This year’s Grand Prix season has been pretty exciting so far –with the possible exception of last weekend’s Monaco snoozefest.

By far the most exciting race for me was the Shanghai GP. Not just because it was on my doorstep, but because we had paddock passes. I enjoyed the race and Force India’s hospitality thanks to some rather fortuitous and generous connections. Now I’m ruined for life. I watched the whole thing on a TV at the back of the garage.  In the absence of any commentary I quite honestly had no idea what was going on but I did get to watch the pit-stops from a few metres away. Oh yes.

You could blink and miss this - but this is a pit stop....

One thing that really surprised me is how calm everything was before and during the race. Beforehand, all the race engineers are calmly running through what I assume are pre-race procedures. No tension, just calm.  I’m quite sure I’d be emptying my adrenaline soaked stomach before a race but instead the drivers are hanging out, talking to people, having lunch etc.

During the race, all the race engineers sit on neat rows of seats, motionlessly watching a rather small TV. It wasn’t a bored stiff sort of motionless – they were alert and totally focussed on the events on the screens. They could be statues until just before each pitstop  – when there’s a brief flurry of calm, collected activity. Given that pitstops only last about 4 secs now (ridiculous I know) I barely managed to get my camera out before they had sped away again.

Engineers all watching tiny screens in surprisingly tidy rows

Just around the corner, race techs watch  the cars progress around a virtual track, monitoring a dizzying amount of information about every aspect of the cars’ performance.

Here's where it all happens - every single race variable is constantly analysed and optimised

Another surprise was quite what a British centred event the GP is. You see all the international drivers and assume this is an international spectacle, but really a significant majority of the players seem to be Brits. So each Grand Prix is a small British island of craziness completely untouched by local culture of customs. This mobile island is really like a travelling circus that sets up in a new town, puts on a show, then packs up and moves to the next place. And it packs up remarkably quickly. While the podium celebration was taking place, the paddock quickly filled up with all sizes of packing boxes and packing crates – just one week later it was all going to be repeated in Bahrain.

The final thing that surprised me was quite how starstruck I was. I’ve worked in Chelsea for years and was entirely underwhelmed by the procession of footballers, minor celebrities etc that were sighted every week. But I was genuinely surprised at how excited I was to be standing watching the podium from the pitlane behind Ross Brawn, only to turn round and have Eddie Jordan walk into a picture I was taking. The drivers were strolling around and of course Coulthard was EVERYWHERE.

While on the subject of New Year – we were invited to see the new year in at Rocky Point in Mexico with friends. We happily accepted and vaguely planned to ride the bikes down from San Francisco. Actually I was really looking forward to the opportunity of riding through southern California – what I’d seen of it so far, the coastline down to Big Sur, was stunning. In any case we figured it would take about two days to ride down. It’s a case of heading to the border and turning right. No?

Then we actually got a map out. California is really rather deceptively long as it turns out. Door to door it was looking like approximately 900 miles. We’ve certainly ridden further in two days but on closer examination, the route along the small roads was going to take far too long. So now we were looking at a two day blast down the Interstate. Not fun.

Then we thought about it some more. While the border south of Phoenix isn’t the worst part of Mexico, you still don’t want to be crossing it at night. And you REALLY don’t want to be crossing at night on a bike. So we would have to spend the night on the US side then ride the last 250 miles or so in the morning. So now it would be a 2.5 day trip which would mean we’d have no time to actually BE there before turning round.

Somewhat disappointed we admitted that taking the bikes was not the way to go. We did have a hire car – so we could just drive that down to Mexico, potentially even in one go if we took turns – right? Wrong. Most car hire companies won’t allow you to take your car to Mexico (or take a driving test in it but that’s a different story).

