October 3rd, 2024 I finally took delivery of my Dark Verdant Emira 2.0 Turbo FE with Tan interior and Silver wheels and Yellow calipers. It’s got the Alcantara steering wheel with yellow stripe. Even though it has Sports suspension, I chose the Continental F1 tires since I will drive mostly on regular steeets including in the rain, so I did not feel I needed track focused Michelin tires. (I actually have Michelin PS4S on both of my BMW vehicles (an Slpina B3 Touring F31 and a BMW 335i Cabriolet E93).
It was raining on Oct 3 and I left Lotus Tokyo (LCI) Harajuku about 16:30 and drove Meiji street to Shinjuku and took a left on Yasukuni street and into Omekaido. My goal was Ogikubo where I brought the car to «Polish Up» for polishing and Hi-MOHS ceramic coating. I have decided to not go for PPF for the time being, because I am not yet convinced that it is worth the cost, or even neccessary. I also hear rumors that it may require frequent maintenance and updating.. I am still not categorically against it.
A couple of things: I am very pleased with the way Kuwata-san of Lotus Tokyo Harajuku has taken care of me throughout the prolonged wait for the car (over 3 years), and I think he is really the best person for this job. I have truly enjoyed going in to talk with him on regular intervals, so I bow to him in respect.
Regarding the one hour drive through rain snd heavy traffic, everything regarding the car and DCT gear system worked perfectly. It was easy to get the car into forward gear, and equally easy to reverse. One must simply lest how this gear lever system work slightly different from a regular automatic (torque converter). For this particular drive I kept the car in Touring mode, and the gear system in Automated mode. The suspension felt very tight and firm (the way I like it), but never uncomfortably so. The engine always felt strong and potent with a certain «grunt» of determination. It was a satisfying and pleasing drive, despite the challenging road conditions.
On the last section through Ogikubo I had to go through some very narrow one-way streets, and to get into the workshop, I had to drive into a pedestrian pavement, and also turn into and across a street (actually a part of Kanpachi) while the staff watched oncoming traffic. Next I had to reverse the car while turning and aligning it into the fairly tight workshop space. All of this worked out well. To me it told me that the Emira is quite maneuverable to obtain prescision positioning, so I am very pleased with the way I could control it in every respect.
I guess this was a kind of different test of this sports car’s abilities, especially since the maximum speed did never exceed 50 km/h under the congested traffic conditions.
By the way; did you notice that I have chosen the number <139> for the licence plate (lots of Emira has got <131> for Lotus Type 131? Lotus was for the first time in a non-Mercedes car given the opportunity to use the hand assembled (one technician builds one engine from beginning to end) Mercedes AMG M139 with AMG dual clutch gearbox DCT 8G. This combination is slightly lighter and results in a lower point of gravity for this 4-cylinder version of the Emira.
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