Jarno Trulli Develops Lotus Evora Cup

After launching its new Evora Cup at the Autosport International racing car show in Birmingham, Lotus decided to keep tuning the car. The development program is being conducted with the help of F1 racer Jarno Trulli and his Race Engineer, Gianluca Pisanello.

Jarno Trulli tested the Evora Cup at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, UK on the 10th and 11th of February 2010 and helped with setting up the aerodynamic balance for slow, medium and fast corners, the racing setup of the suspension geometry and direction, as well as the engine’s calibration.

After driving the Lotus Evora Cup for the first time, Jarno Trulli said, "I have enjoyed driving the road going Lotus Evora very much and I believe that the Evora Cup will be a very competitive race car package. It was very rewarding to be the first to drive the Evora Cup race car even though the snowy conditions at Snetterton were fairly challenging at times!"

"The car will continue to be developed with new updates coming soon, but even after the initial drive it is obvious that the car has huge potential. I look forward to working with Lotus Motorsport in developing the car further and I know that my years of motorsport experience will help make the Evora Cup race car even better," added Jarno.

Claudio Berro, Director of Motorsport at Group Lotus plc stated, “It is a privilege to work on the development of the Evora Cup race car with such an experienced driver and engineering team as Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello and I believe that this collaboration will produce a great race car for a range of motorsport applications. It is a very exciting time for Lotus and I am honoured to be leading the motorsport programmes at Lotus, starting with the Lotus Evora Cup racing car and race series."

Gianluca Pisanello, Race Engineer for Jarno Trulli said, “I am impressed with the whole Evora Cup race car package, which demonstrates that the road going Lotus Evora is such a competent sports car in the first place and an excellent basis to develop a competitive race car.”

Evora Cup is a GT4 race car that will cost 120,000 pounds excluding taxes for the sprint racing version, or 150,000 pounds excluding taxes for the endurance specification race. The final version of the car will be presented at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010.