Evora, or Emira, which is the better looking car

I'm still somewhat on the fence on which car is the better looking one overall. I've only seen the evora IRL. From the front, the emira takes the cake for me. But I find the rear of the evora *way* better looking. The round tail lights really do it for me. The sweeping tail light on the emira reminds me of clunky American sedans (think mercury or Lincoln, likely driven by someone born before 1940). And the renders people have done of the emira with round lights look amazing. I find this to be such a confusing and disappointing design choice.

What do y'all think?

For me, personally. Emira. It's the car that has brought me to the brand.

The first generation Evora always had a slightly awkward shape to me at the front. The later more chiseled ones are better.

Exige is nice looking but too basic inside for me so that one is out too.

That’s an easy one. Emira for me…
Much more fluid from front to rear and the integrated aero is a win. Side profile is much more organic and less slabby towards the rear 3/4. The proportion are just way better with bigger wheels. Headlights are more dynamic looking.
Although I do like the slotted engine cover of the Evora.

The Evora is interesting to look at, as in "ooh, that looks exotic and fast", but the Emira makes it look like the goofy buck-toothed cousin who has a hunch back and one leg shorter than the other. There are just some weird angles and design choices that don't quite gel for me, especially around the roof. The Emira is just miles more cohesive and balanced once you see it in the flesh... so much better in the flesh * daydream-drool *

Funnily enough, I find the rounded tail lights more dated-looking than the sweeping light bar design, but hey... opinions and a-holes

ADC said:

The Evora is interesting to look at, as in "ooh, that looks exotic and fast", but the Emira makes it look like the goofy buck-toothed cousin who has a hunch back and one leg shorter than the other.

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Nearly splurted coffee over my keyboard with that comment I agree though - I really like the Evora but the Emira is a far more cohesive design. I never liked the 'mouth' on the front of the original Evora, then the front bumper went too angular and square with the 400. To my eyes it wasn't until the GT410/430 that the front of the Evora looked the way it should have done from the start.

I suspect that a really big factor in the huge order book for the Emira is just the way it looks - on that basis Russell Carr and the team nailed the design.

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For me the Emira indeed looks pretty / beautiful..........however a kind of a budget / copied Ferrari........conform Top Gear it has a "baby super car appearance".
The latest Evora GT 410 looks as a one of a kind, very special and raw, agressive and for me very attractive.
In the future you will see the Emira "everywhere" wheres the Evora will become an exclusive status and the last analogue hand build Lotus.
However I am aware that with my opinion I belong to the minority.

Seen them both side by side and “pretty” is not the word that describes the Evora. I find the design more aggressive, exotic and purposeful. Looks better in person. Having a black roof helps with the somewhat awkward roof line.

This one is for you, elromulous

Whenever I opened the garage to see my Evora S looking straight at me I always thought what a great looking car. I was less convinced about the rear look however.
It was a great car but was moved on at the end of last year to make space for the Emira.

elromulous said:

I'm still somewhat on the fence on which car is the better looking one overall. I've only seen the evora IRL. From the front, the emira takes the cake for me. But I find the rear of the evora *way* better looking. The round tail lights really do it for me. The sweeping tail light on the emira reminds me of clunky American sedans (think mercury or Lincoln, likely driven by someone born before 1940). And the renders people have done of the emira with round lights look amazing. I find this to be such a confusing and disappointing design choice.

What do y'all think?

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The Emira is a much more balanced and complete design. There might be single elements of the Evora that look better in isolation, but it doesn’t make the Evora a better looking car overall. The Evora is mostly nice looking, the Emira is gorgeous.

I agree the tail light signature is the weakest part of the Emira’s design (I still think it looks great, but it’s not as striking as it could be) but I really don’t think the round lights off past Lotus would work on this language. Instead, I would have loved to see something more like the Eletre on the rear of this car.

This is a really bad photoshop by me, quick and dirty, and obviously doesn’t take into account how the rest of the lines flow around the car to meet this design… but just trying to give an example of what I’m talking about above. Something like this is a bit more dramatic and distinctive (when implemented correctly, which I have not done).

I’m nitpicking though, I think they knocked the Emira out of the park from a design perspective - inside and out it’s my favorite car since the Evija, which I think is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

The Evora is certainly better in person than in photos, but if Lotus had just released one last Evora before transitioning to EV’s, I suspect the market reaction would have been lukewarm at best. The Emira’s design is about the only thing keeping the company afloat for the next few years.

I think the Evora is ugly on the outside and inside. I will admit that I liked it better in person. I don't even think they are in the same league. Lotus has had so many hits and misses over the years for styling. I think the Emira is better looking than a Ferrari or Lamborghini. They really got this one right.

It's not even close.
The Emira flows so well from one angle to the next.
To me the Emira looks great from every single angle, not something you can say about most sports cars.
I find the Evora just doesn't flow well from one view/angle to another.
C8 Corvette is much worse than the Evora, too many sharp angles, a cohesive mess.
GT4 looks pretty good for the most part, just a little dated and not nearly as exotic as the Emira.

