Nearly All of them!

[Tuna]

I've just come back from the 60th Anniversary day at Hethel (give or take two hours sitting in a queue of Lotii).

The place was littered with Evoras - various test and development machines in quite interesting states, and of course the show car. Didn't see the Canyon Red one, which is currently my favourite colour though.

The crash test cars were quite spectacular. It looks like repairs are going to be much easier than the Elise.

[TomE]

With cars dotted about in different buildings, it was like some sort of Evora treasure hunt round Hethel today! Great to see so many of the prototypes and the preparations for production. Really great to have the exhibition staffed by so many of the team and I picked up quite a few snippets of info from chatting to people. I'll distill it down - and sort through my pile of photos - when I get home after tomorrow's track day, so will post some more things up during the week.

Colourwise, Solar Yellow might not now be my first choice, having seen the crash test cars and video: the colour is now lodged in my brain as "Crash Test Yellow"! At Richard Rackham's technical talk about the chassis, he showed an astonishing video of the US-required 50mph rear shunt test. This represents a standard size saloon car rear-ending the test car and the Evora survived so well that the engine didn't even touch the rear bulkhead and only the rear chassis module had to be replaced.

I found the Canyon Red prototype - it was in the emissions test cell

[Tuna]

With two young kids in tow, there wasn't really the time to get into deep discussions, but it was good to wander round and see the place looking good. Last time I went was for the 40th anniversary of the company moving to Hethel, back in 2000-ish and around the time of the M250. The difference was quite striking, and the amount of effort they've put into the Evora was clearly on display today.

Colour wise, I've decided that metallics are a must - the flanks are quite complex shapes and block colours hide the contours.

Tom, if you have any good pictures from the Evora story, and anything I can add to the Knol, please do drop me a message.

[paul_barrett59@hotmail.com]

Guys - This is great info - More!!

[pfoster@fiberbyte.com]

Thanks guys. It sounds like the event was a wonderful showcase for the Evora, and celebration of Lotus' heritage.

Any pics and info about development would be wonderful. It is so difficult being literally on the other side of the planet.

Pete

[Iain]

Hi Folks...

Well, I have to admit - my views have changed hugely...

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen it in the 'flesh' so to speak - and I'm converted - stunning car!

Photo's really don't do the car justice...

I have some pix of some of the development stuff which I'll try and post later...

Iain

[Guest EBORA]

Great day, I was like a kid in a sweet shop, thanks Lotus! I did see a local news crew so i would think that some footage of the event would be shown today between 6-7pm. I am able to tune into Anglian tv but sadly not able to record anything. I will try to post some pics later.

Edited September 15, 2008 by EBORA

[Fasteddie]

yes top stuff. I have learnt a few things I'd like to pass on, the most important (to my mind) is the colours. Lotus currently have three new colours for the Evora, yeap that's three not just Quartz which is the only one to make to the colour sheet. They have an Aqua (the Aqua car was the one in cam so hard to tell, I have a photo of the front of this and you can kinda tell from this as the flash picked it up) The other was discribed as Ferrari grey, known amongst the Lotus workers as Nimbus Grey but the Marketing chap Rob told me it will be called Carbon grey. I spent some time tracking this car down and believe I found it but it was too late in the day and too far away to get a great picture (it was in the brake area with the rear clam off exposing the engine etc.)

The other was mentioned in the Rackham talk and it's more of a question than a statement but can anybody tell what car actually has a chassis as stiff as an Evora - or has it set a new Benchmark. For all those not attending this talk, it's a stiff chassis.

Great tech talks, I missed the first one because of the lousy traffic - I found this fun to start with being the only Audi in amongst a flock of Loti but it did manage to get under my skin just before arriving - it was 2 hours and i was getting hungry. Funny how the hunger went away when I saw the Evora tech talks were on!!!

I have photos of all the Evoras, I'll try and post these asap.

[TomE]

I've not had a chance to sort my pics yet but I'm pretty sure I got the one with the rear clam off - will check if it's the Carbon Grey one. Quartz is the colour of the Motorshow car, and Aqua is the wallpaper on the Lotus website and also seen in some of the spyshots:

[Tuna]

Here's a link to my photos from Hethel. There's a couple of the crash test cars, the test mules and the engine and chassis, as well as the obligatory shots of the show car.

http://picasaweb.google.com/AtLockFarm/Evo...ey=CSOumKrhPY4#

[TomE]

I think it's worth any further info from the Hethel 60th weekend going over on this thread in General/Lotus/Evora rather than continuing here in Spotted, so am locking this thread.