Emira Review Index [V6 FE]

For those looking for the latest Emira V6 FE reviews scheduled to be released today, I've self-volunteered to maintain a quick reference index here.
Please let me know of any missing articles and I'll update accordingly.

Reviewer	Type	Direct Link
Edmunds	Article	New Lotus Emira Is Worth the Wait | Edmunds The 2022 Lotus Emira, powered by a supercharged 3.5-liter V6, is both the end and the beginning of an era as the automaker transitions to a world of fully electrified supercars and crossovers. www.edmunds.com
Harry's Garage (Harry Metcalfe)	Video Review	Harry drives the Sports and Tour suspension back to back on the same road and shares his thoughts.
Schmee150 (Tim Burton)	Video Review	Published 21st June Bought the Right Car?! LOTUS EMIRA V6 FIRST DRIVE The countdown is on! The folks at Lotus have delivered an Emira V6 First Edition to @TheShmuseum in a near-identical spec to my inbound car, to take for a fi... www.youtube.com
Carwow (Mat Watson)	Video Review	Lotus Emira review - and my BANNED test! Looking to sell your car? Then you've come to the right place. carwow is the free, easy way to change your car online. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/Buy-... www.youtube.com
TopGear	Articles and Video	Published 3rd July Chris Harris talks about the Lotus Emira Chris Harris On⦠The All-New Lotus Emira | Top Gear Series 32 “I’d feel a bit scared if I were a McLaren or an Aston Martin at the moment” Chris Harris chats to Top Gear Magazine’s Jack Rix about the all-new Lotus Emira... youtu.be Published 20th June Lotus Emira Review 2023 | Top Gear The last ever petrol-powered Lotus looks fantastic and drives with precision, but not quite as much emotion as we might’ve hoped www.topgear.com The big sportscar test: Lotus Emira vs Porsche Cayman vs Alpine A110 www.topgear.com
AutoTrader (Rory Reid)	Video Review	NEW Lotus Emira: The Last REAL Lotus? | 4K Rory reviews the new Lotus Emira, Lotus' last ever petrol sports car. Soon the company will transition to electric cars, but for this last hurrah the Emira p... www.youtube.com
Evo	Article and Video Review	2023 Lotus Emira review – strong showing for Porsche Cayman GTS rival | Evo The first new Lotus for a generation, and the last to be petrol powered, shows great promise but needs some polish www.evo.co.uk
CAR	Article and Video Review	Published 22nd July Lotus Emira vs Porsche Cayman GTS vs Alpine A110 group test review CAR magazine UK compares the Lotus Emira sports car with the Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and Alpine A110 S www.carmagazine.co.uk Lotus Emira (2023) review: new 2.0-litre engine driven The brand new Lotus Emira, tested on road and track by CAR magazine. www.carmagazine.co.uk Lotus Emira vs Cayman 718 GTS vs Alpine 110s
Autocar	Article and Video Review	Lotus Emira V6 First Edition 2022 UK first drive | Autocar Most important Lotus in decades heralds a new era and sees out an old one, being the firm's last petrol sports car www.autocar.co.uk
Pistonheads	Article	2022 Lotus Emira | PH Review The Emira is one step closer to production-ready. And the good news (mostly) keeps coming www.pistonheads.com
KHTV	Video Review
The Drive	Article	2023 Lotus Emira First Drive Review: Lotus Grows Up, and Just in Time The Lotus Emira is the last of its kind, the final gas-powered car from the legendary company. And what a thrilling sendoff it is. www.thedrive.com
AutoExpress	Article	New Lotus Emira V6 First Edition review | Auto Express We hit road and track in the new Lotus Emira - the model that redefines the brand as a sports car maker www.autoexpress.co.uk Pictures: New Lotus Emira 2022 review - pictures | Auto Express Pictures of the new Lotus Emira www.autoexpress.co.uk
WhichCar	Article	2022 Lotus Emira review: V6 First Edition, international launch Lotus wants to compete with daily-driver premium sportscars like the Cayman and its new Emira V6 First Edition is a big step in the right direction www.whichcar.com.au
CarBuyer	Article	Lotus Emira coupe review 2024 | Carbuyer “The Emira marks a big step on in terms of design and quality for Lotus, and it’s great to drive” www.carbuyer.co.uk
Hagerty	Article	Lotus Emira first drive review: Will the fab four become the famous five? | Hagerty UK Is the Emira good enough to turn the fab four – Elite, Elan, Esprit, Elise – into the famous five? Read Andrew Frankel's review to find out. www.hagerty.co.uk
Road and Track	Article	Published 1st September Lotus Emira Road and Track Drive The Lotus Emira Is One of the Greats Lotus's final combustion-engined sports car starts a new era for the English automaker, and a prime example of what a well-funded Lotus can build. www.roadandtrack.com The 2023 Emira Is an All-Time High For Lotus The Emira comes from a bygone era. www.roadandtrack.com
Goodwood	Article	First Drive: Lotus Emira 2022 Review | GRR The final combustion-engined Lotus might finally be a match for the Porsche Cayman... www.goodwood.com
The Intercooler	Podcast	Reasonably good post-embargo Emira discussion on The Intercooler. Apple Podcasts Web Embed embed.podcasts.apple.com
Motortrend	Article	2023 Lotus Emira First Drive Review: The Porsche Substitute Don’t want a Porsche Cayman? Try this. www.motortrend.com
Drive	Article	2022 Lotus Emira review: International first drive With a reborn and reinvigorated Lotus looking to a new and very different future, is the Emira the first excuse-free Lotus? www.drive.com.au
AFR	Article	Lotus takes on Porsche with its $185,000 Emira This is a street car for buyers who appreciate luxury and great looks – although with a claimed top speed of 290km/h, it’s no slouch on the racetrack. www.afr.com
Parkers	Article	Lotus Emira Review (2024) Lotus Emira (2024) in-depth review. Read our experts' views on the engine, practicality, running costs, overall performance and more. www.parkers.co.uk
CarExpert	Article	2023 Lotus Emira review: First drive We drive the last Lotus without electrification around Mount Panorama to see if it's a worthy contender to the Porsche 718 Cayman. www.carexpert.com.au
Caffeine & Machine	Article	Caffeine & Machine Hitting the Alps in the summer, chasing the #cultofmachine in the brand spanking new Lotus Emira. Soul food at its best, delivered in spades across the myriad of special alpine roads littering the... www.facebook.com Photos on Instagram: Caffeine&Machine on Instagram: "Hitting the Alps in the summer, chasing the #cultofmachine in the brand spanking new Lotus Emira. Soul food at its best, delivered in spades across the myriad of special alpine roads littering the region. It would be 1,061 likes, 8 comments - caffeineandmachineJune 13, 2022 on : "Hitting the Alps in the summer, chasing the #cultofmachine in the brand spanking new Lotus Emira. Soul food at its best, delivered in spa..." www.instagram.com
The Sunday Times Driving	Article	Lotus Emira V6 2022 on-track review: Lotus's last petrol car is more than significant ... it's good This isn't going to be one of our usual reviews, because our test drive of the new Lotus Emira wasn't usual, either, having experienced just three and a half laps behind the wheel around Goodwood Motor Circuit,. www.driving.co.uk
Car and Driver	Article	2023 Emira Is a Grown-Up Lotus The last gas-powered Lotus also may be the first you don't have to make excuses for. www.caranddriver.com
The Sun	Article	I've driven the Lotus Emira - you can use it every day and it's saving BRITAIN THERE’S only one type of person who wouldn’t fall in love with the Lotus Emira. Those Twitter-dwelling keyboard warriors who think they know more about cars than everyone else. I’ve seen a few comm… www.thesun.co.uk
AutoCar UK	Article	Published 2nd July Lotus Emira vs Porsche 718 Cayman | Autocar Lotus’s new sports car is a great car in its own right - but can it hold its own against the class leader? www.autocar.co.uk