Bren said:

The Emira is a much more balanced and complete design. There might be single elements of the Evora that look better in isolation, but it doesn’t make the Evora a better looking car overall. The Evora is mostly nice looking, the Emira is gorgeous.

I agree the tail light signature is the weakest part of the Emira’s design (I still think it looks great, but it’s not as striking as it could be) but I really don’t think the round lights off past Lotus would work on this language. Instead, I would have loved to see something more like the Eletre on the rear of this car.

This is a really bad photoshop by me, quick and dirty, and obviously doesn’t take into account how the rest of the lines flow around the car to meet this design… but just trying to give an example of what I’m talking about above. Something like this is a bit more dramatic and distinctive (when implemented correctly, which I have not done).

I’m nitpicking though, I think they knocked the Emira out of the park from a design perspective - inside and out it’s my favorite car since the Evija, which I think is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

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That looks amazing. Challenge would have been the 911 copying accusations that would fly around.

Would unify the design language with the Eletra

elromulous said:

I'm still somewhat on the fence on which car is the better looking one overall. I've only seen the evora IRL. From the front, the emira takes the cake for me. But I find the rear of the evora *way* better looking. The round tail lights really do it for me. The sweeping tail light on the emira reminds me of clunky American sedans (think mercury or Lincoln, likely driven by someone born before 1940). And the renders people have done of the emira with round lights look amazing. I find this to be such a confusing and disappointing design choice.

What do y'all think?

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Emira. Its just a different animal completely. The Emira design is somehow able to achieve modern, aggressive, supercar styling with classic retro appeal. Im very impressed with how its able to do both without leaving one or the other lacking. Its just kind of bazaar and classically subtle at the same time.

Israel_7 said:

Emira. Its just a different animal completely. The Emira design is somehow able to achieve modern, aggressive, supercar styling with classic retro appeal. Im very impressed with how its able to do both without leaving one or the other lacking. Its just kind of bazaar and classically subtle at the same time.

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Other automakers have tried this many times and it just didn't work for me. I came away thinking they should have just gone forward with something completely new and modern or they should have done a refresh on the old design. Its something about the lines or the flow in the design of Lotus cars that makes new design models (in particularly the Emira) futuristic with respect to classic sports cars without looking odd or off. Just beautiful car designs. The Evora GT, Exige Cup 430, and the Emira are some of the most ridiculous car designs that can be had at those price points.

Rudolph said:

In the future you will see the Emira "everywhere" wheres the Evora will become an exclusive status and the last analogue hand build Lotus.

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Don't worry on that front, I think the production process has been far less automated than they had hoped, talked about, and planned-for. Many, many things on the Emira are still being hand-finished. It remains to be seen how much they will be able to process-improve and streamline those labor-intensive steps over the next year. Right now only the core chassis assembly seems to have been robot-automated, and they are still doing hand work on those too, before and after the robots.

Remember when they were getting rid of in-house upholstery? And yet we see images like this from Lotus's own image galleries online. I think the new Emira assembly hall with the fancy robotic moving-workpiece platforms is a better, more efficient environment than the old way, but a lot of the hands-on stuff associated with the build process of the older cars is still happening.



I suspect that one of the biggest improvements to cost and time in the production process is the design stage re-think of how the body panels are made (off-site, to spec) and how they attach to the car (bolt on, no clamshell). It's now a more conventional car to build and repair, while retaining all the key strengths of the Lotus bonded-aluminum chassis architecture.

In my personal opinion, the production process for the Emira and the Evora seem to have a lot more in common with one another than either car does with any other manufacturer's production system.

The Emira looks like it is a finished piece of art, I had looked at the Evora but I lusted after the Emira and spent the cash

You're asking this on an Emira enthusiast forum, so the response is going to be biased... That being said, the Emira is the more beautiful car. The body lines are drop dead georgous and it's attracting all sorts of new potential buyers to the brand. In my opinion, the Emira is the best looking modern production sportscar out there. The Vantage, 765LT/720S, F8/812, etc.. All beautiful, but also 2.. 3.. 4.. 5 times the price of the Emira.

I'm not saying the Evora isn't great looking either! I just see it more as an alien rocketship that looks really cool at certain angles and a little quirky at others. The average person might not be attracted to it, but the Emira has a demanding presence of beauty which nearly everyone can appreciate.

My vote is the Emira hands down. However, in my opinion the "weakest part" of the Emira is the rear. I personally love round tail lights but as mentioned in this thread, that wouldn't work well on the flowing Emira. Also I am not a fan of the single tailpipe on the Evora. However, in the right color scheme Evora's look down right fast and very sporty.

Emiras look good in any color. Including the 7 BASE colors we haven't seen yet.

Pegasi said:

Emiras look good in any color. Including the 7 BASE colors we haven't seen yet.

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Don't forget the 3 FE colors that we ALSO haven't seen yet.

The only colors that have been seen on completed cars are the blue, the dark grey, and the yellow. The rest are still mostly guesses based on some grainy, poorly-lit sneaky snaps from the production floor. It is months overdue for Lotus to simply put their cards on the table.