Evora Sport 410

[C8RKH]

Well, plenty of people on here have said they want one, and it looks like Win-Ace has already delivered!  Carbon version available too to special order!

http://www.win-ace-bodykits.com/lotus-evora?product_id=631

Damn, that guy makes some really good looking stuff...

[CocoPops]

I've already requested photos of the carbon.

$2800 plus shipping.

The Lotus OEM panel is £4300plus vat!

 

[C8RKH]

You can see on one of the red cars the carbon, but not close up. Looks very nice when you see the underside too.

$2800, isn't that like £20,000 or something after Brexit? Maybe I've been listening to Queen Nic and the Bremoaners too much...

[JayEmm]

@C8RKH I think sterling is 1:1 with the Japanese Yen now

[RJB]

Well - not a full or proper review as am pushed for time but just a few thoughts after 1100km across Spain yesterday. My reference point is 2 previously Evoras (2010 NA and 2013 Sports Racer S) plus a week in a loaned 400 last year.

• Wow - what an awesome car! Shared the drive with a serial 911 Owner friend who was equally impressed
• Very fast - averaged 85mph including stops over 670 miles
• Handling by far the best I have experienced - so flat around corners even at 3 figure speeds, so much grip, unbelievably planted even on bumpier sections
• Gearbox - as good as the change on my Honda S2000 which was as sweet as I have experienced
• Comfort - Nearly 8 hours on the road and no stiffness or aches at all - the seats and ride are firm but not u comfortable
• Cabin - excellent finish - less is definitely more - with less in the cabin it looks and feels a much better quality
• Sound - incredible, can't resist dropping a couple of gears in every tunnel and winding it up - spine chilling noise
• Look - stunning - Carbon tailgate a work of art. Every time I stopped people come up to ask about the car
• Negatives - Side info panels on dash disappear when wearing polarised sunnies and seats feel like you need a harness because of the G's you can pull in a corner. Small soft bags only behind the seats as no tilt function

The whole route was on excellent Spanish motorway - 2 and 3 lane with generally great surfaces and very little traffic - impossible to do that sort of run in the U.K. these days, would thoroughly recommend it. I generally prefer mountain roads for my driving fix but this was close on the fun-o-meter and proved the car as a competent GT if necessary. 

Will get some photos as soon as I can

[mawheele]

On 31/12/2016 at 11:22, JayEmm said:

It is precisely because Lotus are totally ignorant of that fact that I am doing what I am doing. Judging by the response, it seems a lot of people were also looking for the content.

I'm doing my best to get a 410 for review but I don't know if or when it will happen. In the meantime I am just glad they are actually getting the cars out there.

HI James, much as I love and enjoy your videos, I'm not sure I agree with your point. I think Lotus has done a really good job for the 410 in terms of video reviews. As a marketing leader you ideally want 3-4 strong and established trade journalists saying nice things about your product across the mediums. Its control of the message. In the case of this launch they achieved precisely that in both Europe and separately/importantly in the US. 

We love your material as we already own the product and it gives us insight into things we may not already know, ideas, events to go to and things to talk to the dealer about when you learn of issues. 

I'm guessing Lotus do not consider you a trade journalist?

[JayEmm]

@mawheele they give the cars to a few journos and let them get on with it, but they do very little themselves which is more my point. It doesn't help they retire their press fleet quite quickly, or so it seems.

I'm really not sure what Lotus think of me. Pest is probably an accurate term. 

The thing which I think Lotus miss is making the car appealing to people who can't buy them. Yes I know that's counter intuitive, but that's building the brand. How many Countachs did Lambo actually sell? Not many I reckon. But how many posters were up in bedrooms of the 1970s and 80s? A hell of a lot.

Curiously the US launch of the 400 seemed way more positive than in Europe. I did not expect that I must be honest. I don't know what it's actually translated to in terms of sales though

[The Pits]

Wow, giving your car to strong and established trade journalists is considered 'controlling the message' nowadays? No wonder car journalism is in decline! Giving your car to a journalist is meant to be a risk in exchange for the possibility of an honest and credible positive review. Car makers need to concentrate on controlling the product and leave the message to take care of itself!

Besides, I've only seen one video of the Evora 410 and while worth a repeat viewing there was very little detail on how it compares to the Evora 400 from a driving point of view. The whole review could easily have been about the Evora 400. I don't think we can catagorize Carfection as 'strong established trade journalists' either yet. Even if you do, you're dealing with the type of trade journalists that have considerably more presenting talent than driving talent. I learned more about the 410 from RJB's post above than I did in the 'professional' video. A real world experience from a real owner is worth more to me. Way too much controlling of the message is going on and the big car companies are ruining automotive journalism, it's become so hard to know who or what to believe anymore.

If there are other 410 videos out there I'd love to see them, please post some links. Like many others I'm starving for 410 content! I think in all honesty Lotus have gotten a very poor return from their professional journalists, along with the Exige Sport 380, they seemed to have hand-picked journos who couldn't be bothered to film anything!

[DaveC72]

Thanks for your thoughts @RJB.

Great to hear from someone who is putting miles on the car.

 

[nerobi]

 

[NW76]

Cool ... WHO did that?!?

[internets]

It's on the Group Lotus YouTube channel!  

[Kalli]

Well - I personally think that was a load of shit. 

Not being funny, but the idea is to sell cars, right? So...couldn't they have atleast given the car a slight polish before hand? Used a 200 quid gimballed camera for stabilisation? Waited a couple of minutes before recording the revving, so that it didn't blatently look like he was revving a cold engine? Also - bit of a random bloody journey. Lighthouse, Track, Motorway, City? 

