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Lotus unveils new supercar — the Evora 400

7 March, 2015

Just over a month ago, Lotus Cars talked about the reveal of a new car at the 2015 Geneva International Motor Show. This new model was stated to remain true to Lotus’s core pillars of lightness, performance, and driving purity. First impressions are promising.

The Lotus Evora 400 is the car in question, and is said to be faster and lighter than the previous model, promising a more engaging drive than the already exciting Evora S.

The supercharged 3.5-litre Toyota 2GR-FZE V6 engine is carried over, but has been completely re-engineered, now producing 400hp and 302lb·ft. The 0–100kph sprint is achieved in a brisk 4.2 seconds, and given the room the Evora 400 will run to a top speed of 300kph. These performance gains have allowed the Evora 400 to lap Lotus’s Hethel test track six seconds faster than the previous-generation Evora.

Compared to the previous model, the Evora 400 also weighs in at 22kg less, thanks to clever design work. A new aluminium chassis and redesigned composite body aid in achieving a weight reduction, lower coefficient of drag, and also allows for a brand-new interior — no doubt welcome news for owners of the previous model Evora.

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.