Greetings Emira Forum! please excuse the narrative here, but its why I have not had a chance to pen my intro...hopefully some make it to the end 
Craig Hartwell here, long time admirer of both the car, the brand and the forum, and after some pretty interesting spring time negotiations, my CFO (Mrs H) pulled forward the mid-life-crisis budget and allowed me to venture into the brave new world of Lotus ownership!!
Having over 50+ cars between myself and said CFO, we have had all sorts of shapes and sizes over the years. However some 8 years ago I closed a deal with major UK bank, to drive down the M6 and 'pop in' to the Tesla showroom to spend my commission! That was the start of my fascination with electric cars, and the amazing acceleration a Tesla S (100D) provided for me and my then little family! Having given up national track-daying on my motorbikes for fatherhood some 10 years prior, I never had the exhilaration of that 0-60 in a car that got anywhere close the bikes. But having my little gang ride along side me made the experience even more fun!
I was certainly an early adopter of what would become both the Tesla and electric car craze. But over the years, that flat out traffic lights parlour trick got boring. My eldest son developed the same car fascination and going to Silverstone college for his 16+ he simply told me that i was no longer cool, making zero noise and saving the occasional polar bear we'd never get to meet!!
All that happened as the Emira started its real delivery to the wild, and having kept an eye on the chaos/horror stories of delivery stories - I kept my powder dry! But a change of job circumstance, a diagnosis of early onset arthritis in my lower back and growing less and less relevant to my kids aspirational goals....we set about test driving and waking the demon within!!
Across the road from the Silverstone circuit/college, was the Lotus Silverstone, aka Woodcote and Copse who got my creaking body into a V6 first. Having gone down there in my Tesla 3 performance, I was not sure to expect given I was coming from a pretty fast straight line car. But wow, what a wonderful experience to be back in a car that growled, snorted, grunted and honestly screamed at me through the steering wheel!! The V6 tone, with supercharger coupled with a manual gearbox took me back decades, but it was just so much fun to feel the roads again around the outside of the Silverstone circuit!
Inspired, I raced home, spilled everything out to the Mrs like a kid coming home from first day at school!! She calmed me down, and said she'd be happy whatever I went for. But the forums/youtube/Harry's Garage world told me I needed to try the i4 before jumping in with both feet...
The guys at W&C were super friendly and really accommodating! They must deal with so many mid-life-crisis purchases, they knew how to help me out. So Albert (hopefully a positive name check wont hurt) sourced an i4 to test...and wow AGAIN! What a very different experience...fell in love with the turbo acceleration with paddle shift. The whole theatre of the car coming from Tesla was just amazing. The feedback was like being back in a pro-kart, and the slightly simpler drive lent itself far better to the CFO driving it as well! An ex-demonstrator was coming in, beautiful spec and colour...and the trigger was pulled! The waiting game began!
Cut to the chase - after a PPF, service, and private Tesla sale, our new dream car was finally ready for early June...which was tight given my son had a world championship powerlifting competition to compete in, in Rome on 14th June...and I vowed to drive him there myself IF, we could get everything sorted in time!! The guys at W&C pulled out all the stops, and we picked the car up on the Monday....drove to Rennes, on the Tuesday, Rennes to Milan on Wednesday via the Swiss alps, then final stage through the northern part of the Apennine mountain range down the West coast into Rome...3 days of pure driving bliss!!
A successful event (2nd in the WORLD for 18 year old drug free powerlifting!) saw us drive home, this time more central up through Italy via Florence and Bologna, then taking the French Alps & Monte Blanc route back, filtering through Rennes and home. Car performed flawlessly, FAR surpassing expectations (much to DBS, Ferrari Pista and Taycan Turbo's surprise!!) and ZERO traffic issues...until hitting the UK to find the M25 closed!! Trip of a lifetime, in a simply wonderful machine....
So coming up to 3 months ownership. Totally rejuvenated boy racer!! I'm back to being a cool dad (still not sure on the cool husband), I have a toy to drive for fun (that did mean a complete re-design of the garage to house it as well!) and I can say after pushing the car quite hard, it has soooo much more to give.
I have one thing to be resolved, a 'dunking' noise on the suspension over speed bumps? Due for suspension rubbers in a week or so...which should be in time for the upcoming Hethel track day on the 2rd Sep...that I'm hoping some on here are going along to!!
Keen to get out for some other meet ups before the crappy weather comes, but sharing a few memories and my Atlantic Blue i4, stock right now....but open to ideas for the future!!!
