Emira Review
So having had a my V6 Lotus Emira first edition for a year what do I think?The early edition I bought came with sports suspension and Michelin Sorts Cup 2 track tyres. When testing on a fine day I enjoyed the feedback from the sports suspension but considered the tyres to be to be too limiting for UK weather. Great but limiting for the varibialiy of UK weather, so fitted the Goodyear F1 tyres used in other versions. I still get to enjoy the benefits of stiffer suspension, which is no stiffer than similar or indeed some lesser vehicles, while being able to survive spring/autumn UK conditions.
(During winter I use my Audi S3 with winter tyres for driving in the Alps, but this is another story. Been there, tried that with a mid-enginged, rear wheel driven cars. Just don't as they lack either steering, grip or both)!
If I want to do track days I can mount the original tyres on compatible wheels. Not that you would buy them from Lotus as better are available for less.
Like I, at the time of purchase, most were looking at the Porsche Caymen as an alternative. A car with a deserved excellent all round reputation. For e the Emira won because of its sculptured good looks, more direct steering and being more unique.
The Emira is particularly special in the way it handles, the levels of grip, and the feedback from the steering. In reality, on dry public roads one would need to be being entirety stupid before the Emira will let you down. On wet roads things can get more interesting if pushing the limits, but in Druve or Sport mode it will rescue you from minor stupidities. Not much more as their is not much electronically controlled.
On to annoyances…
- The car always starts in Drive mode, while Sports mode is aways the mode I want, and should be settable as the default. I’m guessing that somewhere in the world there is legislation that this should be so. I would be happy with a one time setup option that requires me to confirm that I am fully aware that I am the owner of a high performance car I am capable of remembering this.
- Gear changes in my manual V6 are slower than I’d like. More ponderous than those of most modern cars. Not a big del as on public roads as the toque provided by the supercharged V6 engine means one casually pass most without changing gear, but when in full attack mode slicker would be better.
- The radio is a mixed bag. Unlike FM radios starting from a decade or more or so, the Emira’s does not automatically retune to the strongest available frequency for a chosen station. When tuned to a DAB radio station it does, but one first has to spend time waiting for all of the available DAB stations to be detected and then set them as selectable favourites. Ok, this is perhaps more problematic for me than most as once in the car I want to drive, not spend many minutes setting up radio channel preferences once removed from its underground garage where there is no signal.
- Really this is pretty much it, which I find astounding for a Lotus
And on to real problems...
- After a few hundred miles the Emira went into safe mode that limited the revs
- Quickly fixed by the dealer. The cable to a lambda sensor had worked loose
- And then after a trip from the UK to the Swiss Alps during the summer I hit the windy alpine passes recommended by Swiss friends. The view were stunning, the handling of the Emira even more so. Then I returned to the motorway to drive to my booked hotel in Interlaken. The Emira never made it there as it overheated in slow moving traffic. There is a long story over miscommunication between Lotus Assistance and the Swiss break down service which I will not bother to detail. Kudos to Lotus Assistance that it was not their fault and they went to extremes to manage things, including flying me home until the car was fixed and flying me back once it was, with all expenses covered.
- Once Swiss breakdown service acknowledged that only a Lotus expert could fix it, the Emira was delivered to - https://kumschick.ch/ - who fixed the problem in a few minutes.
- Another lead had come loose, the one to the enormous fan under the bonnet
- Likely due to enthusiastic driving through mountain passes during which I learnt that by switching to Track mode I could navigate the hairpins by flipping out the rear on entry rather than braking hard to reduce speed rather and be lined up to accelerate out
- A tactic that should only be used when confident. Don’t look over the edge as it can be a longways down
- Did I mention my love of the Emira’s kart style handling?
- Once Swiss breakdown service acknowledged that only a Lotus expert could fix it, the Emira was delivered to - https://kumschick.ch/ - who fixed the problem in a few minutes.
Conclusion
When preferring the Emira over a Caymen I expected and had a few nggling problems. After all this is Lotus who produce far fewer cars so have far fewer opportunities to diagnose and rectify issues.For me the problems that needed to be resolved were trivial (Lotus, use the best quality connectors and quality control to ensure they are seated to save others these problems), I’ve encountered worse with high volume cars with a reputation for quality and reliability. I’ve not encountered better support than Lotus have provided on the couple of occasions when things did go wrong.
The key question is do I regret my choice? Not for a minute.
The Emira meets my need fabulously.
