Lotus Evora Type 124 Race Car Announced

REVEALED EARLIER THIS year, the Lotus Evora is now in production, the first car being delivered to its new owner last week. Now, Lotus has announced a highly-tuned track-ready version of its new hero car.

Dubbed the Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racecar, the newest addition to the Evora line-up is strictly for track use only.

Built to FIA GT standards, the Evora Type 124 will make its debut at next May's Nurburgring 24 Hour, and to help it through the event, Lotus has found some 200kg of parts to drop or replace.

Achieving a new weight of just 1180kg, Lotus has wrapped the Evora's aluminium chassis in lightweight composite and carbon fibre panels, adding front and rear splitters, and a rear wing.

The Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racecar has a race-tuned version of the mid-mounted Toyota V6 engine, with power increased to over 290kW, depending on race regulations.

Inside, the Type 124 features a stripped interior with a full roll cage, as is expected for a dedicated track car.

A Bosch ABS system handles the braking, and AP Racing calipers sit behind wider 18-inch lightweight wheels.

Luke Bennett, Director of Lotus Cars Limited, said, "Motorsport has been in our blood ever since our founder, Colin Chapman, built the first Lotus back in 1948.

We are proud of our motorsport history, which includes victories in Formula One, Le Mans, saloon car, rally car and sportscar racing around the world; more recently, we won the British GT3 Championship in 2006 with the Lotus Exige.

The Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racecar is from the same unique stable and we expect it to be a competitive racecar when we enter various endurance races next year."

Lotus plans to support a factory endurance team in the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and will likely offer the Type 124 for sale to privateers.

The races that Lotus has so far targeted for its factory-supported Type 124 are: The 2010 ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hours (Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany) in May 2010, Merdeka Millennium 12 Hours (Sepang, Malaysia) in August 2010, BritCar 24 Hours (Silverstone, UK) in October 2010 and the Dubai 24 Hours (Dubai Autodrome, UAE) January 2011.