In the 1970s the Lotus test drivers used to 'pop' from the factory to the south of France for the weekend to put the latest car through its paces.We decided to do the same, albeit with a little more 'pop'

Is everything that’s ever been filmed now available on YouTube? Apparently so.

- WORDS JASON BARLOW

Including a very much of its time behind the scenes documentary charting the development of the 1970s Lotus Elite and Eclat. Everything is browny beige and you can practically smell the cigarettes and political incorrectness. Chief engineer Tony Rudd is a laconic presence throughout, and resembles a potential third Ronnie (ask your parents). On a specific packaging issue, he notes that “one solution was to breed a special race of passengers, but we rejected that as taking too long”. Woke was a way off.

Rudd and fellow Lotus alumnus Mike Kimberley often thought nothing of taking a prototype on a long haul roadtrip. They'd leave the Hethel HQ, near Norwich, on Friday and head to the French Riviera or Rome, returning to their desks no later than Monday lunchtime. A real world sign-off, and the sort of automotive buccaneering that worked back when the gendarmerie had a more laissez faire attitude.

Which got us thinking. Why not channel some of that spirit for TopGear’s exclusive first road drive in the Lotus Evija? We've certainly waited long enough for the opportunity. The Evija broke cover in July 2019, so it rivals those other moonshot cars, the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG One, in terms of gestational challenge and hubris. It’s actually been in production for a while now, built to exacting standards in the same building in which the fabled Lotus Carlton came to life a generation ago.