The great big "all the customer test drives" thread

Vanman1936 said:

Had my test drive yesterday at Bell and Colvill.

Nimbus grey
Red leather
Manual
Touring
Goodyear tyres

Weather was damp / greasy and rather cold.

Car was well run in with 5,000 miles

30 min test drive on a mix of roads, no restrictions on revs nor how I drove

Looks
- simply epic, I have switched blue to green to grey and think grey really shows off the lines

Interior
- clean, good quality, simple
- seats - comfortable, didn’t notice them to be honest (must be good) - I am 5ft 9 and 13.5st with size 10 feet, shorter legs (I am not a hobbit!)
- stereo - sounds pretty good to me
- good view front and rear
- useful space behind you, 2x cabin bags would fit

Pedals / gearbox
- slightly offset pedals, but no issues for me
- gear change nice and notchy, took a little to get used to but second nature after 15 mins
- clutch is a good weight, certainly not heavy

Power
- linear with an increasing urgency above 4,000
- earlier test drives would not have given any sense of occasion in my view with a rev cap
- sounds great from the outside, less exhaust note and more transmission noise on the inside (probably the biggest “negative” for me)
- overall a relatively flexible engine that enjoys being revved with enough grunt for the road

Brakes
- felt great with good feel, didn’t really get to test them

Handling / ride
- steering incredibly direct
- didn’t notice any understeer (but you shouldn’t be at that level on the road to be honest), tight turn with a bit of power gave a slight front end slip but the roads were very greasy. Back end felt rock solid
- excellent ride over mixed surfaces inc pot holes
- feels small

In summary, I really liked it: it feels special and great at road legal speeds. I have zero interest in a cayman (done the 911 thing) so don’t care how they compare, Alpine just doesn’t do it for me for some reason (looks, engine) but fair play to anyone who has one. So it’s in a league of its own really for me and just a case of if I want it.

Anecdotally my chaperone said very few cancellations and it has been totally reliable aside from a tyre pressure warning light.

I strongly advise those that have read some of the earlier less glowing reviews (comparing it to GT4 RS etc) to go drive one before you say it’s a missed opportunity, poor turn in / understeer, terrible gear box, awful seats etc….I found none of these to be true.

Overall my experience chimed well with Harry’s Garage video and I am 100% staying in.

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Nice review, feels like a more natural/unbiased one - not just swayed by YouTubers

Vanman1936 said:

Power
- linear with an increasing urgency above 4,000
- earlier test drives would not have given any sense of occasion in my view with a rev cap

Click to expand...

Agree 1000%

So, I had my test drive today at Bell & Colvill. Loads of people have test driven this car already, but here is my perspective.

TLDR;

The Emira is superb to drive. The Tour chassis dealt with the very mixed road surfaces EXCEPTIONALLY well - In my view, the damping they have put in the Tour chassis is PERFECT for the mix of roads we have in the UK. Overall visibility is OK, not great, but not bad. Very comfy to sit in and drive. Interior quality very good, although not quite up there with the very best…

Verdict: I am still IN!


Specs:

• First Edition
• V6 Manual
• Nimbus Grey
• Black Pack
• Red Leather
• Black Wheels
• Red Callipers
• Goodyear Tyres
• Tour Chassis

Exterior:

Overall impression - The proportions of the car are just spot on in my view - The roofline is nice and low and they haven't made the thing unnecessarily wide. The exterior body shape is… I want to say perfect… I am sure there will be little things that one might notice after longer than just an hour with the car, but I will go for that for now… Perfect!

Nimbus Grey - All I will say is it isn't my choice. I am certain some people will love it, but not for me.

Full Black Pack - Personal choice again but I love it in person as much as I love it in pictures, the black roof really adds that extra contrast and ties-in the rear engine cover / hatch. Not certain it works with the darker colours, but for those colours where you can see the contrast, it works fantastically well to my eyes.

Part of the Black Pack is the black LOTUS lettering on the rear, which just looks amazing, and ties in with the overall colour scheme of the car so much better than chrome lettering (there being a significant lack of many other chrome parts on the car exterior).

Also part of the Black Pack is the black exhaust tips - Again, in my view, they just suit the car way better than silver tips… However, I did notice that this car had some signs of surface rust coming up on the exhaust tips, probably a consequence of being driven so much on wet salty roads recently, but I do wonder how easy these are going to be to keep clean and rust free (not being able to polish them like you would with silver/chrome tips)?

