Lotus Evora 400 Hethel Edition celebrates 50 Years since Lotus decamped to RAF Hethel

The Lotus Evora 400 Hethel Edition has been revealed as a cosmetic makeover of the regular Evora 400 celebrating 50 years of Lotus Hethel.

Fifty years ago this year, Colin Chapman decided Lotus had outgrown its factory in Cheshunt, and what was needed was a lovely rural location in Norfolk, preferably with the start of a test track and a price tag that wouldn’t buy a shed in Cheshunt.

Those requirement were met by RAF Hethel, a former WWII RAF base, with enough land to build whatever Lotus needed to expand, a runway that could be used as the Lotus Test Track, and surrounded by the flatlands of Norfolk.

The move also gave Chapman the opportunity to buy up Ketteringham Hall for the Lotus F1 Team HQ, and re-build himself East Carleton Manor to play local squire.

Now, with 2016 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the move, we can expect Lotus to use the anniversary for PR, Events and Product, and this, the new Lotus Evora 400 Hethel Edition, is the first outing for the ‘Hethel at 50’ tag.

Lotus has made this Hethel Edition Evora 400 a cosmetic job only, so it gets the same performance as the regular model – 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds on its way to 186mph – but with titivations inside and out and a fixed colour palette.

So you can have your Hethel in Essex Blue, Motorsport Black or Racing Green, with an interior swathed in black or red leather or Alcantara (depending on colour choice), with forged aluminium alloys, a set of stripes and painted brake callipers. You can also have your Hethel with a manual or automatic gearbox.

The Lotus Evora 400 Hethel Edition is now available to order from £75,000, a premium of £2.5k over the regular Evora 400.