It has been a few weeks now, that the Lotus Evora 410 Sport joined the Delightful Driving fleet.
First visit to the Stelvio:
On her first trip she visited Bolzano and accompanied @iamlotuselise on a tour to the Stelvio – the long way around. We started after breakfast and went via Passo della Mendola and Passo del Tonale into Lombardia for the first time after the end of the lockdown. Mendola and Tonale were nice, only some roadworks on the way to Tonale were a bit annoying. The next pass of the day was Passo di Gavia. A premiere not only for the Evora but also for myself. The Gavia presented itself still very snowy and, since it was Saturday, with insane amounts of traffic. Cyclists, motorbikes and car streaming up and down the very narrow and challenging street. Many of the oncoming drivers not used to having to get out of the way to let the traffic inch past very, very slowly, bravely ignoring the edge of the street and the steep drops only centimeters away.
We finally arrived on the pass endless queues of parked cars and very limited space, because of the masses of snow on the side of the street didn’t allow us to stop. So we headed on to Santa Caterina in Valfurva for coffee, Coca Cola and some sandwiches. Luckily this time some of the bars and restaurants were open, as opposed to our first after-lockdown-tour.
Next was Stelvio, where we had the opportunity to do both sides: Climb from Bormio and descent via the 48 hairpins towards Prad.
Thunder - the calm before the storm:
Then the Evora went to take a longer nap until the end of July. This time we went north to visit the Nürburgring. Since I haven’t been to the Ring regularly lately, I felt a bit rusty and took it easy. Especially with the car still being new to me. I have done the vast majority of my Ring laps with my trusty Elise “Old number one” and the Evora “Thunder” is quite a different animal. Certainly the steering and the way she behaves on the road are pure Lotus moments of driving pleasure. However, her limits are set much higher and the power to weight ratio is insane compared to the Elise.
Introduction to the Nürburgring:
This experience of driving through the gate at Döttinger Höhe then accelerate through the dip at Tiergarten to quickly head on to my favorite section at Hatzenbach was nice and exciting. Like coming home – with much more power and potential this time. Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Aremberg and Fuchsröhre went by in good style and composition and no photographer was given the chance to depict me pulling an oopsie at Adenauer Forst.
Metzgesfeld, Kallenhard and Wehrseifen followed, giving faster cars a chance to pass before Breidscheid. Then the long uphill section began, a torture for the Elise with virtually minutes of full throttle. Not so in the Evora, especially not with me behind the wheel. Ex- Mühle, Lauda Links, Bergwerk, Kesselchen, Mutkurve and Steilstreckenkurve followed on the way to the Karussell. I decided to go around the outside with the 410 Sport model’s reduced ground clearance and the expensive carbon fiber front splitter on my mind.
Next up were Hohe Acht, Hedwigshöhe, Wippermann, Eschbach and Brünnchen. From Wippermann we needed to go even slower, because of yellow flags being waved and car parts scattered on the road. Then we went on to the great finale of Pflanzgarten, jump, more Pflanzgarten, jump again (not really, but with very low G’s after the respective crests) Schwalbenschwanz and Galgenkopf and then bimble down Döttinger Höhe to take a break? Nooooo! Rush to the barrier, do it all over again 🙂