Black Wheels - Now, I love a nice set of black wheels, and these look stunning, and I really like the hard contrast between the black wheels and lighter body colours (they did contrast well with the Nimbus body colour).

Red Callipers - Nice bright red and went well behind the black wheels.

Headlights - Only a little thing perhaps but the headlights look absolutely amazing in person, really love all of the little details in them.


Interior:

Red Leather - The Red interior looks absolutely stunning in person, just about the right mix of red vs black (although perhaps just a bit of black on the bolsters would have been even better, I don't know). Glad I went to see it in person - It is not as bright red and in your face as some pictures (and the configurator) make it out to be, but also not some washed-out salmon colour - For anyone considering it, I really do recommend trying to see a car fitted with it in person. Gets a big thumbs up from me.

Overall Quality - Very good. Quality materials, nice stitching, everything felt well put together and pretty solid. However not perfect if I were to be very picky here (having experienced some very high quality interiors in the past) - Some very slight misalignment between some panels (the dash panel parts in particular, perhaps accentuated by those parts being red leather). But like I said, overall very good and certainly no quality issues that I spotted that would put me off.

Headlining - The Alcantara headlining is lovely - If I don't get a First Edition when I finally get allocated a build slot, and if it isn't standard on Base models, then I will be spec'ing this for sure.

Adjustability - Between my wife and I, we are close to both ends of the spectrum of small and large, so a good amount of adjustability is vital in any car we own (I am 6ft 2in/1.88m, around 115kg/250lb, with size 12 feet, my wife is 5ft 4in/1.62m). I am happy to report that both my wife and I were able to adjust the seating position to fit very comfortably, and with space to spare (I, for example, did not have the seat all the way back, so it could easily accommodate people taller and/or with longer legs than me). I will note that I think I would be tight on headroom with a helmet on (wouldn't be surprised if the helmet touched/rubbed the roof) - I am not planning to track my Emira as I have a dedicated track car for such frolics, but just noting here for anyone else of similar height to me to check this out if you are looking to go on track.

Seat Comfort - Mostly due to the amount of adjustability in the seats, both my wife and I found them very comfy. One slight point, and this is something I have experienced in other cars with fixed headrests - Due to my height, I can actually feel the bottom of the headrest on the bottom of my neck / top of my shoulders. Like I said, I have had this before in other cars, so not something that bothers me immensely, and I forgot about it very quickly on the test drive, but I do find it a frustrating consequence of seats with fixed headrests - I wish more car manufacturers would engineer around this for us taller drivers (perhaps wishful thinking, ho-hum).


Continued Below...

Driving:

Tour Chassis - This is just sublime. For those contemplating Tour chassis, I really can highly recommend at least trying it if you can - I can understand why some people want to go for the Sport chassis, in theory, but for me, for our expected driving profile (near-daily driver, commuting, road trips), the Tour chassis felt spot on. I have owned and driven a whole raft of very different cars in the past, from big wafty mile-munchers through fast hot hatchbacks to sports cars with highly-tuned suspension. The test drive route took us over a great mixture of roads and surfaces, slow town roads, faster back roads (some with a very bad road surface, potholes included) and a dual carriageway. I was thoroughly impressed with the manners of the damping - I honestly do not believe they could have tuned that any better than it is - Uneven surfaces were just soaked up with ease, no banging or bouncing, just perfectly damped. There was no discernible body-roll whilst cornering, nor dive under heavy-ish braking.

Steering Feel & Steering Wheel - Now, I was a little worried about the steering wheel, because in pictures it looks a bit 'odd'. However, in person, when driving, it felt great - I have large hands, so love a slightly chunkier steering wheel. I know some people have complained that the wheel is too chunky in their view, but for me it felt perfect in the hand. Interestingly, my wife, who has small hands, said she thought it felt good too, not too big in her view either, so all I can say is that it must be a personal thing. As for the actual steering feel and feedback - This is great. The car felt planted, darty, but not skittish or nervous in any way. Imperfections in the road surface were not translated back into distracting shocks through the wheel (thanks again, at least in part, to the excellent damping).

