Lotus Evora

It’s good to know that the British can still be the best at something. At July's Farnborough Airshow, I had the pleasure of seeing the Red Arrows in action for the first time. Sure, I’d watched them on the telly doing flyovers for the royal-something celebration, but to see them in the goose-pimpled flesh is a whole different experience. Nothing embodies the simultaneous brilliance and lunacy of the British more than one of the Red Arrows’ displays.

Except, perhaps, the Lotus Evora. Many cars claim to drive like airplanes – yet take a Saab for a spin and you’ll realise that it’s marketing nonsense. But the Evora, on the other hand, gets remarkably close. When it comes to dynamics, precision and – depending on your nerves – G-force, there isn’t much on the road that can match it. In fact, it’s one of the few production cars that boasts a cornering grip in excess of 1G – and this without any electronic trickery, just masterful mechanical engineering. Lotus claims the Evora’s chassis is more than twice as stiff as that of the Elise – only when you start throwing the Lotus into corners with reckless abandon do you realise that they’re not kidding.

The Evora is Lotus’s first all-new car for 13 years, and it certainly hasn’t forgotten how to make them. It won the ‘Driver’s Car of the Year’ voted for by Evo magazine’s staff. These aren’t diminutive ex-hospital radio DJs with girlie hair and love beads either – but proper motoring journalists who gargle with Castrol GTX and dunk crankshafts in their morning brew.

Of course, the Elise has always been a renowned driver’s car too but it’s not what you could ever call refined. A solitary cup holder is the height of decadence, and when it comes to practicality, a hernia is easier to live with.

But the Evora is relatively sensible: satnav, air con, heck, there are even carpets. There are also some nice retro-style touches inside too. The dashboard, with its slanted red digital read-outs, has a touch of Kitt from Knight Rider about it.

At first, even the engine seems subdued. At idle, it’s as timid as a Toyota – which isn’t surprising, as that’s where the engine comes from. The 2GR-FE 3.5-litre V6 may seem a relatively pedestrian choice, but after Lotus has finished with it, you get 276hp on tap. Reach 4,000rpm, and it all makes sense. The variable inlet manifold and valve timing cast a spell, and Dr Jekyll becomes Mr Hyde. Press the ‘Sport’ button and you’ll be cackling along like a madman – all the way to an astounding 8,500rpm. It’s at this point that you’ll appreciate the Formula One-style rev counter: red lights start to illuminate, ranging from one for ‘you should think about changing up about now’ to three for ‘careful now, Jenson’.

OK, it’s not perfect. Rear-view vision is terrible, for example – but rest assured that no one can keep up with you. Lotus chucks in a reverse camera to help with tricky City parking too.

It’s far too much fun to keep on a London leash though. If you’re looking for a place to take it for a romantic weekend – just you and the open road… oh, and the missus, I s’pose – then try the Four Seasons Hampshire. It’s always a treat to visit a Four Seasons – and a rare one on home soil. As we pulled up the long drive, woodland deer casually strode by and rabbits hopped along beside us. It was like driving into a Walt Disney movie, less the annoying dwarfs. I half expected a lark to land on my arm and sing me a ditty. The hotel’s grounds – acres of rolling countryside and heritage-listed gardens – only help retain this Utopian illusion.

Inside, you get all the charm of an old-world stately home hotel but without the cobwebs, worn carpets or dubious plumbing. OK – it’s not quite as ‘authentic’, but at least it doesn’t smell of mothballs. And it does have real history: Henry VII and Catherine of Aragon met here. So it’s romantic too… sort of. (Happy ever after: not guaranteed.)

The rooms, with large silk curtains, marble bathrooms and elegant wooden furniture, have all the traditional elegance you’d expect. Yet the hotel is anything but stuck in the past. The glass-walled walkways into the other wings are the first sign of the hotel’s more contemporary style. The spa is a haven of modern tranquillity – and the bar could be in a Manhattan skyscraper (if it wasn’t for the rolling English hills out the windows).

So what you get with the Four Seasons is classic British class married with modern service and style. Not unlike the Lotus, then. The Evora still has the charm that one expects from a British sports car but with the technical capabilities and modern engineering to make it one of the world’s best. grouplotus.com; fourseasons.com" href="http://www.fourseasons.co" target="_blank">fourseasons.com; farnborough.com