Lotus F1 star driver Jarno Trulli spent 2 days at a snow battered and freezing Snetterton race circuit in Norfolk to assist Lotus with development of their current and future batch of race cars.
Jarno continued, “The car will continue to be developed with new updates coming soon, but even after the initial drive it is obvious that the car has huge potential. I look forward to working with Lotus Motorsport in developing the car further and I know that my years of motorsport experience will help make the Evora Cup race car even better.”
Claudio Berro, Director of Motorsport at Group Lotus plc stated, “It is a privilege to work on the development of the Evora Cup race car with such an experienced driver and engineering team as Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello and I believe that this collaboration will produce a great race car for a range of motorsport applications. It is a very exciting time for Lotus and I am honoured to be leading the motorsport programmes at Lotus, starting with the Lotus Evora Cup racing car and race series.
Gianluca Pisanello, Race Engineer for Jarno Trulli said, “I am impressed with the whole Evora Cup race car package, which demonstrates that the road going Lotus Evora is such a competent sports car in the first place and an excellent basis to develop a competitive race car.”
In the past a number of Lotus F1 drivers have successfully raced or assisted in the development of Lotus Cars including F1 World Champions Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell. Jim Clark was a great exponent of the three wheel drift in his Lotus Cortina, campaigning the Lotus to win the British Touring Car Championship in 1964. Whilst Nigel Mansell raced for Lotus he was involved in the development of the prototype Active Suspension Lotus Esprit.
Also available to Trulli on the day was a striking Lotus 2-Eleven in full GT4 spec with sequential box and full aero and carbon package plus a Lotus liveried Caparo T1, a 650bhp V8 powered road going race car with a 0-60mph of 2.5 seconds and top speed of 205mph.
Ex Lotus F1 driver Martin Donnelly was also in attendance and Group Lotus’s ride and handling guru Gavan Kershaw spent much time with Trulli and his race engineer Pisanello discussing potential changes and improvement to the cars. Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman was in attendance with Classic Team Lotus bringing Fittipaldi and Senna’s F1 cars, the type 72 even getting out for a few noisy laps!
More information can be found on the official website www.lotusevoracup.com
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