Engine / Gearbox - I am not going to say too much here, as I was trying not to focus too much on this, as I am going for an i4 with DCT, so was trying to focus more on the other things, but I did come away with two main observations: 1) Anyone who is complaining that this car lacks power is either too used to driving 700+bhp monsters or they will soon be losing their licence - The power in the Emira, in my view, is more than adequate!; 2) The manual gearbox is not one to be rushed and the gearstick is heavily sprung (as a consequence of this, I did go into 4th instead of 2nd on one occasion, when changing down from 3rd - i.e. I just didn't put enough sideward pressure on it to push it all the way over), but otherwise felt very nice to work.

Brakes - The pedal felt quite 'heavily sprung'. That translates into the need to push a bit harder than initially anticipated at the beginning of the pedal travel, but then as soon as the brakes start to engage, they are super sharp. Something that I would get used to pretty quickly, but quite a different feel to a lot of other cars I have driven recently.

Visibility - Visibility out the front is great (albeit the front of the car drops away, so judging where the front of the car ends will take a little bit of learning). Love the bulges over the front wheels, these actually help with gauging the width of the front of the car. Side visibility is excellent. I felt rear 3/4 view to be a bit restricted, so may take a bit to get used to how best to check blind spot area. Rear visibility is OK - the rear window being relatively small does restrict this somewhat, but not to the point where I felt it was an issue. Door mirrors are OK, although to be fair, to be any better they would need to be larger, and that would ruin the look of the car, so perhaps I should say they are just perfect!? You do get a lovely view of the rear haunches out of them though!

Other Driving Observations - I tried a little bit of heel-toe downshifting and it felt like it would be quite easy to master with those pedals (even with my massive feet). The placement of the gearknob, as mentioned by lots of people already, is just perfect.

There was a very slight vibration noise from the central dash screen area when driving over some particularly bad road surfaces, nothing serious, I really was deliberately listening out for anything of the sort, and I cannot say that other cars wouldn't have generated similar vibration noises on that same road (in fact my RX-8 would have been clanging, banging, squeaking and knocking for the vast majority of the test route, so take it as it is, an observation that there may be some slight vibration noises on certain roads, not that I think the interior is any more rattly than any other modern sports car).

Finally, after a few minutes driving, I noticed the dash reflection on the inside of the windscreen - Or perhaps more accurately, the reason I noticed it is due to the thick 'line' going down the top of the dash, in line with the centre of the steering wheel all the way to the windscreen - I think it was the 'contrast' of this line that I noticed in the reflection. Now, I am telling myself that the fact that I didn’t notice it straight away meant that it wasn't actually intrusive, but that I was specifically trying to 'notice' things on the test drive and once I had noticed this, it did take a few minutes before I stopped being aware of it again. I had stopped noticing it by the end of the test drive for sure. I have experienced all sorts of annoying reflections in other cars over the years, and this in no way measures on the truly 'intrusive' scale, but I just wonder if many other people have noticed it? Hopefully I was just being hypersensitive and it is something that very quickly becomes unnoticeable (just like the windscreen heater elements in cars with heated windscreens, for example).


Final Thoughts:

I really want to see Seneca blue in person now - Might have to see where the nearest dealer demo in Seneca is, otherwise I may just wait and see what other cars Bell & Colvill get in over the coming months.

I will definitely be going back to test drive an i4 DCT when they are available - Ideally with the Tour chassis again, but if Sport chassis, at least I will get a comparison I suppose.

And, perhaps most importantly, the car gets a huge thumbs up from the wife - She loved everything about it… Apart from the Nimbus Grey colour on the demo car!

… I am still IN!

Thanks so much for your fulsome review! Really reassuring after a few other less positive ones.

As you said, many aspects are very subjective - I've gone for Nimbus, silver wheels, only lower black pack and V6 manual - If proof were needed!

Thanks again!

Thanks for the very comprehensive write up and insights.

Great to read another supporter of Touring suspension for our UK roads. The B&C test route has a good mix of road qualities and types to show this.

You can find a Seneca demo not far away at Lotus Sussex in Lewes, or you might find an owner with one turns up at our next Newlands Corner monthly meeting, which you passed on the B&C test drive.

