While Lotus’ ultralight go-kart rides have always turned average Joes into racetrack gods, their less-than-comfy interiors also ensured you’d be traveling lady-less. That’ll change later this year when Lotus unleashes the Evora, a supersexy midengine V-6 2+2. It’ll retain the brand’s road-hugging genius, but add posh interior touches favored by the fairer sex (and, uh, us too) as well as actual space to move around in, favored by our rapidly expanding buttocks.

SPEC CHECK
2010 Lotus Evora
Price:     $70,000+ 
Engine:     3.5-liter V-6
Torque:    252 lb.-ft.
Horsepower:     276
0–60 mph:     Under 5.0 sec.
Top speed:     160 (est.)
Available:     Late 2009

The Bones
Scotch-perspiring gearheads love to recite Lotus’ old engineering mantra: Add lightness. Here featherweight bonded aluminum extrusions—picture metal Play-Doh squirted into shapes—form the car’s backbone. The entire chassis weighs just 440 pounds, less than the typical American couple driving to Vegas. Plus or minus a few bags of pork rinds.

The Power Plant
Got a RAV4 or a Camry? Believe it or not, chances are the engine that powers your mommy-mobile is the same Toyota 3.5-liter V-6 that revs up this demon. Lotus drops the Toyota mill smack in the center of the Evora, right where a sports car likes it. Then it radically revamps the Tokyo six’s electronic controls for right-now throttle response and a healthy 276 horsepower.

 The Speed
The limeys over at Lotus insist that great sports cars aren’t about winning drag races—which is convenient when your cars don’t win any. Yet the Evora should scamper to 60 mph in a respectable five seconds. And, true to its heritage, it’ll make up for any straight-line deficits with deft, otherworldly handling and track-tastic brakes, steering, and suspension.

The Weight
The Evora flutters into dealerships this summer at 2,976 pounds, about 10 percent lighter than its mainstream rival, the Porsche 911. Its two tiny seats in back are fine for terrifying your toddlers—but forget about fitting your thick-necked bar-security buds in back. Those who prefer Prada man-bags to actual friends can spec a pure two-seater with a rear parcel shelf.

The Design
Fluid and Anglo-exotic, with more scoops than Baskin-Robbins, the Evora looks spot-on Lotus from 100 yards out. And as your eye gets lost in the cool details—the floating wing, the teardrop cabin shape—the Evora magically distracts you from its 2+2 four-passenger practicality. Lotus designers talk up its gentle waist and muscular haunches. Kind of creepy, guys.

The Interior
Unlike older Lotuses, the Evora doesn’t require you to be a yoga freak to fit into it. Inside you’ll think you made a wrong turn into a Maserati. The Evora ups the ante with a full-on bovine interior, a nav system, and a noise-canceling Alpine sound system—in case you get tired of hearing your tire-burning maneuvers echo off the foreclosed houses in your cul-de-sac.