USA - The storming Lotus Evora 400 takes silver at the renown Road and Track group test.

• Best European sports car bar none
• 2nd overall in renowned Road & Track group test
• Almost half the price of outright winner

Beating the best rival performance cars that Europe can muster, the acclaimed Lotus Evora 400 has seized second in Road & Track's celebrated Performance Car of the Year for 2017.

Shunning indirect and stilted systems, the Lotus Evora 400 utilises intelligent engineering to deliver a pure and intuitive driving experience. Lighter, faster and drastically more dynamic than its predecessor, the Evora 400 bested the rest of the Europeans to impress the Road & Track judges and force the final decision to the line - just missing out on first place.

Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc, commented: “Lotus will never sacrifice its philosophy. Keeping weight to a minimum, and giving the driver an unrivalled degree of control, has always been paramount to our success. The Evora 400 can rightly be described as one of the greatest Lotus cars ever built – supremely fast with amazing agility. The Road & Track result shows the appetite for our cars in North America, the world’s biggest sports car market.”

Reserved for the best of the best, the annual Road & Track fixture sees only the finest cars compete. Be it measured by outright speed, acceleration or handling: each year the specially selected finalists have been genuine driving giants.

Lotus Cars returned in the North American sports car market earlier this year, with the Evora 400, to critical acclaim. Demonstrating a very real desire for the lightweight and powerful cars which Lotus is world famous for, the Evora 400 was hailed by press and media as a landmark model.

Identified ahead of the Performance Car of the Year group test as the “underdog sleeper pick,” the Evora 400 went on to claim significant scalps, including the Audi R8 V10 Plus, BMW M4 GTS, Jaguar F-Type SVR coupe, McLaren 570S and Porsche 911 Turbo S. Ultimately, it was only beaten by the Acura NSX, as tested a car costing $202,960 - almost twice as much as the tested $103,585 Lotus.

Assessed on the roads of Tennessee and Kentucky, and then two days on track at the NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Road & Track put all cars through their paces, declaring: “The Lotus is a thrill at any speed. The steering is untouchable in this company; the pedals are weighted to perfection. Feedback is absolute and millimeter-precise.” When it came time to decide the result, it became clear just how well the car performed, with Road & Track stating: "Fully deserving of the ACBC badge on its nose, this brave and charming two-plus-two is perhaps the finest over-the-road enthusiast vehicle available for sale at any price.”

With a heritage of intelligent engineering that spans seven decades, no other car manufacturer can claim a better track record when it comes to honing road and race cars. In its 68th year, Lotus still remains true to the ethos of the company’s founder Colin Chapman, and his approach to design construction and ‘added lightness’.