Superman said:

Driving:

Tour Chassis - This is just sublime. For those contemplating Tour chassis, I really can highly recommend at least trying it if you can - I can understand why some people want to go for the Sport chassis, in theory, but for me, for our expected driving profile (near-daily driver, commuting, road trips), the Tour chassis felt spot on. I have owned and driven a whole raft of very different cars in the past, from big wafty mile-munchers through fast hot hatchbacks to sports cars with highly-tuned suspension. The test drive route took us over a great mixture of roads and surfaces, slow town roads, faster back roads (some with a very bad road surface, potholes included) and a dual carriageway. I was thoroughly impressed with the manners of the damping - I honestly do not believe they could have tuned that any better than it is - Uneven surfaces were just soaked up with ease, no banging or bouncing, just perfectly damped. There was no discernible body-roll whilst cornering, nor dive under heavy-ish braking.

Steering Feel & Steering Wheel - Now, I was a little worried about the steering wheel, because in pictures it looks a bit 'odd'. However, in person, when driving, it felt great - I have large hands, so love a slightly chunkier steering wheel. I know some people have complained that the wheel is too chunky in their view, but for me it felt perfect in the hand. Interestingly, my wife, who has small hands, said she thought it felt good too, not too big in her view either, so all I can say is that it must be a personal thing. As for the actual steering feel and feedback - This is great. The car felt planted, darty, but not skittish or nervous in any way. Imperfections in the road surface were not translated back into distracting shocks through the wheel (thanks again, at least in part, to the excellent damping).

Engine / Gearbox - I am not going to say too much here, as I was trying not to focus too much on this, as I am going for an i4 with DCT, so was trying to focus more on the other things, but I did come away with two main observations: 1) Anyone who is complaining that this car lacks power is either too used to driving 700+bhp monsters or they will soon be losing their licence - The power in the Emira, in my view, is more than adequate!; 2) The manual gearbox is not one to be rushed and the gearstick is heavily sprung (as a consequence of this, I did go into 4th instead of 2nd on one occasion, when changing down from 3rd - i.e. I just didn't put enough sideward pressure on it to push it all the way over), but otherwise felt very nice to work.

Brakes - The pedal felt quite 'heavily sprung'. That translates into the need to push a bit harder than initially anticipated at the beginning of the pedal travel, but then as soon as the brakes start to engage, they are super sharp. Something that I would get used to pretty quickly, but quite a different feel to a lot of other cars I have driven recently.

Visibility - Visibility out the front is great (albeit the front of the car drops away, so judging where the front of the car ends will take a little bit of learning). Love the bulges over the front wheels, these actually help with gauging the width of the front of the car. Side visibility is excellent. I felt rear 3/4 view to be a bit restricted, so may take a bit to get used to how best to check blind spot area. Rear visibility is OK - the rear window being relatively small does restrict this somewhat, but not to the point where I felt it was an issue. Door mirrors are OK, although to be fair, to be any better they would need to be larger, and that would ruin the look of the car, so perhaps I should say they are just perfect!? You do get a lovely view of the rear haunches out of them though!

Other Driving Observations - I tried a little bit of heel-toe downshifting and it felt like it would be quite easy to master with those pedals (even with my massive feet). The placement of the gearknob, as mentioned by lots of people already, is just perfect.

There was a very slight vibration noise from the central dash screen area when driving over some particularly bad road surfaces, nothing serious, I really was deliberately listening out for anything of the sort, and I cannot say that other cars wouldn't have generated similar vibration noises on that same road (in fact my RX-8 would have been clanging, banging, squeaking and knocking for the vast majority of the test route, so take it as it is, an observation that there may be some slight vibration noises on certain roads, not that I think the interior is any more rattly than any other modern sports car).

Finally, after a few minutes driving, I noticed the dash reflection on the inside of the windscreen - Or perhaps more accurately, the reason I noticed it is due to the thick 'line' going down the top of the dash, in line with the centre of the steering wheel all the way to the windscreen - I think it was the 'contrast' of this line that I noticed in the reflection. Now, I am telling myself that the fact that I didn’t notice it straight away meant that it wasn't actually intrusive, but that I was specifically trying to 'notice' things on the test drive and once I had noticed this, it did take a few minutes before I stopped being aware of it again. I had stopped noticing it by the end of the test drive for sure. I have experienced all sorts of annoying reflections in other cars over the years, and this in no way measures on the truly 'intrusive' scale, but I just wonder if many other people have noticed it? Hopefully I was just being hypersensitive and it is something that very quickly becomes unnoticeable (just like the windscreen heater elements in cars with heated windscreens, for example).