[The Pits]

While I really want to encourage Lotus to produce way more content for their cars, I found it pretty painful to watch if I'm being honest too. It just seems so primitive to do the whole handsome, successful guy schtick. I don't want to be 'that guy', I have no interest in his lifestyle. But I am genuinely interested in the car. I want to see and hear the car in action. Again it had nothing to do with the 410 Sport. Some nice close ups and the car shots did look good on the whole but that's the easy bit. Where's the idea? What's the point? It could be for any Lotus, heck any car. More to the point nowadays, who's going to see this and share it among all his or her friends? Maybe someone about to buy one perhaps? But I can't see why anyone else would.

But it's always easier to criticise and throw virtual tomatoes from the safety of a keyboard.

Here's a very simple example of what I'd rather see for the same budget, or less, than this wishy washy lifestyle stuff. Lotus need to leave that to the big companies with more money than sense. I'd love to see a drone shot lap of the track against a ghost image of the Evora 400. Then I can physically see the 4 seconds (yes four seconds!) lap time improvement over the Evora 400 around the test track at Hethel. That is a staggering improvement from 10bhp and a story in itself that relates to the core Lotus (and Sport 410) principle of making a car go faster by reducing weight before you do anything else. 5th Gear used to do lap comparisons like this and it was always great. Imagine what you could do with this sort of approach now? You could still combine it with some of the more 'filmic' and arty shots, the car would (and should) still look premium and worth every penny of the asking price. There could still be a starter button ignition sequence and all that good stuff. But surely you'd be left with a greater admiration for the engineering talent of Lotus at the end of it?

 

 

[JayEmm]

I see Lotus have hired a film student to do their marketing now. Wonderful.

If I meet the man who shot that video, we're having words.

[nerobi]

38 minutes ago, The Pits said:

 

You mean something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6sxakg-nTk

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by nerobi

[Stubox]

The 410 video is truly appalling. The 350 one on track is fine , the rest in the bin.

However I do like the 410 in black

[The Pits]

Sorry, my video wasn't a great example, to be more precise go straight for the bit at the end (2.48 onwards) where the M3's lap is overlaid on the Integrale's lap as a 'ghost image'. You could see the 410 racing a 400 by overlaying the two cars on track at the same time. Or you could just race a 400 and a 410 around the Hethel track but that would look set up. Doing the ghost image overlay can show the actual performance difference growing with each corner.

[Bravo73]

7 hours ago, The Pits said:

Besides, I've only seen one video of the Evora 410 and while worth a repeat viewing there was very little detail on how it compares to the Evora 400 from a driving point of view.

<snip>

If there are other 410 videos out there I'd love to see them, please post some links. 

This is still, arguably, the best video for seeing what the 410 is like to drive. ISTR he also makes comparisons to the 400:

 

[mawheele]

I imagine he symbolises a 'Porsche owner'. Agreed, this is how a car company would have interpreted this person 10+ years ago.  Its not a 10 from Len on this one.

[JayEmm]

I'm also not sure of how much consequence it is online, but the Lotus advert breaks many many rules regarding what you're allowed to do in a car ad these days.

[Gm77]

I'm going to be controversial here but I thought the video was pretty good.

Does it not depend on who you are trying to attract? I am unfortunate enough to work in the city. For those in London who (believe they) like cars, they all drive Porsche's. The vast majority have never been near a track. So doing a video that compares the Sport 410 to the 400 (a car that none of them have even heard of) would be largely irrelevant in my opinion. The comparison would only be of interest to those who are already very familiar with the 400 and therefore a different audience. For those people I doubt looking at a video there are already quite familiar with is unlikely to increase any desire to find out more.

Most of the people I know want a car to look good, sound good, and be useable. The video hit all those points pretty well in my opinion.

Being honest, I didn't notice any wobbly cameras (this really isn't my area), but it made me think "that's a nice car, useable, and a really good day" so would potentially make me enquire further.

Im not in marketing, but I am a city accountant - which I think makes me the target audience. So for me, I thought it was a good effort.

(Just putting on the bullet proof vest now!)

[JayEmm]

Greg, the problem is they made the videos the wrong way round!

The 400's video has it mostly thrashing around a track, and the 410 has it being driven to a lighthouse at the weekend by a bloke in a suit.

What they're chucking out has zero to do with budget, or lack thereof, it is the product of people who don't appear to have experience in their field.

[blindside]

This video is absolutely clueless, like a throwback to the 1980s, although the car looks great in black and sounds fantastic as usual. They should have concentrated on producing some professional looking footage of the car performing on road and track. The promo video Lotus produced for the 400, with a yellow car lapping at Hethel plus some written blurb, including performance stats was way better than this.

Surely the 410 is a car that will only really appeal to serious petrolheads as a buying proposition. How on earth do they think that this video will satisfy that particular niche audience?

What is the point of the sharp suited city type guy in the video and the close-ups of mouth, shoes etc? Is this intended to represent a typical owner or potential customer? If so they have got it horribly wrong. Most city types (excluding your good self @Gm77) will not be swopping their creature comfort porkers, astons and jags for a 410.

The unstructured, random and amateur way in which Lotus do their marketing is bewildering. 

[JayEmm]

@blindside what it looks like to me is three or four completely separate ideas for an advert, but rather than going with any one of them they went with all of them. Result is a bit of a mess as a result.