Jarno Trulli develops his first Lotus race car

11th February 2010

[size=12pt]Jarno Trulli develops his first Lotus race car[/size]

F1 Racing driver Jarno Trulli assists in the development of
the Lotus Evora Cup race car during its first test session at
Snetterton.
The Lotus Evora Cup race car is the latest addition to the Lotus Motorsport
racing stable. Fresh from its debut at the Autosport International racing car
show in Birmingham the Evora Cup race car was given its first shake-down
test at a wintery Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, UK on the 10th and 11th of
February 2010.
Lotus Motorsport is conducting an extensive development program for the
Evora Cup race car, with Jarno Trulli and his Race Engineer, Gianluca
Pisanello bringing their vast racing, development and engineering
experience to fine tune the latest Lotus mid-engined race car.
Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello provided specific input into the
aerodynamic balance for slow, medium and fast corners, guidance on the
racing setup of the suspension geometry and direction on 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!"
Jarno continued, "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."
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.”
In the past a number of Lotus F1 drivers have successfully raced or assisted
in the development of Lotus Cars including F1 World Champions Jim Clark
and Nigel Mansell. Jim Clark was a great exponent of the three wheel drift in his
Lotus Cortina, campaigning the Lotus to win the British Touring Car
Championship in 1964. Whilst Nigel Mansell raced for Lotus he was involved
in the development of the prototype Active Suspension Lotus Esprit.
The Evora Cup race car is an evocative sports car that will offer a great
platform to race in high level motor sport. The GT4 race car will go on sale
starting at £120,000 excluding taxes for the sprint racing version, with the
endurance specification race car £150,000 excluding taxes.
The final design, aero’ package and techincal specifications will be presented at
the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010.
For more information please check out http://www.lotusevoracup.com