Hmmm. Then we reasoned that a car rental joint nearer the border just HAD to allow you to cross it. We thought maybe we could bike/ drive to San Diego and take a car from there. That was a pretty good plan. The only thing is that rental companies in San Diego that allow you to take their vehicles into Mexico don’t see the need to rent cars. We could have hired a truck or a bus. Why would you not want to transport lots of people and/ or gear in and out of Mexico? Sigh.

This was harder than we thought. We nearly gave up but did eventually make it to Mexico – by flying in and out of Phoenix and renting a car there (mucho extra paperwork required including a promise to bring it back in one piece). Sheesh!

Once we made it to Rocky Point we had a great couple of days. We walked along the beach watching the pelicans fishing, tasted many different establishments’ finest margaritas but my favourite bit of all was visiting the port to watch the fishing boats come in.

This week I was lucky enough to see a Lotus Evora – one of only two in the USA right now. It’s the first mid-engined 2+2 and the only car in its class to deliver a top speed of around 150mph, acceleration of 0-60 in under 5 sec AND impressive fuel consumption of around 30 mpg (that’s the smaller American gallons). I was curious to see how the Lotus motto of “add lightness” has translated into a car that can deliver those sorts of stats.

My first impression was that it is quite a looker – it’s what the love child of a Ferrari 430 and a Lotus Exige might look like. Muscular and purposeful whilst still managing to look sleek and elegant. The angular air vents on the bonnet make the stunning curves look masculine and somehow you forget there’s a back seat  – the shape just looks ‘right’.

The cabin itself was quite a surprise, not least of all because you can get in there easily. With the Elise, I’ve always felt like I belong to an exclusive club of people who can (relatively) elegantly enter and exit. The Evora has lower sills so pretty much anyone can join the club. Once you are sat inside the big shock is that it is actually really plush in there – padded (yes padded) seats and beautiful if somewhat off-puttingly bright red, stitched leather around the dash and centre console. All the shiny steel buttons are stylish and nicely finished (no more dodgy plastic switches!). There’s also quite a lot of kit for a Lotus  – aircon, touch display for sat nav, not to mention all the ipod/ Bluetooth connectivity you could wish for. This almost makes you forget that there’s all this space behind the front seats. Two more, beautifully upholstered seats in fact. Although like all other 2+2s, anyone who wants to sit in the back has to concertina themselves and sit sideways – which I did. And it was OK, but then I am quite bendy.

The visibility out of the back is astonishingly bad. The rear window is like one of those castle slit windows so it lets some light in but it is no good whatsoever for actually seeing what’s going on out there.  Frankly, George Clooney could be on the back topping up his tan and you’d be none the wiser. The Lotus answer to this is the optional parking camera.  I’m not convinced that’s the best solution.

One element that is notable for its absence is the start button. I’ve always thought this was a real toy for the boys. I don’t miss it at all.

So what about the engine? Lotus has gone back to Toyota for the engine – this time taking the 3.5l V6 used by Camrys. They’ve added some of their secret sauce though, squeezing almost 280 bhp out of it.

Enough of the features- how does it drive? Well the first impression is that this is much heavier than the Elise, so it felt like a really substantial car. The ride is a LOT softer too. I’m more than used to feeling every contour of each matchstick I run over, but I do appreciate something a little more forgiving, particularly on the dreadful roads round here.  The power delivery is fast and smooth, and the red line arrives surprisingly quickly, accompanied by much dashboard flashing ( I quite like that).  Unfortunately the test ride was short and didn’t really include much in terms of corners – however on even a short it was clear that that the usual Lotus road hold and cornering were all there. As for the brakes. OMG they were sharp. Used to the impressive anchors on the Elise, I don’t think I’ve ever got into another car and found the brakes better. In fact they were so amazing I imagine they’ll be detuned a bit for the full production version.

So all in all –I thought it was a really impressive car. All that experience of adding lightness has meant that Lotus could add some seriously luxe features whilst maintaining impressive performance. I’m a purist though so I still prefer my Elise but for those who like their luxury, the Evora is an awesome alternative for the 911 crowd – it’s just a but more special.