Final Thoughts:

I really want to see Seneca blue in person now - Might have to see where the nearest dealer demo in Seneca is, otherwise I may just wait and see what other cars Bell & Colvill get in over the coming months.

I will definitely be going back to test drive an i4 DCT when they are available - Ideally with the Tour chassis again, but if Sport chassis, at least I will get a comparison I suppose.

And, perhaps most importantly, the car gets a huge thumbs up from the wife - She loved everything about it… Apart from the Nimbus Grey colour on the demo car!

… I am still IN!

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I think you'll love Seneca in person. It has a presence that doesn't communicate in photos. The color "pops". Cameras can't handle the saturation.

Great review! While I’ve ordered differently, your spec is 10/10!

Thanks for the great writeups so far! I'm sure many of us here in the US appreciate the time and details that went into your excellent descriptions. Even though San Diego has no Winter weather, there are many sections of roads that are very "rough" due to neglect. This is why I am fairly certain that I will go with the touring suspension. My test drive will likely not happen for at lease another two months.

A friend of mine has a POV video of his test drive in Las Vegas when the tester was in town. He has a deposit on one and says he is sold on the Emira after his test drive. Here’s a link to his drive and commentary:

Jstylz said:

A friend of mine has a POV video of his test drive in Las Vegas when the tester was in town. He has a deposit on one and says he is sold on the Emira after his test drive. Here’s a link to his drive and commentary:

Click to expand...

I really like this guy and enjoyed his c8 review too

lion shf said:

Do you think the Emira is a better car dynamically than a GT4?

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tough question, as per my test drive (mind you I have much more seat time in the spyder than an Emira) I felt in the low end speed's, road driving the Emira felt a bit more responsive and fun. Handled a bit better and rode just as good.(sport suspension Emira) I also thought between 1k-4k RPM the Emira felt a little more alive. On the top end, really hammering the car (which I did on the highway sections only a little) it felt a little out of breath, where the Porsche was telling you give me more. On the track it would be a clear win for the GT4. On the road I felt the Emira was the more "fun" car to drive.

Porsche GT4 handling to me is more clinical and the Emira's was more connected. The C8 was not a clear winner in either of these area's IMO comparatively speaking.

I would only choose a spyder over an Emira due to the convertible aspect. If I had to choose between a GT4 or an Emira, they would have to promise to build a local dealership and a loaner Emira every time mine broke down, then I would take an Emira. If not.... it would be very tough choice. lol

(also for the record the Emira handling is prob an 8 if GT4 is 9....C8 should be a 7)

Test drive done

I was 50:50 before the drive - going to soak on it over the weekend but currently 80:20 that I am in.

Drove my drivetrain/suspension spec i.e. V6 manual touring. Very rainy/wet and lots of traffic so wasn't able to real stretch the car or lean into many corners but still enjoyed the test drive;

Start with the positive;
Steering - very communicative as expected. I went to/from the dealer in my 991.1 GTS and the steering tells you a lot more in the Emira.
Ride - with the Touring set up I found the car soaked up the loads of bumps, ridges and lumps typical of UK roads very well. For those who know 911s the Touring felt like GTS PASM set in Comfort. So I am glad of my choice as I very rarely click Sport in other cars (even on track).
Gearbox - having heard a lot about it, I was worried I wouldn't like the box but it felt fine. More mechanical than a cooking Porsche manual and heavier but I thought its "heft" actually suited the car well and was a positive diferentiator. Not as good as GT3, MX5 or GR Yaris but still fine.
Looks - great looking car in all the colours that I saw (Nimbus, Seneca, DV). Like the proportions and it is sure to be a head turner. They had two customer DVs in the showroom, one with my tan leather spec (went before I took a photo). Happy with that combo although I don't think it looks its best under artificial light.
Stereo - connected my phone ok on wireless CarPlay and banged on some favourite tunes. Was better than I had feared based on various comments. Fine for me and on a par with Bose in a Porker (but not Burmester).
Mirrors - I liked the size and long shape of the door mirrors - gave a great view backwards and the view from the rear view not bad either (subject to one of my dislikes below).
Storage - the rear boot is wider than I expected and the shelf behind the folding seats is a properly useful size. Not as much storage as a Cayman or 911 but more than an MX5 (I keep comparing to cars I own/have owned)