 

[digilotus]

First photo of the sports pedals.

 

[Jonhklee]

First photo of the sports pedals.

View attachment 6281

Not exactly premium sporty are they! My wives VW Golf has better pedals! 😂

 

[Nick in Sydney]

That Evo review was brutal! 😔 Jethro was disappointed to say the least. Old engine, trans not good enough, too much body roll even with the sports chassis, etc... Gavin has got to be upset watching that review (I know I am).

Yup, brutal. A bit unfair in some respects . . . the whole point of the Emira is to be a great street car, a modern Espirit. Evo didn't even drive the car on the roads, just a pure track test. They had the wrong tyres on the car (as they acknowledged) and drove it back to back with a Cayman GT4.

 

[Matthaus]

Apple Carplay and Android Auto are wireless according to Mat Watson (carwow review):

Also, Android Auto displays in full screen! Woo!

View attachment 6280

Great to see it in action, but sad about the thick black bezels in 2022

 

[Honeywell]

The Evo review was pants.

They took an entirely track focussed GT4 and pitched it against an Emira on road tyres at one of the faster tighter circuits.

That tells me NOTHING about owning an Emira for road use.

Face it guys. VW, AUDI, SEAT, PORSCHE, SKODA, LAMBORGHINI, BENTLEY owning companies carry a LOT MORE clout with the advertising departments of motoring magazines that pay Jethro's mortgage.

Stick with Harris and Harry for unbias and even Harris is a bit suspect given his easy allocation of GT Touring 911s in recent years.

