Lotus64
Emira Fan
My automotive background; I have a good amount of experience on road courses and auto-crossing. I’ve never owned an automatic vehicle. I’ve never driven a Lotus. The closest I’ve gotten is experiencing a 991.1 GT3 PDK on track, which was magnificent. I have a deposit for an Emira V6 6MT.
I drove the car a few hours ago and have tried to capture all my immediate reactions. I spent about 15 minutes in the car, driving on city roads on a pre determined route. This car was equipped with the sport suspension and Michelin cups. I completed the entire drive with the windows down and in sport / track mode.
The first thing I immediately noticed about the Emira, after stumbling with pushing the electronic parking brake to release it, was the directness of all of the driver inputs. The sensitivity of the accelerator and clutch felt intimidating at first while I pulled off from the lot, as i was determined not to headline amateur hour by stalling the vehicle or unnecessarily slipping the clutch. If the clutch / accelerator handoff isn’t done smoothly and delicately, the Emira will let you know!
There is zero slack in the Emira’s controls, including the steering, clutch actuation, brakes, accelerator response and shifting action. The clutch is fairly light and engagement is near the very top of its travel. The shift knob is small, yet felt great in hand and there was absolutely zero play in the gates. Shift action felt metallic in its action, as opposed to rubbery or buttery. I felt the length of the throws as well as the shift effort was medium.
The steering is light, yet extremely direct, changing direction when immediately off center. The steering wheel felt great in hand. Whereas some steering systems immediately want to return to center or resist changes to the driver’s steering inputs, the Emira’s steering faithfully follows the driver’s steering inputs. It felt ultra responsive without being nervous. The car is quick to change direction: however I didn’t get a chance to corner at high enough speeds to fully experience the mid engine handling dynamics.
Near redline, the Emira is one of the sexiest cars I’ve ever heard, period. I was giggling and cursing uncontrollably any time I explored the upper ranges of the tachometer. It sounds absolutely delightful! It makes exotic music with delightful notes from the supercharger and exhaust. With the windows down, the noise was spine tingling encompassing and very loud, and I cannot fathom wanting it any louder. It’s just right. It sounded so unbelievably good and was an absolute joy to row through the gearbox and perform rev matched downshifts. The gears were tightly spaced, and I routinely rowed through gears 1-4 in the city. At lower revs, the engine sound is similarly exotic, yet definitely subdued, which I think is appropriate so that the driver is able to control the level of raucousness with the throttle and / or drive mode. I was happy with the amount of power and felt it was usable on the street.
The sports suspension was a pleasant surprise. It felt very good, even over broken pavement! It was reasonably firm, yet compliant over Michigan’s war torn, pothole ridden roads. Major road imperfections were felt in the cabin, yet quickly dissipated without reverberating through the chassis or feeling jarring. The sports felt comfortable enough for daily use. I was absolutely set on Tour before the test drive; however now I’m slightly leaning towards sport suspension for my configuration. The cabin had some road / drivetrain noise, but NVH was not excessive at all. Whereas the tour suspension may cut back some NVH, I felt that the sport suspension offered an immediacy to the ride / handling that was approapriateiy matched to the immediacy of the rest of the controls. Seems like you can't go wrong either way, and apparently the dampening rates aren't that different anyway.
The Interior was surprisingly spacious yet intimate. It looked premium and very well put together at a glance, and everything within reach felt nice. The stitching was beautiful and it smelled nice. The seats were comfortable, although I wish the adjustment would have gone a little bit lower, as I then had to raise the steering wheel a little higher than I normally would have liked in order to move it without hitting my knees. The graphics on the instrument cluster were bright and crisp and the shift light was very cool. The steering controls were a little large, yet they were responsive. The infotainment screen is just ok. It is responsive enough, but seemed to have a learning curve higher than average in my opinion and could be a little brighter.
I tried out an FM station on the KEF Radio. I rolled up the windows, then adjusted the EQ levels to my preferred settings. It sounded so-so. Obviously digitally compressed audio source will sound better, but my first impression was just average sound quality.
In conclusion, the Emira met or exceeded all of my expectations. It’s the real deal. I’ve never driven a car that was so immediate in its responses and faithful to the drivers inputs as the Emira. I may have never driven a Lotus before, but I can still immediately recognize the qualities in the Emira that have long been hallmarks of the Lotus Brand that are absent in other brands. Driving this car has forever shifted my paradigm of what it means to for a car to be responsive. It was so much fun to drive this car and truly an event, even around town at legal speeds. I cannot wait to join the club and explore more of the chassis.
