Eagle7

The end of the ICE era... what a ride it's turning out to be.

45 years later, and those are still beautiful cars. I remember seeing one at the Auto Expo in Los Angeles when it came out, and it was so much better looking than just about anything else at the show.

Any pictures, especially of Dark Verdant?

Another reason why the Emira will be my last new car. As is always the case, this really has nothing to do with saving lives, nor will it save the percentages that are being claimed. Those kinds of things are typically claimed to con people into letting them do what this is really about, and what they really (and always) want; control. I just want to be able to get in my car and drive, without constant intrusion and interference from nanny-state control freaks, whose lives are so empty and meaningless, the only way they can fill the void is by inserting themselves into your life whether you want them to or not. And also, isn't it odd that the same side that claims they want to "save lives", also wants to reduce the world population by 2/3? In my book, anyone who has that dichotomy going on in their head is mad as a hatter. The Emira is going to be a wonderful car in many many ways.

How tall are you?

I actually thought it was pretty good. They addressed the few things they felt might need improvement, but overall were quite complimentary. This was a good statement: "Unlike an Elise, which practically crackled with unfiltered analogue feedback, the Emira takes more time and miles to get to know. But once you’ve spent time with it, it’s a really pleasing, engaging and feedback-rich road car: balanced, fast, and involving. With a sweeter gearshift, a less annoying steering wheel and perhaps a fruitier sounding engine, it would be unbeatable." and I thought THIS was VERY interesting: I was fully expecting the Emira would be down around the 16mpg area when being driving in an "excitable" fashion, but if they got 24, and on a long steady speed trip you can possibly get 30, that's impressive!

Every forum has its problem people. When I first put my deposit down on the Emira, I went to LotusTalk expecting there would be all kinds of enthusiasm. I met a solid wall of "we don't like your kind around here" from the good old boy group. Continuous downplaying of the Emira or any excitement or enthusiasm about it. They pretty much succeeded in driving everybody away. My next stop was here at this one, which I still frequent, although I don't say all that much. By and large the membership here are much more polite and civil, which I like. At the time I was eagerly looking for anything and everything about the Emira, and wound up over on the EmiraForum. That's where pretty much most of the people either getting, or interested in getting an Emira seem to have wound up. There wasn't much of the good old boy syndrome over there, so it was much easier to talk, ask questions, make comments, etc. about the Emira without being belittled, or spoken to as though you're being easily mislead by the con artists at Lotus blah blah, and you don't know Lotus like we know Lotus, so don't get excited about the Emira, etc. That's not to say there wasn't some of that, there certainly was and still is from a very small number of people, but most just ignore them now I think. The bulk of my participation is over there, mostly due to the ability to post the 3D images I was creating last year for people when the Lotus configurator wasn't really very useful (which they greatly improved), and I kept trying to balance out the negativity from the few aggressive types who constantly have to say something negative over every little thing, comment, picture (it looks like the front was in an accident "lol", etc.), and that sort of elementary school bully behavior. And of course, I was branded a fanboy, "How much is Lotus paying you?" etc., simply because i was trying to see both sides of an issue, or wanting to give praise to the efforts the people at Lotus were making through all the issues that have plagued everyone the last year. I felt it was very unfair to constantly speak negatively of them, and wanted to show any of them that might have been reading the forum, that not everyone felt that way. I was and still am in favor of them triumphing over the issues they've been struggling with, and want to cheer them on. I got severely blasted by a few for doing that. This was in the EmiraForum no less. Nevertheless, the mods there have done a decent job of getting the majority of that under control, and the forum over there is pretty good now. Just as I appreciate the unseen and unappreciated work the people at Lotus do, I feel the same way about forum moderators who wind up having to be baby sitters in some cases, just to keep things from getting out of control or becoming unpleasant. That's the world we live in now. The negative types always seem to be the most aggressive, and if not dealt with accordingly by someone who can, they'll ruin a forum. They'll constantly attack those who are participating, because they're not happy unless they have a victim (classic bully behavior), so either those participating fight back, or just get tired of it and go elsewhere. The greater majority who you usually don't hear from, won't say anything because they don't want to get attacked, and they too will go somewhere else if the aggressors have succeeded in dominating the forum. Kudos to you and any other mods for caring, putting in the time to watch over and manage things here, and doing it in a way that makes this forum a decent place to visit and be in.

So what do you think; Positive? In the middle undecided? Or disappointed? I think his verdict will be positive. I expect he'll talk about the fun of it rather than numbers and what it doesn't have.

Based on the reviews, it seems that instead of tuning for the top end, Lotus has tuned the Emira for low to midrange performance, which is what you want on the street and a smart move on the part of Lotus. They've said they remove the gears in the manual box and make their own gears, so it sounds like they've geared it more for low and midrange as well. This is in contrast to Porsche which (and this is a complaint I've seen) has gone with tall gearing, and you have to be above 4,500-5,000 rpm to really feel the performance. Lotus has chosen to end their ICE era with a car that appeals to a much wider customer base than their old one, which under the circumstances is a good move business-wise. The order book confirms this was/is the right move for them. It's going to be interesting to see how this new-found awareness and knowledge carries over to their electric future.

That's what I would do. I know that will be difficult for some early orders if their car isn't being delivered, but others who ordered later are getting their cars. Under the circumstances though, it would make sense as a business decision.

I wonder, if they have everything they need for later order builds, will they go ahead and build them, and put the earlier orders they can't build on hold until they can get the parts? For example, let's say they have early orders (date-wise) for a V6 with an auto, but those transmissions aren't shipping at the moment. They have later orders (date-wise) for V6's with manual trans, and they have a supply of those. Will they build the ones they can build, regardless of when they were ordered so they can get at least some customer cars produced?

I'm really glad to see this video. It confirms what we've known must have been going on behind the scenes with delays and other frustrations, but it's also extremely good to hear the price we were quoted when we placed our deposits/orders is going to be honored. Now we know for a fact that final production spec has been settled on, and customer cars are being built. When you think of where they were one year ago with a hand-assembled non-running studio model, and a gray proof-of-concept car that ran, I think it's quite an achievement to have gone through everything they had to go through, to be able to start producing customer cars at this point in time. Hopefully we'll start to see photos and videos of customer cars, and start to see some road tests from Road&Track, Motortrend, Car&Driver, etc. with actual performance numbers. Here's hoping there are no more delays!

Somebody put a green filter or something on it. It's gray. Look at the area below the front where the intakes are, you can see it's Shadow Gray. Also, look at the front wheel where you can see either a green light or filter at work.

Why? If people who drive like that want to buy a Lotus and help keep the company in business so they can make the kinds of cars you and I like to drive, I say bring 'em on.

Well I think there's an important difference between a sports car buyer, and what's called a "real enthusiast". A sports car buyer isn't necessarily a track car buyer. They want the looks, performance and fun of a sports car, but not at the expense of reasonable comfort and drivability on the street. This includes NVH. They are an enthusiast, just not a track enthusiast. Track enthusiasts consider themselves "real" enthusiasts, which is a bit of a conceit in my opinion. A track enthusiast wants track performance which means certain things like power and handling take priority over everything else. They're okay with minimalist comforts and NVH because they want to blast around on a track. Track enthusiasts are a very small segment of the market. Sports car enthusiasts are a much bigger segment, and that's where Lotus needs to be aiming at like they are with the Emira. The orders for the Emira show the wisdom of that approach as a business decision.