Like my buddy's racy Exige S, the Evora S adds a supercharger and plenty of track-ready hardware to its tamer, naturally aspirated Evora sibling. Also like its Exige/Elise brethren, a Toyota-sourced engine sits amidships for superior weight distribution and handling. As is now customary with sports cars from Maranello and Germany, the engine sits beneath a layer of heat-resistant glass for you to admire and gaze upon every time you approach from behind.
The Evora employs a more powerful 3.5L V6, though, with the Harrop HTV 1320 supercharger boosting horsepower to 345 (a 69hp gain over the base Evora) and raising the torque to 295 pound-feet (a gain of 37 pound-feet). Those numbers are good enough to run you to 60 mph in a mere 4.3 seconds, six-tenths of a second faster than in the base Evora. To keep all that power in check, Lotus upgraded the six-speed gearbox with a heavier-duty clutch. On the suspension side of things, the front receives stiffer bushings and new upper wishbones for better castor angles, while the rear gets revised geometry, stiffer bushings, and a thicker antiroll bar.
All in, S is 122 pounds heavier than the regular Evora, with a curb weight of 3,168 pounds. That means every extra pony is tasked with moving approximately 9 pounds, about equal with the difference seen in Porsches in its less powerful but lighter Cayman S.
Performance more than lives up to the Evora S's provocative, hunkered-down stance. The car is violently fast in pretty much any driving situation. Fast down a straight, fast off the line, fast in a corner. And let's not forget coming to a stop – 60 to zero in 100 feet.
It's amazing how a gaggle of metal and aluminum can infuse such delight into an already impressive sports car, but that's exactly what engineers have done by slapping on that blower. There is power positively everywhere and the acceleration is more addictive than many of today's hard drugs.
>The car is violently fast in pretty much any driving situation. Fast down a straight, fast off the line, fast in a corner.
My favorite aspect of the powertrain is an exhaust bypass valve that opens up like the heavens when you press the "Sport Mode" button to the right of the steering wheel. Along with the positively intoxicating sound piping into the cockpit, Sport Mode also sharpens the throttle response and raises redline to a whopping 7,200 rpm. The throttle can be a little sensitive around town, and the stick is a bit cumbersome at slow speeds (an automated transmission was recently made available as a $2,500 option), but all that goes out the window once you start burying the needle to redline in second, third, fourth, and beyond.
As you can imagine, the Evora S feels most at home on twisty back country roads and sweeping mountain passes. During my weekend of driving in and around the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, I attempted to nudge the limits of grip and tracking while negotiating twists and turns.
Notice I used the word "attempted." 40 mph, that was easy. 50 mph, barely breaking a sweat. 60 mph, is this me or the car? 70 mph, OK I'm not nearly talented enough to be doing this.
No matter how hard I pushed, nothing could make the Evora S's Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires (rated at an astonishing 1.5 Gs of lateral grip) veer off course. In fact, the only thing out of alignment was my fiancé's heart rate. The hydraulically assisted power steering is magnificent, eliciting serious levels of driver feedback to the point where you feel every road undulation the tires come into contact with. Ride quality was pretty forgiving, with only larger potholes and road imperfections managing to jolt to ultra-stiff Evora chassis to any noticeable degree. When not in Sport Mode, the noise, vibration and harshness levels were surprisingly low at highway speed, as well.