Signed - Happy & Proud Lotus owner!
Craig Hartwell here, long time admirer of both the car, the brand and the forum, and after some pretty interesting spring time negotiations, my CFO (Mrs H) pulled forward the mid-life-crisis budget and allowed me to venture into the brave new world of Lotus ownership!!
Having over 50+ cars between myself and said CFO, we have had all sorts of shapes and sizes over the years. However some 8 years ago I closed a deal with major UK bank, to drive down the M6 and 'pop in' to the Tesla showroom to spend my commission! That was the start of my fascination with electric cars, and the amazing acceleration a Tesla S (100D) provided for me and my then little family! Having given up national track-daying on my motorbikes for fatherhood some 10 years prior, I never had the exhilaration of that 0-60 in a car that got anywhere close the bikes. But having my little gang ride along side me made the experience even more fun!
I was certainly an early adopter of what would become both the Tesla and electric car craze. But over the years, that flat out traffic lights parlour trick got boring. My eldest son developed the same car fascination and going to Silverstone college for his 16+ he simply told me that i was no longer cool, making zero noise and saving the occasional polar bear we'd never get to meet!!
All that happened as the Emira started its real delivery to the wild, and having kept an eye on the chaos/horror stories of delivery stories - I kept my powder dry! But a change of job circumstance, a diagnosis of early onset arthritis in my lower back and growing less and less relevant to my kids aspirational goals....we set about test driving and waking the demon within!!
Across the road from the Silverstone circuit/college, was the Lotus Silverstone, aka Woodcote and Copse who got my creaking body into a V6 first. Having gone down there in my Tesla 3 performance, I was not sure to expect given I was coming from a pretty fast straight line car. But wow, what a wonderful experience to be back in a car that growled, snorted, grunted and honestly screamed at me through the steering wheel!! The V6 tone, with supercharger coupled with a manual gearbox took me back decades, but it was just so much fun to feel the roads again around the outside of the Silverstone circuit!
Inspired, I raced home, spilled everything out to the Mrs like a kid coming home from first day at school!! She calmed me down, and said she'd be happy whatever I went for. But the forums/youtube/Harry's Garage world told me I needed to try the i4 before jumping in with both feet...
The guys at W&C were super friendly and really accommodating! They must deal with so many mid-life-crisis purchases, they knew how to help me out. So Albert (hopefully a positive name check wont hurt) sourced an i4 to test...and wow AGAIN! What a very different experience...fell in love with the turbo acceleration with paddle shift. The whole theatre of the car coming from Tesla was just amazing. The feedback was like being back in a pro-kart, and the slightly simpler drive lent itself far better to the CFO driving it as well! An ex-demonstrator was coming in, beautiful spec and colour...and the trigger was pulled! The waiting game began!
Cut to the chase - after a PPF, service, and private Tesla sale, our new dream car was finally ready for early June...which was tight given my son had a world championship powerlifting competition to compete in, in Rome on 14th June...and I vowed to drive him there myself IF, we could get everything sorted in time!! The guys at W&C pulled out all the stops, and we picked the car up on the Monday....drove to Rennes, on the Tuesday, Rennes to Milan on Wednesday via the Swiss alps, then final stage through the northern part of the Apennine mountain range down the West coast into Rome...3 days of pure driving bliss!!
A successful event (2nd in the WORLD for 18 year old drug free powerlifting!) saw us drive home, this time more central up through Italy via Florence and Bologna, then taking the French Alps & Monte Blanc route back, filtering through Rennes and home. Car performed flawlessly, FAR surpassing expectations (much to DBS, Ferrari Pista and Taycan Turbo's surprise!!) and ZERO traffic issues...until hitting the UK to find the M25 closed!! Trip of a lifetime, in a simply wonderful machine....
So coming up to 3 months ownership. Totally rejuvenated boy racer!! I'm back to being a cool dad (still not sure on the cool husband), I have a toy to drive for fun (that did mean a complete re-design of the garage to house it as well!) and I can say after pushing the car quite hard, it has soooo much more to give.
I have one thing to be resolved, a 'dunking' noise on the suspension over speed bumps? Due for suspension rubbers in a week or so...which should be in time for the upcoming Hethel track day on the 2rd Sep...that I'm hoping some on here are going along to!!
Keen to get out for some other meet ups before the crappy weather comes, but sharing a few memories and my Atlantic Blue i4, stock right now....but open to ideas for the future!!!
Signed - Happy & Proud Lotus owner!
