Evija

Make
Lotus
Segment
Coupe

Lotus currently sells only one model in the United States, the Evora, but it will soon offer a hybrid hypercar called the Lotus Evija. The UK automaker itself may not make a wide variety of models, but an Austrian company, Jubu Performance, just built one using Lotus' lightweight philosophy. It's called the JP Zero, a full-carbon GT2 class race car based on the Lotus Exige.

"We took the great chassis from the Exige and built an entirely new car around it. Almost everything - from suspension to steering wheel - was completely new, designed and produced at our factory in Austria. During the development process, we always kept the old principle of Colin Chapman in mind: simplify, then add lightness," explains Martin Jung, founder of Jubu Performance.

This particular version of the JP Zero uses a dry-sump lubricated 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 that revs up to 7,200 rpm. Jubu offers three versions of the car - ZEROrace, ZEROtrack, and ZEROstreet. The company says the race version can compete in the GT2 class while the street version will be a luxurious supercar with a bare carbon body. Drivers can set the horsepower of the car from 410 hp to 610 hp using a switch in the cockpit, while a road-going ZEROstreet variant can produce up to 740 hp.

A specially-designed seven-speed dual-clutch transmission offers the best of both worlds between an automatic and a sequential box. "This was one of our greatest achievements during the project. Our DCT is really easy to handle and can compete with any sequential gearbox on track - but if you want to relax, you can just switch from manual in automatic mode and chill," says Jung. The gearbox can withstand over 100 hours on track without any major maintenance or a rebuild.

The overall car in ZEROrace guise weighs just 960 kg (2,120 pounds) dry, meaning it is astonishingly fast and nimble. Deliveries for the ZEROrace and ZEROtrack begin in spring 2021, while the ZEROstreet does not arrive until spring 2022.

Pricing starts at 249,000 euros (around $292,000) for the ZEROtrack and can reach up to 650,000 euros (around $762,000) for the Zerostreet model.

Jubu will only build 20 examples of each model, resulting in 60 cars in total.