Recent content by chatman

I'm a Cayman guy (GTS 4.0 6MT, 2023). The Emira experience shares a lot with the Cayman, but with a little more rawness and feeling (steering, suspension), and a little less refinement (especially that manual shifter and the weird right-side pedal placement). That said, if I wanted to replicate...

I'd be surprised if the electric 718 does all that well beyond its early release - it's heavy, has poor range, and not particularly attractive. The Type 135 is actually kind of interesting if they can actually hit the weight targets. Seems like a tall order though.

It does. I noticed it for the first time yesterday. It's mesmerizing.

For those who have bought these cars in CA, do the dealers let you take the car without the front license plate drilled in? That would be requirement for me.

Love this! Testor's enamel! Takes me back to my youth building and painting scale models! Very well done.

I expect "heel-toe" downshifting is largely unnecessary for the vast majority of driving situations, particularly road situations. It's nice if you can nail it (and in my limited experience the Emira makes it a bit easier to do than a lot of cars given the pedal placement), but I rarely find...

This is interesting. I don't own an Emira yet, but my Cayman (which I bought brand new) had a similar issue. If I shift from 1st to 2nd at high RPM, it doesn't want to go in very easily, and would occasionally get a little "crunchy." It got better after about 1000 miles (no more "crunchiness")...

Wait, really? "But, who can raise their hand here and say 'as I was slowing down to the intersection I had to do a maneuver that included a large or immediate application of throttle?'" I'd think a lot of people could raise their hand on that one. What about when you're slowing down for the red...

Yes, but it's pretty subtle. Just enough to avoid any jerkiness in the downshift, or unwelcome surge as you add more throttle to accelerate.

That's the wrong way to do it, and It'll get you failed on a driving test in the EU. You should always be in an appropriate gear as you slow down. There were a few occasions when I was learning where I flubbed a downshift or something and ended up slowing down in neutral for a bit. But that...

It's not clear to me how you could be in the market for an Emira in the right color, or otherwise an Eletre. They're totally different cars. I for one can't imagine buying an Eletre, an elephantine SUV that represents few if any Lotus engineering values and comes in one of the most common (and...

No reason to flame! It's to ensure smooth shifts and prevent damage to clutch, engine, or other components from the dispersal of the car's kinetic energy. When you push the clutch pedal to downshift, you disconnect the engine from the rolling wheels. The rolling wheels are getting slower as...

I drove the Emira on a few occasions, and each time I had to slow down or stop for a light, I found myself downshifting from 4th to 3rd (with a light throttle blip), and then braking until engine RPM was down to 1000RPM or less before going to neutral. I also would occasionally downshift to 2nd...

Well, Lotus claims it'll be following suit in 2027, axing the Emira for some (Chinese?) EV replacement. Sad.

Amen brother!!