- Joined
- Aug 6, 2021
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- Location
- DC/Virginia, USA
- Emira Status
- Emira Owner
Hello all! I'm close to finalizing my spec with my dealer and I'm having second thoughts about all sorts of things. The biggest being the interior.
I'll be doing Magma Red, and I like the concept of the Tan Nappa leather interior to lighten and richen the experience inside a bit... but every time I look at the configurator again I start to second-guess myself. I think it's just that the peanut butter color they use on the rendering is simply too smooth, because on screen it looks like plastic. And the weird spy shot "seat on a platform in the factory, but it's a cellphone shot of an image on a computer screen" that was posted online hasn't helped matters because it looked awful there.
The images released thus far of the Lotus seats in recent prototypes make the "leather" look like the vinyl Sensatec material that BMW uses on their lower-end seats, and the Lotus test swatches I saw at the roadshow just don't look like premium leather to me either, they were too smooth/uniform and felt too thin. Maybe it's the size of the sample, or maybe it's just not the same leather they're actually using on the seats. Ultimately I just don't want to take delivery of the car and then feel like I'm surrounded by an acre of thin, soft, peanut butter flavored vinyl with no visual or tactile interest.
My struggle is that what I want out of a tan or brown leather is an actual leather appearance, either with some surface grain or some dye variation or something to indicate that it's a hand-crafted piece of animal hide that's been expertly formed into a seating surface. I want it to approximate the look and feel of an expensive piece of luggage, like a nice leather bag, and gain some patina over time through use and contact. That's what gives good leather a large amount of its beauty. Usually the term "Nappa leather" indicates that it's full grain, high quality leather stock. In the absence of more info about what Lotus is using though, it seems like it could be just a marketing term in this case.
At least the Dakota option leather in my BMW has surface grain texture, perceptible thickness to the cut, and some slight variation in color as it wraps around edges. In the automotive world, the best visually high-quality leather I've ever seen in a non-exotic production car was the original Audi TT with one of the "baseball stitch" leather options... truly amazing tan leather seating. I mean, guys... we're now in a world where the Nissan Sentra is winning Ward's 10 Best awards for the quality of its quilted tan leather seating. It even has the black stripe like Lotus is doing, and the leather along the top of the seat has visible grain texture. I don't get what Nissan is thinking with that kind of investment in the Sentra, but it's a useful data point as we consider what Lotus is doing with the seating in the Emira.
Has anyone actually sat in or touched any of the colored leather options on a real seat in the Lotus facility at Hethel? @TomE ? Can you tell anything about the real-world appearance of the leather in the finished product? Is it visually identifiable as leather, as opposed to a synthetic?
And does anyone else have these doubts about the tan? Should I switch to Alcantara just to get some visual satisfaction out of the materials contrast, even if it's ultimately just recycled soda bottles?
Thanks, y'all.
I'll be doing Magma Red, and I like the concept of the Tan Nappa leather interior to lighten and richen the experience inside a bit... but every time I look at the configurator again I start to second-guess myself. I think it's just that the peanut butter color they use on the rendering is simply too smooth, because on screen it looks like plastic. And the weird spy shot "seat on a platform in the factory, but it's a cellphone shot of an image on a computer screen" that was posted online hasn't helped matters because it looked awful there.
The images released thus far of the Lotus seats in recent prototypes make the "leather" look like the vinyl Sensatec material that BMW uses on their lower-end seats, and the Lotus test swatches I saw at the roadshow just don't look like premium leather to me either, they were too smooth/uniform and felt too thin. Maybe it's the size of the sample, or maybe it's just not the same leather they're actually using on the seats. Ultimately I just don't want to take delivery of the car and then feel like I'm surrounded by an acre of thin, soft, peanut butter flavored vinyl with no visual or tactile interest.
My struggle is that what I want out of a tan or brown leather is an actual leather appearance, either with some surface grain or some dye variation or something to indicate that it's a hand-crafted piece of animal hide that's been expertly formed into a seating surface. I want it to approximate the look and feel of an expensive piece of luggage, like a nice leather bag, and gain some patina over time through use and contact. That's what gives good leather a large amount of its beauty. Usually the term "Nappa leather" indicates that it's full grain, high quality leather stock. In the absence of more info about what Lotus is using though, it seems like it could be just a marketing term in this case.
At least the Dakota option leather in my BMW has surface grain texture, perceptible thickness to the cut, and some slight variation in color as it wraps around edges. In the automotive world, the best visually high-quality leather I've ever seen in a non-exotic production car was the original Audi TT with one of the "baseball stitch" leather options... truly amazing tan leather seating. I mean, guys... we're now in a world where the Nissan Sentra is winning Ward's 10 Best awards for the quality of its quilted tan leather seating. It even has the black stripe like Lotus is doing, and the leather along the top of the seat has visible grain texture. I don't get what Nissan is thinking with that kind of investment in the Sentra, but it's a useful data point as we consider what Lotus is doing with the seating in the Emira.
Has anyone actually sat in or touched any of the colored leather options on a real seat in the Lotus facility at Hethel? @TomE ? Can you tell anything about the real-world appearance of the leather in the finished product? Is it visually identifiable as leather, as opposed to a synthetic?
And does anyone else have these doubts about the tan? Should I switch to Alcantara just to get some visual satisfaction out of the materials contrast, even if it's ultimately just recycled soda bottles?
Thanks, y'all.