 

[Jonhklee]

Same the reversing cameras lines are fixed….. dynamic steering lines would have been better

 

[kitkat]

That Evo review was brutal! 😔 Jethro was disappointed to say the least. Old engine, trans not good enough, too much body roll even with the sports chassis, etc... Gavin has got to be upset watching that review (I know I am).

I’m not too surprised, this is playing out exactly like I thought.

- Fantastic to look at
- Gear shifts are slow and forceful and leads to miss shifts for multiple reviewers
- Engine sounds great
- Sports suspension is mostly damper tuning which means sharper turn in but not less body roll
- Porsche offers a better overall package in all reviewers’ overall comparisons.

Only thing that surprised me:
- None off the reviewers’ cars revved to 7K.


I’ll still go with the Lotus, but I’m not going to be making excuses for it. The evo review resonated with me the most as to the reality and Harry’s review resonated with me for emotion.

 

[roundincircles]

A couple of observations.

Harry is a car enthusiast , look at his collection, and reviews as an enthusiast……..he says the steering and touring suspension is great, completely at odds with some professional reviewers (who need to earn a salary). He doesn’t deny some realities, like the weight,, but revels in how the car handles and how the engine delivers.

I’ve just sold a GT4 , an engaging car in many ways with a glorious flat 6 engine but the rear suspension was harsh and sometimes knocked the car offline. The ride quality stopped me touring in it because the passenger would complain ( it was tiringly bumpy on a days drive )

Be interesting to get Catchpole and Harris’s take.

 

[digilotus]

Well folks I hope my efforts helped everyone on here.

I've been busily scanning all sources to populate the review index in realtime. Taking a break now as its nearing midnight. Will keep scanning but I think the bulk of them are out by now.

Happy viewing everyone!

 

[VL3X]

Apple Carplay and Android Auto are wireless according to Mat Watson (carwow review):

Also, Android Auto displays in full screen! Woo!

View attachment 6280

That's good to hear! Now how about the speedo center navigation. Does that come from your phone's Android auto nav destination or do you have to use some redundant Lotus built-in Android automotive nav?

I’m not too surprised, this is playing out exactly like I thought.

- Fantastic to look at
- Gear shifts are slow and forceful and leads to miss shifts for multiple reviewers
- Engine sounds great
- Sports suspension is mostly damper tuning which means sharper turn in but not less body roll
- Porsche offers a better overall package in all reviewers’ overall comparisons.

Only thing that surprised me:
- None off the reviewers’ cars revved to 7K.


I’ll still go with the Lotus, but I’m not going to be making excuses for it. The evo review resonated with me the most as to the reality and Harry’s review resonated with me for emotion.

Yeah, expected. However I wanted a $100k exotic sportscar to be perfect as is (at least for the most part). Now it seems like I want coilovers and stiffer swaybars to help reduce bodyroll and fix that horrendous wheel gap.

Lotus debuting the Emira with the same engine as the Evoras but with less power is absolutely atrocious. Every single Evora owner has publically (or secretly) wished their car has more power. 450HP would have been very acceptable in 2022.. 500 even would have been amazing! 400, detuned down from 416/430, is a slap in the face. Every review is going to knock it for that. And now we're watching reviews talking about body roll and an underwhelming transmission? Ugh... So disappointing.

 

[freefall_junkie]

So I have just gorged on video reviews from Autocar, Car, Harry, Car Wow and Evo, and written reviews from EVO & Pistonheads. The EVO review seems a bit of an outlier in criticising the handling, and to have the Sport chassis panned for being too soft on track is very surprising and disappointing.

Other concerns for me: the Car review suggests the seat is still, (STILL!!!) too high. Please sort it out Lotus! Is it really that hard to get the driving position right? I am also concerned that at this very late stage several of the press cars have pre-prod quality niggles.

Overall I'm pretty happy with what I've seen. The car looks and sounds amazing, the steering (the very essence of a Lotus for me) is great, and my choice the Sport chassis seems perfectly usable on the road. Happy enough to commit to a July delivery without a test drive? Hmmm, not sure, need to think about that 🤔

 

[Eagle7]

Something to remember for all of these reviews is....none of these cars being reviewed are final production cars. You can be sure Lotus is watching every single one, and paying attention to everything that's being said. I have no doubt they're going to want to address any issues mentioned (if they haven't already), that they are able to before production.

Overall I liked Harry's the best. Seeing him grinning like the Cheshire cat , and forgetting he was supposed to be talking about dislikes says it all for me. It's a fun car to drive. I really appreciate the part in his video about the difference between the sport and touring suspension. How important is Harry as a reviewer? He can pick up his phone and call Gavan personally, to discuss things, and immediately someone from Lotus shows up with another car. Harry's the real deal.

The CarWow review has a lot of really good shots of the tan leather interior, and it looks good. Good review overall.

