Emira Road Tests & Reviews

[TomE]

3 hours ago, Bibs said:

@freefall_junkie, isn't that the site where a member called one of the Lotus PR team a w@nker?! Nice!

 

Well spotted.  And within a few hours Lotus PR had jumped in unprompted to explain themselves (and the member had been contacted by admins).  Apart from that, and despite repeated requests, there's been no direct Lotus contribution over there to fill the comms and info void Lotus decided to create.  Which is why there are 1100+ members, twice as many guests and 37,000 posts of mostly on topic and friendly discussion.

The moderators over there and on here do a great job to keep things civilised, often behind the scenes and without people realising.  Thanks to everyone on here who helps with that, I know it's often a thankless job.

[Bibs]

We have over 1m people on here each year and have 18 years history with them and Lotus don't directly participate, it would open up a real world of PR pain. They do communicate via conduits & aliases but not directly, it would be too hard to manage. 

Anyway, who's expecting a double page ad in next month's EVO covered in Chris Harris quotes

 

[NedaSay]

I just saw Harris' review, it could not be more positive than that.

[mdavies]

Had to miss the TG programme yesterday but just found CH's brief track drive of the Emira on Youtube.  May be of interest to others.

No comments as very far from comprehensive and very brief, but key reason that I'm wholly unclear about that white car's relevance to the final Production version. Hmm...... well, not for me to comment about that either.

Certainly good to slide about on a wet track - not sure about how many apexes he hit though!  Semi-spins at the last corner, coming to a stop as the edit has left a side-on almost stationary view visible for just a moment - I think.

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by mdavies

[Trevsked]

I’ve just been reading elsewhere that the Sport suspension cars have Quaife diffs and the Touring spec cars have Torson diff, is this correct? If so can someone shed any light on the reason and setups?

 

Trevor.

[EuropaSman]

Looking at the Emira specs on the Lotus website, the diff for the manual is described as a "Torsen type" that is common regardless of whether the suspension is sport or touring spec. I suspect the Torsen type diff is made by Quaife. This makes sense to me because the alternative limited slip diff is the clutch type, which needs more maintenance than a Torsen type, i.e. clutch pack replacement. Clutch type diffs tend to be used more for racing applications so I have found during my own research as I am thinking of putting a Quaife ATB diff in my Elise if I have to change the clutch.

A bit of background reading on Torsen versus clutch type diffs here.

https://www.kmpdrivetrain.com/differentials/torsen-vs-plated-limited-slip-differential/

[Dave Eds]

2 hours ago, Trevsked said:

I’ve just been reading elsewhere that the Sport suspension cars have Quaife diffs and the Touring spec cars have Torson diff, is this correct? If so can someone shed any light on the reason and setups?

 

Trevor.

If you'd have asked that approx 12 hours earlier Trev I would have paid more attention to what I was told today.......

[Evotion]

Schmee!!!

 

He has not let the side down. More very positive vibes overall.

Certainly, the things he liked will be the most important things to most of us.

 

[au-yt]

I have an EVORA 400 RHD... what steering, Pedal off set.. must be a LHD thing

[DaveC72]

I may be slightly biased, but that was his least irritating video to date - and much to my chagrin I found myself enjoying it.  

[stephenwhyte]

Yeah he’s a bit marmite…..ok a lot marmite - but you can’t take away his knowledge retention when explaining specs. The detail he holds in that head of his is always impressive and yet again a lot of praise for Emira. Whether we like it or not, these “influencers” do just that - and thankfully he and Chris Harris (especially!) were extremely positive about the car! I think we’ll be seeing a lot of these on our roads…..and not just at car-meets!👍

[Mickle]

21 hours ago, mdavies said:

Had to miss the TG programme yesterday but just found CH's brief track drive of the Emira on Youtube.  May be of interest to others.

Video says private, so not sure if that's the full clip. The one I saw on YouTube was only a 2 minute preview of the full segment which you can watch on iPlayer.

[Bibs]

The beeb are quite protective of their content, it probably got a copyright strike. 

[Bravo73]

59 minutes ago, Mickle said:

Video says private, so not sure if that's the full clip. The one I saw on YouTube was only a 2 minute preview of the full segment which you can watch on iPlayer.

Here is the iPlayer link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0018kjp
 

The Lotus bit starts at 28:35. The rest is HGVs. 🥱

[JimH]

Or here for those that may not be in the UK (starts at 28:30) :

 

 

[hamza]

That's really very positive! Much better than most of the YouTube reviews which were a lot more muted.

