So until recently, demonstrator drives were restricted to those who had put down deposits. Many of whom were still frustrated as the biggest decision is Tour vs Sports chassis, and dealers didn't have one of each to allow a comparison.
I went for an accompanied test drive today. About 45mins, but I didn't know the area, so it was actually a reasonable way to assess it on different roads/surfaces/yadayada. Same car that I looked at and pictured a couple of weeks ago (spotted thread). It's a V6 manuel with Sport chassis, and the Gooyyear F1 tyres (as opposed to Cup2's).
Dealership had 11 Emira there - between the showroom, and forecourt. All "first edition" V6 cars of course. All of the 1st-edition colours were there, all the wheel options, some with the "black pack", some without. Quite nice to see the variations.
We've discussed the visuals before. It looks great, and the proportions work really nicely. As per the pic (rotated a smidge as we were parked on a hill) - Emira is both wider and lower than Evora.
Interior materials and layout look and feel very nice. Defo feels a bit more "premium" than the Evora. Not massively keen on the touch-screen for HVAC etc, but the main binacle display (inc nav in the centre) is clear and intuitive. Front seats are Lotus (as opposed to Recaro/Sparco branded in Evora) and felt very comfortable. Firm but supportive, and no flexing. Electric adjust though, so sliding it back to ease ingress/egress took an extra 2 seconds vs manual sliders. That would annoy me.
Rearward visibility is great (although the interior mirror is way bigger than the rear window aperture for some reason
So you can keep a good eye on the trim in the back of the cabin maybe? Exterior mirrors nice and swoopy, but also effective. Front screen is deeper too. Very easy to place on the road, with the sharp edges to the front wings.
But the important question was - how does it drive? I'd need a
lot longer behind the wheel to form any real opinions, but it was a fair bit stiffer than my Evora. A long way from crashy or uncompliant, but the ride firmness felt much closer to Pete's 600LT than my car. I always suspected, and this probably confirms that, I'd favour the Tour chassis for my road-as-opposed-to-track use. Steering is still hydraulic, so no surprise that it felt extremely familiar in terms of feel/feedback. Aka lovely. I didn't get a chance to push the chassis, so I don't have any real feel for the benefits that extra stiffness brings - but there must be some.
Flat top and bottom to the steering wheel didn't really annoy me, as I don't really make contact with those bits. Interestingly the (exposed) gearshift has a shorter throw - which felt nice - but I'd guess the knob sits approx 40mm higher in relation to the Evora's (which doesn't have height adjust on the seat) and was a smidge less comfortable as a result. Maybe this difference would have effectively dissappeared if I'd raised the seat, but I was happy with that set low.
Brakes felt powerful, but also felt more heavily servoed, and it was therefore a bit trickier to H&T. Almost certainly not an issue with more seat time.
And what about the power delivery/straight-line speed/noise. Weeeeell. As I started the car up the sales guy advised "now this car only arrived recently, and it's still within the 1000mile run-in period, so whilst you can feel free to use full throttle, I need to ask you to avoid going over 4k rpm". Ah balls.
Entirely reasonable, but if I'd known, I would have delayed my drive by a few weeks. "I'm not going to get a full impression of how it drives then I'm afraid". Being an early Evora, my car has the smaller 'charger, but this allows a 7.2krpm redline. Later Evora/Exige and now Emira have a bigger charger, stronger outputs, but a 6.8krpm redline. I was keen to see if that loss of (rev)range annoyed, or if the extra shove made it immaterial......
So it is quieter than my car (which has 2bular fannymoulds + sports cat and oem back box), and the mid-range feels strong (I did FULLY EXTEND IT to 4.5krpm once though, offering me barely any additional information). No idea what happens after that unfortunately.
Got back to the dealership, and agreed there was a lot to like, but I couldn't really form any
real opinion until I'd been able to explore the full powerband. Bit of a shame.
I remain interested, but in no desperate rush to grab one. Orders are (almost?) closed for 1st edition cars, and the configurator now shows a wider range of colour options. No "crisp" white on offer (like one of the early press cars that I thought looked great) but there is a kinda creamy white.... which looks a bit shit.
https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/emira
Elevated knob
Vs newer Evora