I drove the car a few hours ago and have tried to capture all my immediate reactions. I spent about 15 minutes in the car, driving on city roads on a pre determined route. This car was equipped with the sport suspension and Michelin cups. I completed the entire drive with the windows down and in sport / track mode.
The first thing I immediately noticed about the Emira, after stumbling with pushing the electronic parking brake to release it, was the directness of all of the driver inputs. The sensitivity of the accelerator and clutch felt intimidating at first while I pulled off from the lot, as i was determined not to headline amateur hour by stalling the vehicle or unnecessarily slipping the clutch. If the clutch / accelerator handoff isn’t done smoothly and delicately, the Emira will let you know!
There is zero slack in the Emira’s controls, including the steering, clutch actuation, brakes, accelerator response and shifting action. The clutch is fairly light and engagement is near the very top of its travel. The shift knob is small, yet felt great in hand and there was absolutely zero play in the gates. Shift action felt metallic in its action, as opposed to rubbery or buttery. I felt the length of the throws as well as the shift effort was medium.
The steering is light, yet extremely direct, changing direction when immediately off center. The steering wheel felt great in hand. Whereas some steering systems immediately want to return to center or resist changes to the driver’s steering inputs, the Emira’s steering faithfully follows the driver’s steering inputs. It felt ultra responsive without being nervous. The car is quick to change direction: however I didn’t get a chance to corner at high enough speeds to fully experience the mid engine handling dynamics.
Near redline, the Emira is one of the sexiest cars I’ve ever heard, period. I was giggling and cursing uncontrollably any time I explored the upper ranges of the tachometer. It sounds absolutely delightful! It makes exotic music with delightful notes from the supercharger and exhaust. With the windows down, the noise was spine tingling encompassing and very loud, and I cannot fathom wanting it any louder. It’s just right. It sounded so unbelievably good and was an absolute joy to row through the gearbox and perform rev matched downshifts. The gears were tightly spaced, and I routinely rowed through gears 1-4 in the city. At lower revs, the engine sound is similarly exotic, yet definitely subdued, which I think is appropriate so that the driver is able to control the level of raucousness with the throttle and / or drive mode. I was happy with the amount of power and felt it was usable on the street.
The sports suspension was a pleasant surprise. It felt very good, even over broken pavement! It was reasonably firm, yet compliant over Michigan’s war torn, pothole ridden roads. Major road imperfections were felt in the cabin, yet quickly dissipated without reverberating through the chassis or feeling jarring. The sports felt comfortable enough for daily use. I was absolutely set on Tour before the test drive; however now I’m slightly leaning towards sport suspension for my configuration. The cabin had some road / drivetrain noise, but NVH was not excessive at all. Whereas the tour suspension may cut back some NVH, I felt that the sport suspension offered an immediacy to the ride / handling that was approapriateiy matched to the immediacy of the rest of the controls. Seems like you can't go wrong either way, and apparently the dampening rates aren't that different anyway.
The Interior was surprisingly spacious yet intimate. It looked premium and very well put together at a glance, and everything within reach felt nice. The stitching was beautiful and it smelled nice. The seats were comfortable, although I wish the adjustment would have gone a little bit lower, as I then had to raise the steering wheel a little higher than I normally would have liked in order to move it without hitting my knees. The graphics on the instrument cluster were bright and crisp and the shift light was very cool. The steering controls were a little large, yet they were responsive. The infotainment screen is just ok. It is responsive enough, but seemed to have a learning curve higher than average in my opinion and could be a little brighter.
I tried out an FM station on the KEF Radio. I rolled up the windows, then adjusted the EQ levels to my preferred settings. It sounded so-so. Obviously digitally compressed audio source will sound better, but my first impression was just average sound quality.
In conclusion, the Emira met or exceeded all of my expectations. It’s the real deal. I’ve never driven a car that was so immediate in its responses and faithful to the drivers inputs as the Emira. I may have never driven a Lotus before, but I can still immediately recognize the qualities in the Emira that have long been hallmarks of the Lotus Brand that are absent in other brands. Driving this car has forever shifted my paradigm of what it means to for a car to be responsive. It was so much fun to drive this car and truly an event, even around town at legal speeds. I cannot wait to join the club and explore more of the chassis.
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