The Evo review? Posers. The guy driving the Emira acted like one of those people you see in commercials showing how Brand X is confusing, awkward, etc., while the guy in the Porsche is together, poised, and showing how the featured product is so much better than Brand X. Nonsense.

Henry's and Chris' reviews are the ones I want to see next.

 

[digilotus]

I think the Autocar brake pedal needing more travel compared to other Emiras is a reflection of air being in the brake line. How many Evoras had that problem from new! This wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[freefall_junkie]

Yup, brutal. A bit unfair in some respects . . . the whole point of the Emira is to be a great street car, a modern Espirit. Evo didn't even drive the car on the roads, just a pure track test. They had the wrong tyres on the car (as they acknowledged) and drove it back to back with a Cayman GT4.

In the print version of Evo Henry Catchpole did a long road trip in the same car as in the video. Mostly very positive, but he does criticise the handling for having too much roll and lacking in precision on turn in, and that is with the sport set up which I would have expected to be razor sharp like an Evora 410 Sport. Strange that no other testers mention this. Perhaps the Sport chassis really needs the Cup tyres to come alive?

 

[digilotus]

In the print version of Evo Henry Catchpole did a long road trip in the same car as in the video. Mostly very positive, but he does criticise the handling for having too much roll and lacking in precision on turn in, and that is with the sport set up which I would have expected to be razor sharp like an Evora 410 Sport. Strange that no other testers mention this. Perhaps the Sport chassis really needs the Cup tyres to come alive?

I suspect that Goodyears with Sports setup may be too much of a compromise - "jack of all trades, master of none".

I would think Touring + Goodyears or Sport + Cup2s are the way to go from all these reviews.

 

[Leonard]

Something to remember for all of these reviews is....none of these cars being reviewed are final production cars. You can be sure Lotus is watching every single one, and paying attention to everything that's being said. I have no doubt they're going to want to address any issues mentioned (if they haven't already), that they are able to before production.

As said previously this is a massive own goal by Lotus. 99% of Emira review videos online will be pre-production and we don't know what will or will not change.... So anyone using these videos in the future as part of their buying and decision-making process will be taking them as they are and using them to benchmark against other cars
There won't be another run of full production car reviews until the i4 hits and then will they even be full production. Will, there be a caveat about redlines, shift speed etc etc...
Anyway, I think it's a real shame they couldn't put their best foot forward here and capitalize on what should be a landmark occasion for the brand. Steering feel, brake feel, gearbox feel, and seating position should have been dialed in 100% by now.

 

[LotusB]

I'm still going through the reviews, but are there any objective tests? I'm interested in the acceleration, especially compared to the Cayman GTS 4.0. Would love to see a side-by-side rolling test or anything with a Vbox/Dragy.

Something to remember for all of these reviews is....none of these cars being reviewed are final production cars. You can be sure Lotus is watching every single one, and paying attention to everything that's being said. I have no doubt they're going to want to address any issues mentioned (if they haven't already), that they are able to before production.

I think it's great that you're always so optimistic and giving Lotus so much credit, but I don't think so. At this point it's too late to make changes to the car. Maybe they'll tweak next years' version, but the FE is pretty much locked in already.

I'm past making excuses and hoping. That was plausible a year ago when they announced 400hp/6.8k RPM and we were all hopeful... but now I've pretty much relegated myself to the reality. We aren't getting the 416hp/7k RPM.

 

[Calran]

Well folks I hope my efforts helped everyone on here.

I've been busily scanning all sources to populate the review index in realtime. Taking a break now as its nearing midnight. Will keep scanning but I think the bulk of them are out by now.

Happy viewing everyone!

Awesome work. Made viewing them all very easy. Big thanks!!!

 

[freefall_junkie]

I suspect that Goodyears with Sports setup may be too much of a compromise - "jack of all trades, master of none".

I would think Touring + Goodyears or Sport + Cup2s are the way to go from all these reviews.

Arg. I originally specced Sport and Cup2s, then switched to Goodyears. From what I have seen I am happy I went for the Sport chassis (ex Exige owner) and at least I could then change to Cup2s at some stage in the future.

 

[freefall_junkie]

As said previously this is a massive own goal by Lotus. 99% of Emira review videos online will be pre-production and we don't know what will or will not change.... So anyone using these videos in the future as part of their buying and decision-making process will be taking them as they are and using them to benchmark against other cars
There won't be another run of full production car reviews until the i4 hits and then will they even be full production. Will, there be a caveat about redlines, shift speed etc etc...
Anyway, I think it's a real shame they couldn't put their best foot forward here and capitalize on what should be a landmark occasion for the brand. Steering feel, brake feel, gearbox feel, and seating position should have been dialed in 100% by now.

Agree 100%. To be putting out unfinished cars for review at this late stage is unforgivable and I suspect will have quite a number of early depositors demanding a test drive in a properly finished car before making the final financial commitment.