Lotus left in an awkward position

LOTUS was left in the wrong position today after one of its range-topping Evora S models became stuck on a beach at Sydney’s Middle Harbour.

The $150,990 supercharged V6-engined British sportscar is better known for sprinting from 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds, but was left sitting on its belly early today after an attempt to get it on a concrete apron next to the beach fell short.

Lotus Cars Australia brand manager Alastair Manihera told GoAuto it was just a case of bad luck that the four-seat, 206kW, 3.5-litre mid-engined supercar mated to a six-speed paddle-shift automatic gearbox beached itself on the sand this morning, with half the car well inside the high tide mark.

A photo posted to Facebook shows the Elegant Carbon Grey car well and truly stuck in the sand, with bits of tyre-scorched wood wedged in under the rear wheels in an attempt to give the Evora S a bit of much-needed traction.

The car is part of a weekend display in the run-up to next week’s Sydney boat show.

Mr Manihera told GoAuto this afternoon that the people responsible for moving the 1442kg car into place were planning to jack it up and place sheets of plywood underneath to extract it from the sand.

“They wet the sand to try and get it across, and obviously that didn’t work,” he said. “They’re trying to move it onto a concrete apron for the show. It will be there for the weekend before they take it out again on Monday.”

However, Lotus and the show’s organisers need not worry. High tide at Middle Harbour is not until 11pm tonight so there’s plenty of time to make amends.