400bhp Lotus Evora 400 hits high speeds – Video

Regarded as being the most powerful Lotus ever (excluding the limited-run 438 bhp Lotus Evora GTE), the brand new Lotus Evora 400 is six seconds faster around the Hethel track than the Lotus Evora S, according to the tests conducted by Lotus.

Seen here is probably a pre-production car being put through its paces by Christian Gebhard from Sport Auto at the test rack owned by Lotus in Norfolk, UK. Christian managed to climb that speedometer all the way up to 161.5 mph and there was room for more as Lotus is quoting a 186 mph top speed.

It’s the first of many new Lotus models planned, including a Lotus Evora 400 Roadster which will share the same supercharged V6 3.5-liter engine rated at 400 bhp and 302 lb-ft. The engine can work with a six-speed manual gearbox as the car featured in this video, but Lotus is also offering an optional six-speed automatic.

The 0-62 mph takes takes 4.2 seconds and the high-performance lightweight coupe stops efficiently thanks to bigger brakes and if you go for the manual version you also get a limited-slip differential.

Lotus commenced production at the beginning of the month and will start shipping vehicles in August for the European market while customers from North America and China will have to wait until early 2016.