The £80,000 Question: A New Lotus, or an old Ferrari?

Hi Everyone,

So for those who weren’t aware three weeks ago I picked up the only new car I have ever owned, and by far the most expensive - a Lotus Evora 400. I’m still very much in the Honeymoon period and thoroughly enjoying my adventures with the car.

As petrolheads, we often look at a range of cars that might not seem obvious rivals. There’s always someone out there saying “Do I buy a new M3, or an Alfa Romeo 4C?”. Sometimes our requirements can’t be put into a simple box like “four seats, 40mpg, diesel”. Sometimes we just have a price point and go out looking.

In my case, once I decided on an Evora 400 I was looking at what else could be had for that money. I had started looking a few years ago at Ferrari 360s, I was never a huge fan of the model but I wanted to buy “my first Ferrari” and they seemed an excellent entry point. Old enough to be cheap, modern enough to be relatively cheap to run (for a Ferrari) and have decent performance. At the time it didn’t happen for me.

When I was fairly certain the Evora was going to happen, I looked at a few other options at a similar price point. The Jaguar XKR-S, BMW M4, Audi R8 and others were considered, some driven. But nothing quite did it for me like the Lotus. I did however happen upon a gorgeous Fly Yellow F355 in the classifieds. It looked stunning. Most people agree the 355 is one of the finest creations to come out of Maranello in many years - with a certain Mr. J Clarkson calling it the “best car, in the world………… EVER”. High praise indeed.

Having bought my Evora, by a fantastic coincidence I had the chance to get half a day with a 355. I have driven this particular car before and it doesn’t make an appearance very often. It had just been serviced, but it’s owner was unexpectedly away on business and the garage servicing it needed the space. So I got the call, was asked if I minded driving it to the owner’s home. Of course, I had to think long and hard for several seconds before instantly agreeing. I then asked if the owner would mind me using it for a quick video… “no problem, he said”.

The Italian Stallion

Getting in any Ferrari always feels special. I’ve got in a fair few, including an Enzo. Somehow this car, despite being 21 years young this year still smells as fresh as the day it rolled out of the factory. I was also told by the servicing technician that it “drives just like new” and “is one of the best out there”. So, no excuses for the car on grounds of age then.

The interior in this car feels bizarre for the first few minutes. Achieving a comfortable position seems impossible. For me, I feel like my legs are stretching to much, but my arms are still too close to the wheel. With a coat on, it’s hard to get the seat belt around me too. The fly-off handbrake is novel, although nerve-wracking the first couple of miles before you adjust to it.

The Ferrari starts after the typical Italian “make ‘em wait” of about two seconds. The idle is very busy, but also quite quiet. Unlike most modern efforts there is no theatrics from the exhaust on start up. Just a deep, fairly bassy thrum. This car is equipped with the legendary Ferrari gated shifter. In truth, it’s not actually a brilliant gearbox. Once warm it works well enough, but the throw is long and when it’s cold, don’t even try second. It’ll just get mad. The pedals are all reassuringly firm. The throttle has a lot of resistance to it, making some input trickier than it should be.

On the move though, this car is a pussycat. Very easy to drive, brilliant visibility and decent feedback through the enormous, but thin-rimmed steering wheel. Having a wheel this bare is quite novel now, particularly when you see what Ferrari’s current helms look like.

To make progress, you really need to get it above 4,000rpm at which point it really sings. This is the GTS model, and it not being mine I am not going to test the limits of the handling but even at brisk pace you can still feel the lack of rigidity in the chassis. Still, the car is superbly enjoyable. With the roof on and taking it easy, I think you could get very annoyed with this car very quickly. Roof down, sun out, all the revs to enjoy and you would very easily come to the same conclusion as Mr. Clarkson did all those years ago.

A foregone conclusion?

It might seem like this is a totally unfair comparison, and that all these cars share in common is a vague price tag and a vibrant hue. In fact, if you look at the numbers closely they are not that far apart on paper.

The Ferrari has 375bhp, the Evora 400. Again it’s slightly down on torque with 270 lb-ft versus 302.5. Weight is a similar story, the Ferrari being 1380kg and the Evora 400 1395. Top speed of the Evora 400 is 186, the 355 made 183. The 355 even has adjustable dampers where the Lotus makes do with a passive setup.

When the 355 was new, it cost less than £100,000. This particular example set its first owner back around £95,000 I am told. So it’s not a million miles away from the Evora 400’s asking price of £80,000 (all optioned up). Nowadays Ferraris are considerably more expensive - even taking inflation into account. Most 458s were well over £200,000 once optioned, with the 488 even more. It’s not unheard of to see them pushing the £250,000 mark. In the 355’s day, that would have got you a 355 AND a 550.

Diving deeper into the numbers, you see some key differences though. The Lotus’ peak torque is from 3,500-6,500rpm. The Ferrari’s isn’t until 6000rpm. The Ferrari’s weight is also dry, the Lotus wet. I reckon there’s probably 90kg between them. The Lotus even has two small back seats.

It’s in the driver’s seat that the biggest differences are felt. Despite a modest power/weight/torque advantage, the Lotus feels massively quicker. It’s also hugely faster round corners. That might just be the fact I own this one. Or the fact it has stability and traction control. And new Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Or the fact the Chassis is massively stiffer. Who knows. There are some similarities though. Both cars are very light on their feet, but have great traction. The weight distribution of them is identical (61% rearward). They also both have double wishbone suspension front and rear.

The Lotus is actually louder too, the exhaust in the 400 is epic. It isn’t all wins though, the Lotus is very hard to see of out of the rear, it’s quite dark inside and it doesn’t have anywhere near as many gauges as I like. Most controversially, I think the gearbox in the Lotus is better too. It doesn’t sound as nice, but it does its job far better.

When you start looking at the practical side, things really hit home. The Lotus costs hundreds a year in servicing, the Ferrari thousands. And the Lotus comes with a warranty. The Ferrari? You’ll need Jesus.

Conclusion

So, a day with the Ferrari that I could have had. Well, not this one. It has 16,000 miles on the clock. I don’t know what it’s worth but I bet it’s over £150,000 now to the right person. I could have had one with about 60,000 miles on the clock, perhaps needing TLC, maybe with the steering wheel on the wrong side…. but anyway.

If you could afford a classic Ferrari, should you buy one? No.

The Lotus sounds great, goes better, handles better, gives you all of the drama but none of the earth-shattering running costs. To the guys who have 355s and the like, and use them - I salute you. To the man who loaned me this one for the day - thankyou so much. For the rest of us, go out there and try a Lotus Evora 400. It might be glued together in Norwich, but when it comes to what matters, this car has all the ingredients of a proper old-school supercar. The boys at Hethel are really onto a winner here.

Thanks for reading, there’ll be more where this came from. Let me know, if you could - what would you choose, or what would you throw in the mix?

JayEmm