, wider Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, beefed-up AP Racing brakes, the GT4 car’s traction control system and the six-speed manual gearbox’s improved application from the Exige 380 complete the Evora GT430’s supercar makeover.

Turn in to your first corner in the Evora GT430 and you’ll see what the car is all about. It hasn't just shed weight, but it shed weight in the right places – on the bumper sides of either axle. At the front, this means it turns in with an extraordinary precision that shocks you at first with just how immediate and involving it is. And addictive.