Agree, they were hopeless, especially considering that they only had six colours to demo. Meanwhile, other luxury brands are doing things like this . . .
To me, it wouldn't be the right thing to do. I don't think it's "fair and reasonable" to test-drive a manual Emira unless you are proficient at driving stick.
I find that the BMW and Porsche buckets look terrific but are absolutely impractical unless the car is purely a weekend toy or track day car. In a daily or semi-daily they quickly become a nuisance.
Congrats, it looks fantastic. I previously had a 997 GTS too . . . great car but I made the mistake of getting the PDK and found it a bit dull except on remote country roads. I look forward to hearing the sound of knicker elastic snapping.
Unfortunately, no one will be able to accurately answer your questions . . . this just isn't publically available information. However, we do know from an interview with Matt Windle that Lotus has taken over 10,000 deposits for the Emira, and that about one-third of them were in the USA.
I hear you, but this 133 project is being run by Lotus Technology out of Shanghai, the Hethel team (Lotus Cars) doesn't have much involvement at all.
Lotus Cars is focusing on Emira, Evija and the 135.