Henry Catchpole - Carfection review

[cloud9blue]

get the touring if it is a road car unless you live in a country with perfect roads such as Germany and Switzerland. If this is a track car, then you probably will want to upgrade to coilovers anyway.

 

[hagen111]

To challenge the commenters; I am reading comments here and wonder:

- Who has owned a proper Lotus before?
- Who can actually drive a car fast…as in on its limit?
- Who are fast on track?

Then I read all this mumbo jumbo about which suspension to choose, disappointing steering in tight corners, 390 vs 410 hp?

I have owned V6 Exige and absolutely loved it. The one thing it lacked in my opinion…it started to age a bit, and it was a bit too rough to use it often, my personal opinion. Emira solves all of that and according to Henry the Emira keeps the DNA of the last generation Lotus cars. What else would you want if you had a last generation Lotus before? Emira is modern, looks stunning, maintains the Lotus feel. I dig it.

Whenever I took my Exige to a Lotus trackday…its was blindingly fast, once you get the revs and shifts right the balance was amazing…but the rest of the pack on track…not as fast as I would assume from the comments…strange.

Then my friends…when we drive other cars on track…are 4-5 seconds per lap faster than me, but hey they won championships, endurance races, grew up in karting. They can talk suspension, tires, brakes, how the car handles. Whenever they take me for a lap around track and the car understeers, they throttle it through corners…and I find it amazing how much more performance they get from a car than just driving it on the limits of grip! There is a zone beyond maximum grip! I have no doubt…the Emira will be more capable then me!

Then again…soooo many ‘not so fast’ drivers at the same track days. But on the forum here it is like 250 F1 drivers about the setup of their cars and how disappointing it is ;-) I get it, because it is fun to talk about…we all love our cars. Why not trust Lotus know what they are doing…they are MUCH better drivers and MUCH better engineers then us.

To conclude from what I read and viewed - what I get is that the Emira is:
1. A true Lotus - very like the last generation of cars V6 Exige and Evora.
2. Beautiful…as in absolutely stunning design…BEAUTIFUL!
3. Great value for money.
4. Just a very nice car that stands out in terms of being different.
5. Amazing to live with

In addition it can be properly tweaked and tuned for those who can outdrive the standard setup. I hope I will get to that stage one day.

My few cents…the few left after putting all my chips on Nimbus, Sports, Michelins, V6, manual.

See you all on a trackday next year…lets talk about how good it really is then.

 

[MickOpalak]

I get that an extruded aluminum box section chassis assembled with structural adhesive is a striking and very specific thing to see in pictures, but it doesn't mean that they are all identical to each other just because they are the same shade of silver and have similar core architectural shapes.

The only dimension shared between the Evora and Emira chassis is the wheelbase. Which makes sense when you are a small financially disadvantaged manufacturer that needs to build drivable testing mules on a very restricted budget and what you have available to achieve that is prior product body panels. Wheelbase is the key constraint, so you compromise and keep that bit to make your work life easier.

Any fan of Lotus knows that the S2 version of the 111 chassis is a slightly updated version of the S1 111 chassis, just as the S3 111 chassis is slightly updated from the S2 111 chassis. Likewise, the S2 version of the Evora chassis is an updated version of the S1 Evora chassis.

The dimensional differences between the S2 Evora chassis and the Emira chassis are easily explained. The identical wheelbase requires no explanation. The Emira has suspension A arms that are longer than the Evora's and increase the track by 3 inches, as Lotus has said in the marketing releases. The very small differences in overall length and height are attributed to the new body panels, not the chassis.

Of course, the Emira's chassis has been modified from the Evora, as the new firewall clearly shows. I believe the lower door sills were also worked on to reduce step over height as much as possible. But overall, if you put a bare S2 Evora chassis next to a bare Emira chassis I'd wager you'll find many more similarities than differences. In no way is the Emira a clean sheet design.

 

[Eagle7]

Any fan of Lotus knows that the S2 version of the 111 chassis is a slightly updated version of the S1 111 chassis, just as the S3 111 chassis is slightly updated from the S2 111 chassis. Likewise, the S2 version of the Evora chassis is an updated version of the S1 Evora chassis.