[mdavies]

1 hour ago, Mickle said:

Video says private, so not sure if that's the full clip. The one I saw on YouTube was only a 2 minute preview of the full segment which you can watch on iPlayer.

Mickle, indeed that piece on Youtube was not the full thing. Now seen. Thanks to the posters of the other links. Very positive indeed with a meaningful extra road section and extra duration of track footage. Surely increases the importance of resolving any questions about whether it was close, or close enough, to the final production spec., perhaps most so re track use - wet and dry.  I'd like to hear a discussion between Chris Harris  and Jethro Bovingdon!

 

[Dobbin145]

11 hours ago, DaveC72 said:

I may be slightly biased, but that was his least irritating video to date - and much to my chagrin I found myself enjoying it.  

Yep, from the people I know that have worked with Schmee (that all say his screen persona is quite different) this video seems to be more like the real Tim. Another great endorsement, I wonder what this will do for the order book?

[Rambo]

1 hour ago, JimH said:

Or here for those that may not be in the UK (starts at 28:30) :

 

 

Thanks for posting that JimH 👍 I reckon Harris lost the Emira a couple of times but they clipped the video 🤔

I hadn't realised the Emira had 2 windscreen wipers. I think the Evora ooked so much classier with the single blade. Anyone else agree?

Edited June 21, 2022 by Rambo

[DaveC72]

Might look better, but as a high mileage all year Evora driver, I'll take twin blades over a curved screen all day, every day.  Single wiper performance generally not as good.

[exeterjeep]

Spoke to my neighbour this afternoon, he watched TG and thought the car seemed cheap for a car that performed like that. He has no views on any of the other Emira reviewers, as he has only seen TG - probably like most of the 'normal' people who have a 'normal' interest in cars.

[TdM]

15 hours ago, DaveC72 said:

Might look better, but as a high mileage all year Evora driver, I'll take twin blades over a curved screen all day, every day.  Single wiper performance generally not as good.

The real selling point will be if they've improved the washer jets. Should be the first thing they show on reviews!

[deanb]

Anyone seen Andrew Frankel's review of the Emira in the new Motor Sport?

It's good, but the praise at the end seems a little faint to me. It isn't quite a ringing endorsement.

All the reviews I have read talk about the Cayman comparison, Frankel's included, which I get, but I think it is a little tedious and not as relevant as they seem to think. Not everyone that buys an Emira will have also considered a Cayman.

The Cayman is obviously a very competent, well-engineered car and so on, but to my eyes is not a good-looking car. The Emira, in contrast, is a stunning looking thing. There will be a lot of people that buy one largely because it looks so very good, and those people would not entertain a Cayman. 

Just my opinion, obviously. 

I would put a deposit on an Emira in a second if I had the money.  Maybe one day....

Edited June 22, 2022 by deanb

[hamza]

Its a good point about the look. I quite like the GT versions of the Cayman (in looks) personally but I wouldn't say its in the same league as the Emira (in looks).

In that regard perhaps it should also be compared to something like an Aston or a Jag F type? Sure the Aston will be a lot more money and the Jag is probably a lot heavier but as you quite rightly point out, the average buyer doesn't select cars on the basis of specs like kerb weight or power to weight ratio. They wouldn't even care about lap times if journalists and marketing departments weren't constantly stuffing them down our throats.

On the basis of looks a think a lot of people would take it as an alternative to an Aston or a Jag and quite frankly that demographic really won't care about the finer points of its driving dynamics.

The single biggest thing going for the Emira is that it looks like at  £200k car but costs £75k or less. The last car that did something like that which I can think of is the BMW i8. Not sure how much of a sales success that was for BMW but it was certainly well thought of by non enthusiast sports car drivers.

[Relic222]

Had a chat with one of the other dads on the nursery run today. He saw the TG piece and thought to himself 'I need to speak to that guy with the Evora' so did today. He was under the impression that they were only making the Emira for one year - I think he was confused by the First Edition part of it, so I explained about the two first edition variants followed by the 'regular' versions.

He went on to say that he'd love a Lotus, but wouldn't be able to fit in one (he's probably 6'6" and heavily built). I said he'd be surprised and offered him a try in the Evora. Cue the standard look of amazement when he fit in with no trouble, which lead to about half an hour of Lotus talk. Sounds like his next car will be an electric SUV because his wife would never let him have something like the Emira, but at least there's some excitement from non-car people. 

I'm off to Goodwood on Friday so hoping I can finally have a sit in an Emira. So far I've only seen one from the outside, which was the safety car at the British GT.