Luxury Evora pulls on its track suit

Lotus says only minor modifications were required to transform the luxury sports car into an endurance racer. Photo / Supplied

Well, if it's a Lotus you might as well race it.

You're a boutique carmaker and you've just introduced your most luxurious vehicle, so what's next?

If you're Lotus, strip it of all the good stuff and turn it into a racing car.

The Lotus Evora may be meant for the sporting luxury market, but it still has the breeding to make a good track car and the company is now proving it with the Type 124 Evora endurance racer.

According to Lotus, few major changes were necessary to create the endurance racer. It uses the standard Evora chassis and retains the suspension, apart from shock absorbers and anti-roll bars.

Brakes were changed to AP Racing six-piston calipers at both ends and the car rides on Pirelli racing tyres.

In order to make it FIA compliant, Lotus added a full roll cage, a fire extinguisher system and six-point restraint harness.

After stripping the interior and using some carbon-fibre body panels, the Type 124 weighs 200kg less than the stock car, at 1200kg.

The engine is still a Toyota-sourced 3.5-litre V6 but power is now more than 300kW.

A normal six-speed manual has replaced the standard six-speed sequential gearbox.

It is competing at various endurance races until 2011 in a factory-supported programme.