Looking through the datamined car list thread again, I came out with a question:
If in the future PD were to work out the licencing disagreements with Lotus, would the datamined GR.3 and GR.4 Evoras be introduced wholesale, would PD create new GR.3/GR.4 cars instead, or would Lotus end like like Volvo, Skoda, and Opel where they have no Grouped Race cars to speak of?
The only precedent I can think of is the JLOC Diablo that was originally in the Japanese version of GT3, cut in the international versions, and then re-introduced as a Standard Car in GT5 when Lamborghini licencing was acquired proper.
The main thing making me think different is the fact that if Lotuses were somehow re-introduced in GT7, or as update cars in GT8, they'd likely be sprinkled in like other cars rather than dropped in one big dedicated lotus update.
If they are reintroduced at launch in GT8 however, it's more likely that most if not all of the Lotuses currently in the backlog would be included at launch as a marketing point to generate hype, and in that case I could see the Evora race cars returning as well.