If you sold your EMIRA what’s next?

[hellasf1]

Just for fun. If you sold your EMIRA and bought another vehicle what would it be? (Around the same price or less than the EMIRA)

 

[OppositeLock]

I test drove a 600LT and an Artura which I cross shopped against the Emira. The Artura had instant throttle response, like the Emira, and huge power. The 600LT had turbo lag, but also, stunning power. My Emira V6 has even faster throttle response than the Artura, however, lots less power, especially down low below 3000 RPM. The Macs have big torque, but at the cost of big delay at low RPM an d minor delay at high RPM.

McLaren dealers were giving very good deals on the Artura because it's not selling. I was looking at a used one in a beautiful emerald color which would have been about $180k with about 5,000 miles on it. I decided against it for one reason; there is only a single tire which works with the car, the Pirelli Cybertire. The car doesn't work with normal TPMS. These CyberTire sensors are integrated into the tire, and at the time, nobody figured how to swap them over. I think they're glued on under some rubber sheet. There is only a single summer tire available from Pirelli with this sensor, so this is the only tire you can run. If the car doesn't have that sensor in the tire, it limits performance. It's ridiculous. The McLaren dealers bought out all the inventory of this tire, and were selling them for stupid prices, over $1k/tire. As someone who enjoys going to the track, and shredding tires, as well as driving all winter, snow be damned, I need to have a tire selection, including snow tires.

The 600LT has similar turn-in feel to the Emira, similar cornering feel, it feels more "Elise-ish" in terms of its dartiness, however, the interior of the Emira was so much nicer than either McLaren that this is what clinched it for me. I got over my desire of owning a McLaren after these test drives. I really didn't like the inside. If you ever sit in a well used one, you will also see that old, used alcantara is simply gross, particularly on the steering wheel, where the prior owners' skin oils and whatever other grime they had on their hands soak in. I also hate the dumb lambo-doors on McLarens.

At the track; I'd much prefer the 600LT over the Emira. On the road, I prefer the Emira. Given I spend more time on the road, that was it.

Now, as for beautiful works of art like 458's or 488's, which look as good as an Emira but with 200 more HP, that's a different story, but also a different price league. You won't lose money on a Ferrari, tho, and they are built tough, so I'd not shy away from the cheaper high mileage ones that were driven, versus the overpriced garage decorations. I've driven both 488 and 458 on the track, hard, and I like them, but you can feel it's not an analog car, the rear e-diff is always managing the car for you, even with the main ESC turned off. You couldn't put down 600HP with an open diff without it.

 

[rjm98107]

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McLaren dealers were giving very good deals on the Artura because it's not selling. I was looking at a used one in a beautiful emerald color which would have been about $180k with about 5,000 miles on it. I decided against it for one reason; there is only a single tire which works with the car, the Pirelli Cybertire. The car doesn't work with normal TPMS. These CyberTire sensors are integrated into the tire, and at the time, nobody figured how to swap them over. I think they're glued on under some rubber sheet. There is only a single summer tire available from Pirelli with this sensor, so this is the only tire you can run. If the car doesn't have that sensor in the tire, it limits performance. It's ridiculous. The McLaren dealers bought out all the inventory of this tire, and were selling them for stupid prices, over $1k/tire. As someone who enjoys going to the track, and shredding tires, as well as driving all winter, snow be damned, I need to have a tire selection, including snow tires.
...

wow, the tire thing is in an incredibly useful observation. I wonder though... a quick google search suggests that the car ECU doesn't limit performance, per se. One suggestion I saw was that it falls back on standard traction control algorithms (and of course, the TPMS warning), so I wonder whether this is confirmed by McLaren? I couldn't find an official response (though, I only searched for 15 seconds, lol).

Still a major bummer, though, bc even if the ECU isn't limiting anything, you lose TPMS. Proprietary tech is bad enough in so many places... but in your tires themselves! good grief...

Interesting that you found the interior nicer. I'm not wowed by my Emira's interior, so that's also worrisome.