The first new Lotus Evora 400 has driven off the British sportscar maker’s assembly line at Hethel in Norfolk.

The completion of the metallic black sports car, destined to be used for Lotus’ promotional purposes, was marked by a gathering of senior management and manufacturing and engineering staff.

The £72,000 Lotus Evora 400 will be in Lotus showrooms from August. Lotus said it combines high performance with the legendary Lotus benchmark handling, and is faster and dynamically more capable than the previous Lotus Evora.

The car has lapped the Lotus test track at Hethel six seconds faster than the previous Evora S in a time of 1 minute 32 seconds.

Maximum speed is 186 mph and 0-62mph acceleration is 4.2 seconds.

More than two thirds of the Lotus Evora 400 is new, including its supercharged and charge-cooled mid-mounted 3.5-litre V6 engine producing 400 horsepower and 410 Nm of torque. A new aluminium chassis incorporates a new interior and the lightweight composite body has changed significantly both front and rear.

Jean-Marc Gales, Group Lotus chief executive, said: “Today is a very significant stage in our long term plan, which we set-out more than a year ago. With the first Evora 400 coming off the line, we have achieved a key milestone for Lotus.”

Gales continues, “None of this would be possible, of course, without the confidence and commitment of our workforce who, with great skill and talent, hand build every Lotus car at Hethel.”

The new Evora 400, which was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March, will enter production for European markets in the summer and deliveries will commence in August this year.