The not so good bits;
Engine noise - its quiet (as expected) in Touring and wakes up with a deeper note and some cracks and pops on the overrun in Sport (given it was wet I didn't try Track, not that I think that makes any difference exhaust wise) but the engine noise inside the car only seems to get really going at about 5000 rpm. On the way home I played with the 991's sports exhaust button and when pressed the flat 6 exhaust note starts going crazy at about 2500 rpm. Given the gearing on the Emira you are going to be going some to be above 5000 rpm on busy roads. So for a usable everyday sports car with sensible power I thought the exhaust note was a bit of a miss. I did quite like the supercharger whine though.
Water in boot - as I mentioned it was raining and puddle of water on the boot/engine cover which went straight into the boot itself (not the engine bay) when the dealer opened the boot. Interestingly he said that "Lotus were working on a fix for this issue". Not sure what that would be or if anyone else heard that. If I do take the car I'll take a silicon blade in the car with me and get rid of that water before opening the boot !
Seat height - I am 6'1" and could not get the drivers seat as low as I would have liked. Not a headroom issue (fine) but a driving position point. Pedals were fine.
Steering wheel - I really did not like the wheel. It is way to thick but its worse than a BMW M wheel in that its shape is odd just where I normally hold the wheel at 10 to 3. There is a kind of bulge and then a ridge where the textured outside bit joins the inner non textured bit. My least favourite bit of Emira and a lesson in style over substance. The simple 991.1 wheel I got back into was a lesson in how to make a steering wheel.
Gear knob - looks lovely in its machined alloy state, initially felt lovely (I like that it feels cold) until I started to notice something scratchy at the front of the knob (out of sight by the dash). On inspection this is a hole for a hex bolt to secure the knob to the stick. This is the only car I have found this on - others manage to have a screw on approach. Shame as feels cheap.

I haven't mentioned power or cornering as the conditions didn't really allow for me to properly test either and draw firm conclusions. But from the way the car rides and steers I think the handling will be all that I hoped it would be from a Lotus. 400 ish BHP is fine for me in a car for UK roads, just wish it sang a nicer tune.

Interim Conclusion - I am still in and have moved from my 50:50 before the test to 80:20 that I'll complete the journey. I'l soak on it over the weekend. My teenage son wants me to complete so that may play a factor.

I know there are loads of photos around now but I'll post a couple in case anyone interested.

I test drove an Emira today in Wilmington, North Carolina in great weather conditions although there was quite a bit of traffic. I'll start with brief background about me, cars I've had, and then outline the key highlights from my drive while it's still fresh.

My Background:

I have always loved driving fun cars and I do consider myself a 'car guy' although I don't have a ton of experience doing in-depth mechanical work. I don't really track my cars but I love driving spiritedly on back roads and I do plan to start doing some track days eventually. My first car when I was a teenager was a 1987 Toyota MR2 that I saved up to buy for $2000 with 170K miles on it. I drove that thing for 5 years until 240K miles when I had a brake failure in the rain which ended its epic run. I later had a 1992 Toyota MR2 Turbo, Mazda RX8, Infiniti G35, and currently daily a BMW 340i ZHP with about 400WHP/400TQ (some mods done). I'm now 37 years old and this Emira purchase is big for me because it's like bringing back those MR2s (on steroids) that I've always kind of missed ever since I moved on from them.

Emira Test Drive Specs (that you can't easily see from the photos at the bottom):

Touring suspension
V6 Manual
Red leather interior

Steering

Second to none. From the moment I got in I LOVED the feel of it. To me the steering is not heavy at all even at parking lot speeds and it gives great feedback and confidence. It made my BMW (which I LOVE and felt like was super dialed in) feel almost a bit squishy and less confidence-inspiring once I got in it to drive home. The steering wheel feels great and I don't have very big hands but I like big steering wheels and it was absolutely not too big at all for me. The shape actually works quite well.

