Emira arriving in April, coming from a Mac 720s

[Econ]

Hey everyone,

Checkin in from Manhattan. I recently placed a deposit on a 2025 Emira, scheduled to arrive stateside in mid-April. I'm looking forward to getting back into a Lotus. Previous fun cars, which I have since sold, include a McLaren 720s, McLaren 570s, Audi R8 V10, and a Lotus Evora 400.

The Macs, while insanely fun, were becoming too expensive to track (I do about 20 days / year), so I'm looking forward to the Emira.

Not my car, but this is essentially the spec that is coming

 

[supersix]

Welcome to the forum @Econ and congrats on the order!

 

[VL3X]

Welcome @Econ! Which track(s) do you go to?

I'm interested in hearing your comparison and feedback once you take delivery and get some seat time (great spec btw!). I was extremely close to buying a 570S while waiting for my Emira (2+ years waiting and ended up getting an Evora GT instead). No regrets here, but those McLaren drives were certainly fun! Not sure I'd want to own one though.

 

[MiamiBlue]

I (and many others I'm sure) will be interested to know how it compares to the McLaren 720S. My guess is the drop in performance will be significant, but hopefully the driver enjoyment will not be such a drop. I'm not sure what the McLaren rev range was like? But coming from a higher reving car I was initially annoyed by constantly hitting the rev limit. But you adapt and reprogram your brain and it's fine. (Edit: this is a V6 issue, which variant are you getting?).

Servicing I find very reasonable. It's cheap compared to my Porsche, and I suspect doubly so coming from McLaren. One of the perks of using mass produced 'off the shelf' components rather than all bespoke parts.

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

Great spec. I'm also in the city. I head up to Lime Rock and NJMP a lot. Let's hang.

 

[Econ]

Yes, I am happy to share comparisons once I get it on track. I had an evora 400 years ago, so I vaguely recall what to expect. That said, the 720s was in another league, and won't really make for a fair comparison. As for tracks, I am mainly at NYST but do Monticello, NJMP, and LR on occasion. Here is some eye candy from previous track cars. My insta is MKM.NYC for more.

 

[Econ]

I (and many others I'm sure) will be interested to know how it compares to the McLaren 720S. My guess is the drop in performance will be significant, but hopefully the driver enjoyment will not be such a drop. I'm not sure what the McLaren rev range was like? But coming from a higher reving car I was initially annoyed by constantly hitting the rev limit. But you adapt and reprogram your brain and it's fine. (Edit: this is a V6 issue, which variant are you getting?).

Servicing I find very reasonable. It's cheap compared to my Porsche, and I suspect doubly so coming from McLaren. One of the perks of using mass produced 'off the shelf' components rather than all bespoke parts.

720s revved to 8,500, so the 6,800 is going to take some time to adjust to. My Emira is a v6 manual. I'm assuming being in a more analog car again will be fun.

Mainly, it will be fun not worrying about $3K fluid changes, $1,500 in labor to change tires/alignment, and $12K brake jobs. I would have kept the 720s if I wasn't tracking it regularly.

To put 720s costs in perspective, I had 1 wheel go off-road (about a 5 inch drop) on a pretty tight turn. Ended up cracking the subframe (though it was just cosmetic damage at the time and drove it to the mclaren shop). Parts and labor was $130,000. Details here for the curious:

 

[Tobiasz17azs]

720s revved to 8,500, so the 6,800 is going to take some time to adjust to. My Emira is a v6 manual. I'm assuming being in a more analog car again will be fun.

Mainly, it will be fun not worrying about $3K fluid changes, $1,500 in labor to change tires/alignment, and $12K brake jobs. I would have kept the 720s if I wasn't tracking it regularly.

To put 720s costs in perspective, I had 1 wheel go off-road (about a 5 inch drop) on a pretty tight turn. Ended up cracking the subframe (though it was just cosmetic damage at the time and drove it to the mclaren shop). Parts and labor was $130,000. Details here for the curious:

It’s all about fun—you can still tune the Emira to 7,200 RPM. I know it’s not the 720S revs, but it’s still a bit higher than the stock 6,800 RPM. Since you’ve had an Evora 400, you know what to expect in terms of performance and maintenance. The Emira’s running costs will be 10 times cheaper than a McLaren if you’re hitting the track often—and on top of that, it’s an absolute beauty.

Congratulations

 

[smhoward]

Congrats we’re going to be twinning I have the same spec but I got the I4

 

[Cinco6950]

Having moved from my manual 911S to a red 570S followed by a valcano orange 570S I yearned to return to a manual. Hence, the 6 manual Emira was up next. Hyper car versus sports car. I have no regrets as the Lotus is tons of fun with lots of curb appeal. Enjoy!

 

[OppositeLock]

I test drove a bunch of cars when I bought my Emira, and my top two were the Emira and a Mac 600LT. I enjoy the track, and do it a lot.

Looking into the McLaren costs, it was kinda nutty. The car was a CPO, meaning, fully warrantied by McLaren. To stay current on the warranty, you needed to pay for a $600 pre-trackday, and an $600 post-trackday inspection. If you skip these, you lose the warranty (it's about $6-8k/year for the warranty). The brake rotors were $8k each, they last 3-4 track days. The brake pads were $1200 per axle. Now, there were much less expensive aftermarket alternatives, so I'd have gone with those, but the other incidentals are high too. Transmission services/calibrations every 20k miles (or more frequently when tracking), etc. Worst case, you blow an engine, it's $85k for a new one before labor. Figuring on using aftermarket brakes, and assuming 200 hours off an engine (which is a lot, actually. My Elise engines lasted less than that), I was predicting an amortized maintenance, wear & tear cost of about $8k/trackday, and I think I'm probably low-balling it.

This is why I went with the Emira. It's 3/4 the car for 1/2 the money, and significantly lower running costs.

Anyhow, welcome, @Econ. enjoy the hell out of that thing. I took mine to the track the moment I hit 1,000 miles and changed the oil, and now, I'm already changing out the suspension, wheels and tires. It's a really fun car. It doesn't play the same game as the McLarens, but it's super responsive and fun to drive, and more engaging because of the manual transmission.

 

[seriously]

Look forward to the comparison also. Surely performance will be different but you just can’t replicate the engagement from a manual transmission. Less speed, but more fun!