Emira Road Tests & Reviews

[exeterjeep]

From the first pic in this thread I thought they had a very close to production car to test - AU71 EFZ and the road test of that was coming out this week?

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Good point. Maybe it’s the same car, since black-packed and re-registered AU71EFZ? DVLA doesn’t recognise AO07PPW. Not sure why they’d go to all that trouble though. Maybe the black pack car review is for the main Top Gear TV show?

[Al]

I had things to do today and none of this has helped!  Where did the morning & lunchtime go? 🤩

[Evotion]

Tom and I saw the white car in the flesh and it looks the dogs danglies. It would be a super popular choice when made available in the future.

[Greg | ValetPro]

 

 

Good to see these videos starting to come through.  Great to see the press so positive.

[mdavies]

Surely more of an exercise to prepare the journalists than anything meaningful for potential buyers. Four months behind, according to one; just the “best chassis we have at the moment” from another.  A version primarily for the road given to test on a track in an unfinished state of tune? 

Combine all the “yet to be finalised/fixed/not quite right” comments from the group and it’s clearly – and openly said by Lotus -  that that car is some way from an actual production version.

Trying to fathom why Lotus chose to expose those trials to the public rather than keeping them private, my top thought is that when the same lot get to drive a “real one” they will be truly exuberant about how brilliantly wonderful it is.

A classic “switch sale” technique!   And perhaps the real reviews out shortly.

[Al]

16 minutes ago, mdavies said:

Trying to fathom why Lotus chose to expose those trials to the public rather than keeping them private, my top thought is that when the same lot get to drive a “real one” they will be truly exuberant about how brilliantly wonderful it is.

Well maybe it is the devil you do and devil you don't thing?  We have all been wanting something positive to go on and we have that.  In bucket loads. 😆 Other posts elsewhere here are whinging about lack of info.  The press have been given a taster and although with some relatively small items not yet finalised maybe it is to gauge reaction from Pro's and if they had all come back and said  x y or Z was rubbish then they potentially can correct it or at least be working on a solution.  Also if you say that X isn't yet finalised they look at something else.

Me I'm just glad to hear more info about how it feels on the open road with whatever packs that is fitted with as that is likely to be closer to what I spec anyway.  The vast majority will never see a track even if more than capable and of the cars that do see a track not that many will be regular track warriors and I'm just happy that if I do give it some occasional track action knowing that the Touring Pack with Goodyears is more than capable is fine with me.

I was intending to order white this time round after a run of red cars so super excited to see this on the road.  I also liked the TG video where they started looking at practical things and street presence as well.  More useful to many than what it feels like at the limit where I'm likely to run out of talent shortly before road. 🤭

[Cooper]

Those two videos are certainly heartening, but if there's one thing I've noticed / heard from both of them, Lotus really need to see if they can nail that shift quality of the 'box especially when its under pressure.  Nearly sure I spotted some mis-shifts in the vids. Been there got the T-Shirt.  

[Al]

Don't think they have anything new but 2 more links anyway from basically the same test drive 

 Auto Express

and 

EVO magazine

[Bravo73]

3 hours ago, Greg | ValetPro said:

Good to see these videos starting to come through.  Great to see the press so positive.

Keep up at the back! 😜

[Rambo]

🤣 Probably too busy valeting 🤣

[Greg | ValetPro]

34 minutes ago, Bravo73 said:

Keep up at the back! 😜

Need to keep a closer eye.

[exeterjeep]

I see that in the Top Gear article about Emira first drive it says....

Yes, this white VP2 007 (is somebody trying to subconsciously fill us with warm, fuzzy Bond’s Esprit vibes?) test car is a validation prototype; we’ll drive the final production car next month, 

So next month's review could be the other 71 plate white one?

[Rambo]

On 08/03/2022 at 01:20, TomE said:

Carfection review is out:

 

Main conclusion was "It's a Lotus. 100%. That's what you wanted to hear isn't it"

FFS, I think we worked that out for ourselves 😯

[AK70]

Don't know what the intention of Lotus was with that pre-production car review. I mean that it drives like a Lotus could not be a suprise to us Lotus owners right?

But great to see, we will have all the answers in April when the final production cars are out there. Looking forward to a test drive.

[Eagle7]

Keep in mind Lotus is aiming at more than it's regular base, they're aiming at Porsche as well as other brand's customers.  These previews (the actual reviews are next month) are like movie trailers, or game trailers of upcoming movies and games.  There are enthusiasts from many brands watching the Emira right now.  All these previews were very positive, which is a very good thing.

[MJON]

Really positive reviews from Catchpole, I like his work but did enjoy the TG team review as they took a more overall look between them. Both great, so at the moment feeling very smug that I didn’t succumb and order a Cayman. Hope it remains that way?

[jonwat]

[Evotion]

A decent sweetener for what is to come.

I would have thought it was brave to let journos loose on a prototype but went well overall.

I do suspect that the most rave reviews will actually be about the I4 and how it suits the car/more modern, etc.

Still, the V6 is the one and mis-shifts are all part of the fun of learning (aren't they?)

[mdavies]

Being tall, something that's concerned me since it was first mentioned as being high in the (unrepresentative) showroom model is the seat height.  One of the recent reviewers has now mentioned a "high" seat, in apparently its production form. He was sufficiently concerned to question Gavan Kersaw and was told that the motors for electric adjustment caused it to be 2cm higher than otherwise necessary.

I wondering if the manual seat in the eventual base model will allow a lower setting. Another factor to explore ahead of a decision.

[stephenwhyte]

Having now read the Car, Autocar & Top Gear’s actual magazine reviews (thanks Readly…..the incredible value in what you offer, never fails to amaze!) it’s now clearer to see, that all who’ve driven Emira so far (the videos only give a suggestion of them being impressed!), can’t praise the car enough!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Lotus really are on a massive comeback journey with this the first of many new products, in the coming years. Makes you proud to be a Lotus fanatic!
I’m glad to say & I said it since the start, but with Emira there are now clearly going to be happy times ahead for Lotus!😎

[scotty435]

Television centre london, filming for Top Gear looks like it could be a i4 not sure what colour?

[stephenwhyte]

Got to be Dark Verdant Green - a lot of people have been waiting to see that shade. I wonder if they’ll have the white one black wheels on the programme too? Can’t stand the current presenting trio (apart from Chris) and never watch TG anymore…..but will be timing in for this👍

[mg4lotus]

LHD

[stephenwhyte]

They always seem to be these days aren’t they……is it a message to the World saying “we do LHD too”? I’ve always wondered why so many new cars are shown in LHD form🤔