A New Lotus Position

3:00pm Tuesday 19th February 2008

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When some drivers reach a "certain" age, the need for seat-of-the-pants thrills can become a little tempered by the needs of, er, your seat.

It's nice to have a serious bit of fun on the road but later you'll want to calm down and relax with a few more creature comforts and go into a relatively "normal" mode.

There's little to equal the high you get from any Lotus but adrenaline junkies will be focusing on the more raw thrills of the company's much-lauded Elise and Exige.

This is where the Lotus Europa, which is a coupe, comes in.

If you want to drive to work year-round, you won't want to be faffing about with hoods and draughts and leaks on wet winter mornings.

Lotus decided that there were people of a certain age/lifestyle/breeding who shouldn't have to make too many sacrifices in comfort for the sake of a little outrageous fun in a pedigree sports car.

With a fixed head and luxuries like leather seats, electric windows and carpet, it's a bit more refined for your dentist or vet to commute in. But only a bit.

The turbo-charged Europa is a super-looking machine and bears enormous road presence for a small car.

And, of course, it goes like a rocket.

The car I borrowed from Peninsula Lotus, near Honiton, had a performance upgrade kit which bumps the power from 197bhp to around 230bhp with special spark plugs and more powerful brakes. The 0-60mph time is reduced to 4.9 seconds and top speed rises to 147mph.

Lotus says this upgrade is designed for track, not road use. Yeah, right - I can't see many drivers lightening their right foot because of that Those who have driven the Elise will find the Europa familiar, because it's basically the same car.

It's been given the GT treatment and it certainly has a more refined and luxury feel about it than the other models. But that's not saying a lot.

Everything is relative and this is still near enough an all-out sports car, meaning it has very firm suspension settings, hard seats and, although there's more insulation, it's noisy.

It also has heavy and direct steering and you'll want both hands on the wheel most of the time - and it's a fabulous drive.

Needless to say, the Europa goes round bends like it's on rails, accelerates like Concorde on take-off and brakes like you're hitting a wall.

Which makes it difficult to pigeonhole. Lotus has nudged it toward being a Grand Tourer and it's great fun for a shortish daily commute to the office. But you wouldn't want to cross a country in it.

And there's precious little space for your luggage. And it's not cheap, at around £34,000.

But I thoroughly enjoyed my week with the little chap and I would defy any keen drivers not to.

Of course, you need to be a bit of a lithe yoga practitioner to contort your way into the cabin - but most people of a certain age are, aren't we?