The dimensional differences between the S2 Evora chassis and the Emira chassis are easily explained. The identical wheelbase requires no explanation. The Emira has suspension A arms that are longer than the Evora's and increase the track by 3 inches, as Lotus has said in the marketing releases. The very small differences in overall length and height are attributed to the new body panels, not the chassis.

Of course, the Emira's chassis has been modified from the Evora, as the new firewall clearly shows. I believe the lower door sills were also worked on to reduce step over height as much as possible. But overall, if you put a bare S2 Evora chassis next to a bare Emira chassis I'd wager you'll find many more similarities than differences. In no way is the Emira a clean sheet design.

A clean sheet design doesn't necessarily mean a completely different design. It can be the culmination of many years of previous work, and draws upon that to create a new car that's the result of all those years of experience. Not a new design necessarily, but a new car. The Emira is just that. Its heart and soul is Lotus, drawing upon decades of experience. On top of that is a completely new body, interior, attention to detail, fit and finish. It doesn't use Evora parts. They're new parts designed from a clean sheet, but based upon many years of hard won experience. That's why there's a family resemblance to parts of the Evora. They didn't start with an Evora chassis and modify it; they drew from their experience with the Evora, and designed a new version of that style chassis. The parts are not interchangeable. They're not modified Evora parts. They are in fact, a clean-sheet design.

 

[Jonhklee]

If AMG i4 and Tour is good enough for Jenson. It’s more than good enough for me….

 

[Pegasi]

If AMG i4 and Tour is good enough for Jenson. It’s more than good enough for me….

Catchpole also spoke "clandestinely" about the I4. For me the next big thing 2nd to people getting their cars are I4 reviews. The V6 is the weakest part of my spec.

 

[digilotus]

A clean sheet design doesn't necessarily mean a completely different design. It can be the culmination of many years of previous work, and draws upon that to create a new car that's the result of all those years of experience. Not a new design necessarily, but a new car. The Emira is just that. Its heart and soul is Lotus, drawing upon decades of experience. On top of that is a completely new body, interior, attention to detail, fit and finish. It doesn't use Evora parts. They're new parts designed from a clean sheet, but based upon many years of hard won experience. That's why there's a family resemblance to parts of the Evora. They didn't start with an Evora chassis and modify it; they drew from their experience with the Evora, and designed a new version of that style chassis. The parts are not interchangeable. They're not modified Evora parts. They are in fact, a clean-sheet design.

Umm, they actually did start with the Evora chassis and modified it. That’s how they got costs down and created early Emira mules from the Evora chassis. Same for the V6 steel engine subframe which might be near identical.

 

[NicolasB]

I've now watched this video twice. It is a total snoozefest. I've actually considered getting into the car-reviewing business for years, except due to my geographic location I don't have access to great cars to be able to test them. This was like reading an encyclopedia excerpt about the car rather than watching a review that excites you and lets you hear the car rev up. Sure, there it was some nice cinematography throughout, but it just seems like they were maybe trying too hard and it didn't really pan out. I feel like he never even fully revved the car out or did anything to show what the car can't do, or how it sounds, which is kind of the whole point of a video review. It wasn't that it was a bad review about the car, and it wasn't glowing either, it was just very bland. It was like eating a piece of chicken with no salt and pepper or spices or anything to give it flavor. Sure, it gives you some nutritional value, but it's not delicious and exciting like a seasoned filet mignon.

I hope we can get a final production car into the hands of some other reviewers soon, or better yet, forum members.

 

[Eagle7]

Umm, they actually did start with the Evora chassis and modified it. That’s how they got costs down and created early Emira mules from the Evora chassis. Same for the V6 steel engine subframe which might be near identical.

That's not what I recall being said by Gavan and the team. He said Matt gave them a clean sheet to start with right from the beginning. That was in The Smoking Tire podcast. I know they hid what they were doing under an Evora body shell while they were testing things out on the roads. Matt said he himself was driving one of those mules for a year before the reveal, but the Emira chassis is not an old Evora chassis that's been modified. It's built brand new from the ground up with all new components.

