Evante Cars

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evante Mk. 2 from 1993
Rear view

The evante Ltd. was a British car manufacturer based in Spalding, Lincolnshire between 1987 and 1991 . It emerged from the tuning company Vegantune , which had been repairing and improving Lotus Elan since 1983 . When the decision was made to build a completely new car, Evante Cars Ltd. was founded for this purpose. as an independent company.

description

The appearance of the roadster was clearly inspired by the Lotus Elan and the drive was a Vegantune VTA 1.6 , which was based on the Ford Kent engine . Later, a 1.7 liter inline four-cylinder engine with two overhead camshafts was used , which transmitted its power to the rear wheels via a transmission, which was originally used in the Ford Sierra . The engine output was around 103 kW. The body made of GRP and CFRP was mounted on a spaceframe chassis with independent wheel suspension. Disc brakes were used on the front and rear axles.

With a wheelbase of 214 cm, the vehicle was 372 cm long, 149 cm wide and 113 cm high. The curb weight was given as 720 kg.

Actually, the cars were supposed to be fully assembled and offered as a kit, but ultimately all of the cars were delivered fully assembled, about 1 piece / week. The bodies were well equipped with leather seats, walnut-veneered dashboards, and power windows.

End and resurrection

Production stopped in 1991 when the original company had to give up. The construction but was of the Fleur de Lys Automobile Manufacturing Ltd . which until then had specialized in the construction of retro-style delivery vans. They revised the car and equipped it with a Ford Zetec engine with 1.8 l displacement. However, only 9 more copies were made by 1994.

An attempt at resuscitation failed in 2001.

literature

  • David Burgess Wise: The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles. Greenwich Editions, London 2004, ISBN 0-86288-258-3 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Evante  - collection of images, videos and audio files