Coming from 4C into Lotus Emira

Hi guys !

It has been few months going through different topics and learning a lot about the Emira here in the forums.
So many insights and testimonials that helped me made few decisions including buying the Lotus Emira.

So Thanks !

Just a quick background about me, I have never owned a Lotus before, but have owned a few sport cars and have been in an AlfaRomeo 4C for the last 4 years. I jumped in the track activities for almost 10 years now and really like to enjoy and compete with my cars on racing circuits, mostly TimeAttack competitons.

The 4C is a fun car, not easy to drive fast. I have competed with it in stock form and with slight modifications like exhaust, tune, suspension and light wheels. Even though the drive was improved significantly, the performance was never satisfying. And since I miss driving a manual car with more power, I started looking for something rather new.

The Lotus Emira ticked all the boxes for me, fun to drive, unique looking with manual transmission. The design itself was far more beautiful than any car in this segment and that to me matters the most, as you can always improve the rest of the car if you like.

In our part of the world, you don't to get to build your Lotus but rather choose from whatever the dealer has configured and brought. The issue was all the lovely colors available were in auto ! the only available colors for the manual transmission now is either Black or White with both having black interior. So I have picked one and I will share the pictures once I see it next week hopefully. I am going with 2024 YM as they are a bit cheaper than the 2025 available so I can spend some money on the mods.

Moving forward, and knowing how hot the climate here and trying to save time to bring the Emira up to the right performance level (for me at least) I have chosen to do the JUBU 460 package as a start. I have seen many did the 440 here on the forums but never seen someone going with 460 package. After exchanging few emails with JUBU, we will be doing this package as it reduces the heat generated and reduces the supercharger load a bit which is essential for me.

I am also adding the aero parts from JUBU, the wing and the front splitter to get it dialed in, plus I like how the Emira looks with that swan neck wing. I am still trying to decide on the suspension and wheels but we will see. And yes, the dealer is not sure which suspension package the Emira has so I will check that once the car is here.

I will try to do more details in the journals hopefully, but wanted to share some of the background here with you !
Wish me luck getting the car soon ! Thanks.

Welcome and good luck with the hunt (coming from another 4C owner).

Welcome! (Coming from another previous 4C owner as well)

Same here, great car and technology for the price. I don't think we'll ever see another CF tub car for under a 100K like we did with the 4C. Oh, and that pedal box!

Nice 4C. I almost pulled the trigger on one right before I bought my Evora. Beautiful and capable car.

Love the look of your 4C, I'd imagine that was a bit twitchy in OEM configuration on track.
Good luck with your Emira, based on your approach to the 4C you'll most likely end up with a cracking track car. I've spent more money than I'll ever admit to tuning my V6 Exige engine and trans to produce a reliable, repeatable 460bhp....and it's still a work in progress! Great car though.

Nice 4C, Hope you find the Lotus you want!

I remember the 4C coming out. I was tempted at £45K, and it was surprisingly quick for the stats. I'm guessing in stock form the Emira isn't actually much faster, if any? The 4C still remains a rare sight here on the roads.

I'm interested in how much extra performance you get with the +40 and +60 upgrades. They seem expensive, but I think we've been spoilt by cheap software tunes that turn up the turbo pressure for easy big gains, (obviously not an option on our V6's, but if they ever crack the i4 ECU there are going to be 450-500bhp maps available in quick order).

Welcome to the journey.

MiamiBlue said:

I remember the 4C coming out. I was tempted at £45K, and it was surprisingly quick for the stats. I'm guessing in stock form the Emira isn't actually much faster, if any? The 4C still remains a rare sight here on the roads.

I'm interested in how much extra performance you get with the +40 and +60 upgrades. They seem expensive, but I think we've been spoilt by cheap software tunes that turn up the turbo pressure for easy big gains, (obviously not an option on our V6's, but if they ever crack the i4 ECU there are going to be 450-500bhp maps available in quick order).

Welcome to the journey.

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Well, I'm hoping the performance of the Lotus is considerably better.

The 4C has few issues in stock form if you want to track it (So is a lot of sport cars). Challenging alignment, unjustified turbo lag (at least for me), lack of power, etc. On normal street use, it is mostly fun car and can amaze many people in low-speed acceleration.

My humble trial with it was an overall great experience, it has been with me for 4 years and I can't complain much but I have reached a limit where I need something new and more powerful, hence the Emira choice.

The JUBU +60 is certainly not cheap, not even close, but I need specific parts for the track and JUBU looks like they have that kind of expertise. Plus, this is available now, the i4 is still not known when it will happen still.

How much power and improvements I will get .. that is something I will come to know after installing all of the parts .. then only I can judge.

PS: Car not received yet, hopefully soon. Must be super crazy to order all of these parts before receiving the car ! lol.

UPDATE !

The Emira has finally arrived. And getting ready to be delivered.



Thanks for your kind words, everyone, I was a bit surprise that we have some previous 4C owners coming from the same background. I guess great minds think alike. Moving forward, I will do my own Journal thread for all the bits and pieces for my new Emira for anyone who is interested.

The 4C was a modern day Elise/Exige. It's what the "Elige" platform should have eventually evolved into. It was sublime, once you tuned the suspension. Unfortunately, instead of LOTUS reliability, you got Alfa's which wasn't necessarily worse, just "Italian". In any case, if you like small, easy to work on, mid-engined platformed cars, you couldn't help but own a 4C at some point. I personally loved mine on day 1 and loved it even more on the last day when I sold it 3 transmissions later (all under warranty, sold 2 months before warranty expiration).

Yeah, 4C to Emira seems like a logical move to me. Similar design ethos. Carbon fibre tub! I would have bought one if they only came with a different transmission.