Satisfaction this week for Lotus Sporting Director Claudio Berro (who also works on the LM P2 programme) as the future rival to the Porsche 997, Ferrari 458 and BMW M3, the Lotus Evora GTE passes an important milestone.

After months of preparation, the new Lotus GT took the track on Thursday 7th April on the manufacturer's private circuit . British driver James Rossiter said he was impressed by the behavior of the car with which covered 700 km with no problems. "With larger tyres and a completely revised suspension, the Evora GTE is ten seconds a lap quicker than the GT4 version," said Claudio Berro. The development program continues this week at Snetterton where Johnny Mowlem will take the wheel of the car.

Jetalliance Racing, will run two examples of the Evora GTE that will be present at the Test Day for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 24th April, then the remaining six races of ILMC (picture here).

In parallel, Lotus continues the development of an LM P2 that will make its racing debut next year (picture here). "We are at a crucial moment in the project," said Claudio Berro. "This next week we decide to fit the prototype with either the Evora V6 or the V8 of the future Esprit. The latter is not yet commercially available, only a permission from the Automobile Club de l'Ouest could allow us to extract the engine for use in LM P2. "

If the V8 is chosen, the program could be put back a few weeks, and the car would not test in the autumn as originally planned. "Our goal is to present the model at the Frankfurt show in September," says Berro.

Julien Hergault

Photo: Hethel (GBR), September 21, 2010. In post since 28th October, 2009, Claudio Berro represents the revival of Lotus in competition.