The Lotus Emira is one of the greats.
Lotus has been around since 1948, narrowly averting financial disaster over the last 75 years thanks to a series of corporate owners and a small, rabid fanbase. Yet the automaker from the tiny English hamlet of Hethel has had an outsize influence on the automotive industry, with revolutionary cars and a consultancy that has helped engineer some of the greatest handling vehicles ever.
The first new model to come after that acquisition is this, the Emira. It’s also the first to come from Lotus’s brand new factory, with tighter tolerances, increased automation, and a brand new paint shop that aims to move the build quality in line with cars from Germany, instead of cars from a barn.
Like the Evora, the Emira still uses a 3.5 liter supercharged V-6 sourced from Toyota, linked to a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic, both made by Aisin. In the Emira, it makes 400 hp and 310 lb-ft. It’s more exciting than it would be in a Camry, but the engine runs out of steam just before its 7000 rpm redline. The gearbox is just okay, the action can be clunky and heavy. The Porsche Cayman’s six-speed manual is far more satisfying to operate.
Two out of three. There are two suspension setups, both on fixed dampers, so changing the drive mode won’t change ride quality. Sport is the harder of the two, intended for the owner who will track the car, while touring has lower spring and damper rates and is designed for cars that will be road driven almost exclusively. The pre-production car Lotus provided had the sport suspension. On English motorways and backroads in Wales, it proved too harsh.
You used to have to explain a Lotus; why you paid so much for a car with panel gaps big enough to stick a hand through. Why your sports car had a Camry’s engine. Why you didn’t just buy a Porsche. Those annoyances were the cover charge and in return you got an unparalleled driving experience. Now there’s a well-built, gorgeous, and brilliant to drive car carrying that same badge. And at $93,090 for a First Edition, it costs less than its predecessor and is the best driving car in its class.
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