911 GT3 Beater?

The latest, fastest Lotus costs £112k and has exotic prey in its sights. 

- James Taylor

DRIVING THE LOTUS Evora GT430 on a track is a bit, I imagine, like going for a jog with Mo Farah. No matter how fast you are, he’s faster. His limits are much higher than yours. And so it is with the GT430.

That’s because its DNA is more race than road: the GT430 takes its inspiration, and many components, from the Evora S campaigned in the British GT championship by Lotus chassis engineer Gavan Kershaw. As a result, it has the distinction of being the fastest Lotus road car ever, and the more dubious honour of being the most expensive.

It’s significantly faster than both the Evora 400 base model and the more hardcore Evora Sport 410, a car which had seemingly squeezed every last gram of weight and every last drop of potential from the Evora. But the GT430 (named after its power output) is faster still. In fact, if you bolt on a set of slicks it can lap Lotus’s test circuit faster than the race car it’s based on thanks to more power and torque, greater grip and less weight and drag.