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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 will let Evija buyers configure their 2,000-hp electric car on their couch

The men and women who reserved a Lotus Evija will have the opportunity to configure their 2,000-horsepower electric car without getting off their couch. Several aspects of the coupe are customizable, so the company created a digital, touchscreen-based configurator to let clients design their car without leaving their home. Online configurators have been around for over a decade, but Lotus explained its software is more advanced and life-like than what's normally found on a manufacturer's website. It relies on a powerful graphics processor and software gleaned from the gaming world to display extremely realistic images of the car that almost look like they're photographs. Enthusiasts can see the Evija from every angle, inside and out, and they can pelt it into different worlds to check how a specific color looks in the shade or in direct sunlight. The configurator's last party trick is what the firm calls a 360-degree fly-through film which looks like it was shot with a drone. Lotus Evija configurator View 10 Photos When they're done, customers can hit save to send their configuration to Lotus headquarters in Hethel, England. They won't take delivery immediately, the Evija is a limited-edition car built largely by hand, so the company will whet their appetite by periodically sending them gifts. It hasn't revealed what it will ship clients, though it's not too far-fetched to imagine a scale model will be in one of the care packages. Each customer will also receive a personalized build book showing the car at different stages during the production process. Lotus will make 130 examples of the Evija, and it's planning to launch production before the end of 2020. The first year's allocation is already spoken for, according to the firm, so act fast if you want to add one to your collection. Alternatively, Lotus told Autoblog the Evija is a trailblazer that will influence future models, notably in terms of design and technology, so you're in luck if you like what you see but want it at a cheaper price point. Those of us who aren't waiting for a ticket into the Evija club will need to wait for their chance to spec one. "At the moment, [the configurator] is only for customers," a company spokesperson told Autoblog via email. Related Video:

Lotus Evija whirs onto Quail lawn to tempt 130 prospective customers

At last, we've met the Lotus Evija in its compact, electric-charged glory. The carbon-fiber-bodied electric supercar looks like liquid metal poured over some skeletal biologic form. The coupe represents the first all-new Lotus since the ten-year-old Evora went on sale, the first Lotus developed wholly under Geely ownership, the first in-house all-electric vehicle from Hethel, the first Lotus with a one-piece carbon fiber monocoque tub, and the first one Hethel HQ will send to the Nurburgring to break a lap record. Lotus announced that lap record tilt saying it should be "comfortably quicker" than the all-electric NIO EP9 road-legal EV that ran a 6:45. That has since been broken by the 6:05 figure Volkswagen achieved with its ID.R, a purpose-built electric race car. The 'Ring doesn't yet divide EV times into classes, so we'd still like to see Lotus go for outright honors. That is indeed unfair, but the Evija has the numbers to at least make a go of it. The four electric motors in the ID.R produce a combined 680 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque to move a car weighing 2,500 pounds. The Evija's 50 percent heavier at 3,700 pounds, but has almost triple the horses and more than double the torque, its two motors making a combined 2,000 horsepower and 1,254 pound-feet of torque. It does have active aerodynamics, including a moving rear wing, but it's still short a bunch of race aero, a giant front splitter, and a DRS button. No matter how the German caper turns out, we expect Lotus will be able to find homes for all the Evijas it offers for sale. Only 130 will be made, each one starting at around $2.1 million.