Some things are close. The Evora wasn't exactly terrible. There wasn't a need to just completely abandon everything about it. Of course they used what they had done before to guide them to what they wanted to do with the Emira, but from what I remember through all I've seen and read, other than the V6 and manual trans, the Emira has all new parts compared to the Evora. Is there even any actual chassis/body/interior part from the Evora that's been carried over?

Maybe Tom will chip in and tell us what's new and if any parts (other than engine and trans) are identical and thus interchangeable with the Evora.

 

[Eagle7]

I've now watched this video twice. It is a total snoozefest. I've actually considered getting into the car-reviewing business for years, except due to my geographic location I don't have access to great cars to be able to test them. This was like reading an encyclopedia excerpt about the car rather than watching a review that excites you and lets you hear the car rev up. Sure, there it was some nice cinematography throughout, but it just seems like they were maybe trying too hard and it didn't really pan out. I feel like he never even fully revved the car out or did anything to show what the car can't do, or how it sounds, which is kind of the whole point of a video review. It wasn't that it was a bad review about the car, and it wasn't glowing either, it was just very bland. It was like eating a piece of chicken with no salt and pepper or spices or anything to give it flavor. Sure, it gives you some nutritional value, but it's not delicious and exciting like a seasoned filet mignon.

I hope we can get a final production car into the hands of some other reviewers soon, or better yet, forum members.

Yeah that's similar to how I felt. It seemed like it was more about Henry, cinematography and where he was driving than anything else. Like a video version of a short story. Nice, beautifully done, but not as informative as Chris Harris' drive and post-review.

 

[digilotus]

That's not what I recall being said by Gavan and the team. He said Matt gave them a clean sheet to start with right from the beginning. That was in The Smoking Tire podcast. I know they hid what they were doing under an Evora body shell while they were testing things out on the roads. Matt said he himself was driving one of those mules for a year before the reveal, but the Emira chassis is not an old Evora chassis that's been modified. It's built brand new from the ground up with all new components.

Some things are close. The Evora wasn't exactly terrible. There wasn't a need to just completely abandon everything about it. Of course they used what they had done before to guide them to what they wanted to do with the Emira, but from what I remember through all I've seen and read, other than the V6 and manual trans, the Emira has all new parts compared to the Evora. Is there even any actual chassis/body/interior part from the Evora that's been carried over?

Maybe Tom will chip in and tell us what's new and if any parts (other than engine and trans) are identical and thus interchangeable with the Evora.

I'm referring to the chassis only. It is "new" but it is an evolution of the Evora chassis. That's why the wheel-base is the same - it would have been too costly to change that whereas the track width is much cheaper/easier to change. This is not a criticism, rather an observation.

The Emira therefore consists of an Evora MK2 chassis with a new body, interior, suspension arms/knuckles, new steering rack, new brake calipers/discs, brake booster, exhaust and intake and carry over engine+trans+subframe in the V6 variant.

What is curious regarding the engine subframe is that originally Lotus wanted to make an aluminium subframe for the V6 Evora and shelved that, instead going for heavier galvanised steel for strength. (There was some video about this somewhere.. I think the reason was that the alloy subframe got stress fractures in testing). But now over a decade later with the I4T they've gone for an aluminium engine subframe, possibly due to higher strength alloy availability. It would have been nice if they swapped out the V6 galvo subframe in the process and made it a bit wider which would have make those clutch jobs easier and the car a little bit lighter.

What I have not heard much about in any of the reviews are the apparently fantastic brakes in the Emira. Even though some of the competition are going crazy with 6+ pot calipers, a quality 4-piston brake caliper and two-piece disc combo typically performs as well or better than 6 or more piston brake calipers and they're often lighter as an added bonus. The new Emira brake booster also looks comparatively huge compared to other cars. The Emira brakes should be very confidence inspiring!

 

[VL3X]

I'm referring to the chassis only. It is "new" but it is an evolution of the Evora chassis. That's why the wheel-base is the same - it would have been too costly to change that whereas the track width is much cheaper/easier to change. This is not a criticism, rather an observation.

The Emira therefore consists of an Evora MK2 chassis with a new body, interior, suspension arms/knuckles, new steering rack, new brake calipers/discs, brake booster, exhaust and intake and carry over engine+trans+subframe in the V6 variant.

