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Turns out the 2020 Lotus Evora GT is one of the best sounding cars on sale

Toyota has built plenty of engines that sound the business. We know the company has it in them, but what comes out isn’t always enthusiast-focused. Yet, hereÂ’s a fairly normal Toyota 3.5-liter V6, sitting in the middle of a Lotus. YouÂ’ll find it under the hood of a Toyota Camry, but here it is sitting under the engine cover of this 2020 Lotus Evora GT. Of course, Lotus hasnÂ’t dropped the engine in there without Lotus-fying it. This one has an Edelbrock supercharger with an integrated water-to-air charge cooler, plus a special calibration and tune from Lotus. In the Toyota, the base engine makes 301 horsepower. This Evora GT is putting out 416 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque. It also breathes through a set of pipes that the Brits would call ace. Check out the video at the top to get a taste of what we heard for a week straight. Our Evora GT was equipped with the standard exhaust. ThereÂ’s an optional titanium exhaust that drops 22 pounds from the curb weight, but Lotus says that it doesnÂ’t actually sound all that different. What does make a difference in the sound is changing the drive mode. ThereÂ’s a valve that opens in the exhaust when you select Sport mode or press the exhaust button. This drastically changes the sound heard from the cabin. In normal Drive mode, the exhaust is muted and just hanging out in the background. ItÂ’s shockingly quiet, but perfect for highway cruising because the drone goes away. Sport mode completely changes the tone and unlocks a sweet wail we didnÂ’t know the Toyota V6 had within it. ThereÂ’s no computer-enhanced or synthesized noises to be heard here. ItÂ’s all real. Taking it one step further in Race mode unlocks the tiniest bit more noise, Lotus says, but itÂ’s hardly noticeable in practice. We found the best experience was in Sport mode, since that reigns in traction control, retains stability control, and boosts throttle response by a bit. 2020 Lotus Evora GT View 6 Photos Under tunnels and overpasses — and this does feel weird to say, knowing the engineÂ’s origins — thereÂ’s a hint of Formula one car sound in there. WeÂ’re talking F1 from a few years ago, not the boring turbo engines of today. The way it shrieks and screams off walls, completely immersing you in the echoing sound, is intoxicating. Very few cars can match the Evora in sound quality, and thatÂ’s impressive considering some of the noisemakers car companies put out these days.

Lotus and Aston Martin to hook up?

This has been a tumultuous year for Lotus - to say the least - from the company being sold off back in January to its CEO Dany Bahar being fired in June to its questionable financial status and rumors of the British automaker being sold off to another automaker. First, we heard that Volkswagen was interested in acquiring Lotus and parent company Proton, a rumor that was later dismissed. Now Automobile is reporting that fellow Brit Aston Martin could be in the market to work with or possibly even merge with Lotus.
While this is pure speculation at this point, such a venture could prove to be beneficial for both independent companies. That's because with Lotus focused on lightweight, relatively affordable sports cars and Aston Martin producing high-end performance cars, there is virtually no product overlap between the companies. The article suggests that a person or company wanting to merge these two automakers would have to raise between $1.1 billion and $1.6 billion in order to make a go of it, however.
We're not sure what to think of this latest rumor, but anything that can help get the struggling brand back to health at least has our interest.

Race recap: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix full of odd sideshows

What greeted the Formula One teams in Singapore? Confusion. The haze was so thick that observers wondered if the race would be held at all. Then practices began, and Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg took the first one, but the team fell away after that. Mercedes said it couldn't get the tires turned on, but no one believed the Silver Arrows was in genuine trouble. Then qualifying set the confusion in stone. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel laid down the best time in Q3, taking the team's first pole position since Germany in 2012. Daniel Ricciardo got his Infiniti Red Bull Racing into second, about one tenth behind Vettel. (That may make the team feel better after Ricciardo publicly asked for a better engine than the current Renault unit, and team advisor Helmut Marko said the outfit will quit F1 at the end of this year if it can't get a stronger powerplant for 2016.) Kimi Raikkonen put the second Ferrari in third, Daniil Kvyat put the second Red Bull in fourth. And only then came the Meredes'. Lewis Hamilton's best got him fifth, the Brit saying, "We don't really know what we have got wrong. For some reason the tires are not working on the car. We do the warm-up the same as everyone else and then you see someone one second up the road." For added emphasis on the reversal of fortune, his time was 1.6 seconds behind Vettel's. Teammate Rosberg is next to him in sixth, a further half a second back. Williams is still a hurting a bit on slow tracks, so Valtteri Bottas could only get into seventh ahead of Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso and teammate Felipe Massa in ninth. When the red lights went out, the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix would get both less interesting and more interesting all the way to the final lap. The men up front got good getaways, and the order into Turn 1 was Vettel, Ricciardo, and Raikkonen. The race finished with those three in that order, never having conceded position. Vettel's Ferrari enjoyed the track so much that he laid a second per lap into Ricciardo for the first five, then relaxed. He'd let the gap come down later in the race a couple of times, but any time he wanted to see what his mirrors looked like without anyone in them he'd take off again. Rosberg took fourth position after holding down sixth for the first stint. It looked like he'd have an even worse day - for a Mercedes driver - when he had problems getting his car started and onto the grid before the race.