What is curious regarding the engine subframe is that originally Lotus wanted to make an aluminium subframe for the V6 Evora and shelved that, instead going for heavier galvanised steel for strength. (There was some video about this somewhere.. I think the reason was that the alloy subframe got stress fractures in testing). But now over a decade later with the I4T they've gone for an aluminium engine subframe, possibly due to higher strength alloy availability. It would have been nice if they swapped out the V6 galvo subframe in the process and made it a bit wider which would have make those clutch jobs easier and the car a little bit lighter.

What I have not heard much about in any of the reviews are the apparently fantastic brakes in the Emira. Even though some of the competition are going crazy with 6+ pot calipers, a quality 4-piston brake caliper and two-piece disc combo typically performs as well or better than 6 or more piston brake calipers and they're often lighter as an added bonus. The new Emira brake booster also looks comparatively huge compared to other cars. The Emira brakes should be very confidence inspiring!

Yeah, we're getting 2 piece drilled and slotted rotors! Why is no one talking about this? 2 piece rotor big brake kits with painted calipers on the aftermarket are about ~$4-5k just for the front!

 

[Eagle7]

Yeah, we're getting 2 piece drilled and slotted rotors! Why is no one talking about this? 2 piece rotor big brake kits with painted calipers on the aftermarket are about ~$4-5k just for the front!

It seems everybody is focused on handling, which of course is the forte of Lotus, but stopping is equally important. It's going to be interesting to see what the standard brakes are and what they look like on the base model.

I wonder when they're going to update the configurator to show what the base car comes with and what it looks like. I know they're focused on producing the FE at the moment, but they must have a prototype base car somewhere with all the standard base features. Those things have to pass homologation, fit and finish and inspection too.

 

[Porter]

Any fan of Lotus knows that the S2 version of the 111 chassis is a slightly updated version of the S1 111 chassis, just as the S3 111 chassis is slightly updated from the S2 111 chassis. Likewise, the S2 version of the Evora chassis is an updated version of the S1 Evora chassis.

The dimensional differences between the S2 Evora chassis and the Emira chassis are easily explained. The identical wheelbase requires no explanation. The Emira has suspension A arms that are longer than the Evora's and increase the track by 3 inches, as Lotus has said in the marketing releases. The very small differences in overall length and height are attributed to the new body panels, not the chassis.

Of course, the Emira's chassis has been modified from the Evora, as the new firewall clearly shows. I believe the lower door sills were also worked on to reduce step over height as much as possible. But overall, if you put a bare S2 Evora chassis next to a bare Emira chassis I'd wager you'll find many more similarities than differences. In no way is the Emira a clean sheet design.

This all comes back to an apparent belief that things that look similar are "the same" and that engineering changes aren't significant unless they look like a radical departure.

As a contrast with your Lotus criticism, would you also say that the 981 Cayman and the 718 (982) Cayman are radically different? That was a "clean sheet redesign" according to Porsche, which should mean that they share nothing, it should be a total rethink of the concept. But rip it down to the bare unibody and I suspect that they are awfully similar.

And that's not a bad thing! Iteration is the right approach when you already have a great platform architecture. But come on. This "it's just an Evora with new plastics" narrative is just completely unfair to the years of development effort by the team at Hethel.

 

[kitkat]

Yeah, we're getting 2 piece drilled and slotted rotors! Why is no one talking about this? 2 piece rotor big brake kits with painted calipers on the aftermarket are about ~$4-5k just for the front!

I’m sure they’ll turn a nice shade of brown after a handful of track days.

 

[Hedge]

The Goodyears are one of the two best tires available on the market for the use case they are developed for besides the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. Their use case simply isn‘t track driving.

That maybe so, and I don’t doubt you, I’m just quoting from a few guys who’ve had them (who know a little about driving). One on a 718 Spyder too, and really didn’t get on with them - which I was surprised about. Nothing in any reviews seems to think the Goodyears are much good for anything other than daily driving. Even brisk B road driving seems to be suboptimal, from the reviews I’ve seen.

 

[Hedge]

Some differing view points here:

- Track days aren't about the best performing track car, it's all about driver development. There's always someone with a faster car than you, but it doesn't mean they're a faster driver. The Emira is going to do just fine if you want to use it casually or even every other weekend in the advanced groups.

- Those goodyears aren't going to be any good for anything but a beginner to low intermediate at the track. Any faster and you'd just destroy them in 2-3 sessions. They will be just fine however for an everyday tire and occasional brisk weekend drive.

- Anyone serious about any kind of track time isn't likely going to be rolling on 20" with goodyear or cup2s. They'll likely be seeking some 18" with a dedicated track tire that will manage consistent grip throughout the 20min x 20-25 sessions.

I think we agree! Surely track driving is about becoming a better driver & getting to know your car (unless you’re into racing in which case I apologise).

I can’t see anyone seriously thinking of tracking an FE Emira on a regular basis? Maybe once or twice out of curiosity, but not as a track day car?

 

[hagen111]

I hope we can get a final production car into the hands of some other reviewers soon, or better yet, forum members.

And then what…we get a shitload of horrible amateur YouTube content!? Which forum member will produce a great video? Love to keep track of it and watch for sure.

Having seen a couple of Youtube car videos being produced, it takes days and a large crew to shoot enough footage to produce a short quality video. What Carfection are doing is unreal, and we should praise them for making the amazing content and serving it to us for FREE!

I absolutely love it. And yes some are better then others…

 

[Pegasi]

And then what…we get a shitload of horrible amateur YouTube content!? Which forum member will produce a great video? Love to keep track of it and watch for sure.

Having seen a couple of Youtube car videos being produced, it takes days and a large crew to shoot enough footage to produce a short quality video. What Carfection are doing is unreal, and we should praise them for making the amazing content and serving it to us for FREE!

I absolutely love it. And yes some are better then others…

I am new to Lotus and I have only had one track day in an Evora GT. I know the youtube content can vary but I just tend to watch all of it. My use for the car will be mountain driving, touring holiday, occasional track (2 times per year), and washing it! Your #383 post was good stuff.

I can’t see anyone seriously thinking of tracking an FE Emira on a regular basis? Maybe once or twice out of curiosity, but not as a track day car?

I don't know if Autocross counts as track in people's minds but I will be doing those because they are just closer to me. But to your point, what's likely to happen is that after doing events with the Emira I am likely to seek out a used Miata if I starting making it a habit.

 

[TomE]

That's not what I recall being said by Gavan and the team. He said Matt gave them a clean sheet to start with right from the beginning. That was in The Smoking Tire podcast. I know they hid what they were doing under an Evora body shell while they were testing things out on the roads. Matt said he himself was driving one of those mules for a year before the reveal, but the Emira chassis is not an old Evora chassis that's been modified. It's built brand new from the ground up with all new components.

Some things are close. The Evora wasn't exactly terrible. There wasn't a need to just completely abandon everything about it. Of course they used what they had done before to guide them to what they wanted to do with the Emira, but from what I remember through all I've seen and read, other than the V6 and manual trans, the Emira has all new parts compared to the Evora. Is there even any actual chassis/body/interior part from the Evora that's been carried over?

Maybe Tom will chip in and tell us what's new and if any parts (other than engine and trans) are identical and thus interchangeable with the Evora.

To a large extent this is a semantic debate. As digilotus says, it's an evolution for Lotus in much the same way Porsche have evolved their chassis and cars.

The Emira chassis is new in the sense it's not the same as the final Evora chassis. But if you put the Type 111 chassis iterations and Evora chassis iterations and the Emira chassis next to each other, you'd see the family connection. It's not a blank sheet of paper in terms of starting from scratch. It builds on decades of experience. That makes a lot of sense when Lotus has already invested in design/development/production expertise and computer tools to model things like stresses and crash performance. Both Evora and Emira have similar product requirements and so it's not a surprise that the chassis is quite similar. But I'm expecting the Emira chassis to include all the learnings from the last 25 years of this chassis technology, as well as having some dimensional changes due to wider track, different suspension hard points, different sill profiles, new access requirements and the need to accommodate both V6 and i4.