Looks and Interior

I'll be brief here since we all know most of this but the car is absolutely more impressive in person than photos and videos. The size and proportions are fantastic. The interior is very high-quality in my opinion and looks fantastic. I was busy learning and enjoying the car that I forgot how good it looks until I looked around me in traffic and saw almost everyone rolling down their windows to get a view of the car. I literally got at least 3 thumbs up out the windows from random people during my 15 minute drive. There were McLarens, Porches, R8s, etc. parked around and this Emira more than holds its own against any of them in my view. The interior quality was very good and the red leather contrast to the black alcantara trim and headliner looked great.

Suspension

I wish I could drive the sports suspension. I had zero issues with the touring and it rode VERY smoothly. Deep down I think I could go sport but it's hard to know until you test it. I can say that touring is fantastic and the car handled like it was on rails. I've always thought BMWs had fantastic handling but this is next-level from what I am used to driving. It was a flashback to my MR2 days in regards to that lightweight, go-cart like feeling.

Engine Performance

This seems to be a car that has a bit of a learning curve to it. I hadn't driven a manual in many years so the first part of my drive was really getting a good feel for the car. At first I did think it wasn't quite as inspiring (purely from an acceleration standpoint) as my 340i in terms of how you feel like you're getting pushed back into your seat. However, this car is definitely quick and I don't think it's underpowered for the type of car it is. I do think you have to get a feel for the linear power delivery and understand how/when to shift as it holds high RPMs very smoothly which I found to be quite unique for this car. You can chill at 6K RPMs and let off the gas and it doesn't jerk you around. After my drive I made some comments about engine power and the Lotus rep, Tom, told me he had to take me out so I got a bonus 'ride along' with him. From that experience, I can tell you that riding with someone familiar with the vehicle and pushing it a bit more than I did, it's absolutely got some power behind it. Would I maybe like a bit more OOMPH? Sure...but it's "good enough" in my book.

Exhaust/Engine Sound (huge for me):

From the outside, the Emira sounds wicked and fits the look of the car. Due to liability reasons, we weren't allowed to use track mode but they revved it for me a few times in both sport and track and there's no lack of great noise outside the car. From the inside, I felt it was fairly muted from what I'm used to with an M Performance exhaust on the B58 BMW engine which, I've been told by many people, is one of the best sounding combinations out there (including some friends with much more expensive sports cars). That said, I rolled down the windows at the last part of the test drive and the experience was SO MUCH better. Lotus really did a good job with the sound damping and having the engine behind you makes it harder to hear the exhaust note. However, with the windows down it is loud enough for me and I'm the kind of person that loves hearing the engine exhaust note whenever I'm driving. I will probably drive in Sport or Track 24/7.

Shifting/Clutch/Pedals

The clutch was really easy to get used to and I didn't have any issues with stalling, shifting, or jumping the car around. It's actually quite forgiving for how intense the car otherwise behaves. I enjoyed the level of effort needed for shifting and found NO problems finding the right gears with ease. I barely used 4th and never really used 5th or 6th since I as in a bit of traffic a lot of the time. The pedals ARE VERY CLOSE to each other. I brought my Puma sneakers that are narrow and put them on after sitting in the showroom car and feeling my tennis shoes hit each other testing the pedals. I've never seen a clutch pedal so close to the brake. I wear a size 10 shoe so fairly normal foot size. I will say, though, that once I started driving it felt fantastic and I had no issues with the placement. However, you cannot use wide shoes and drive this car in my experience. That's just something we will all have to accept unless you have tiny feet

Conclusion

I am definitely still in! Almost everything about the Emira met or exceeded expectations. I wasn't sure at the very beginning but every minute into the drive, it became more and more fun. By 15 minutes in and after rolling down the windows, I was really starting to find myself smiling constantly. This is a car that you need to learn a bit and I think each passing hour and day of driving it will prove it to be more and more exciting and rewarding. I wouldn't change much from my limited experience except I would like a bit more power to match the other characteristics of the car. It's absolutely got enough for what you need but if I could change one thing, it would be another 50hp and a bit more torque. Other than that, I think it's one of the best looking cars on the planet and it's an incredibly engaging experience--one that I'm looking forward to having frequently whenever that day comes!

I'm sure I left out plenty of details but I have to get to some other things. Feel free to ask questions and I'll respond when I can.

Thanks to the team at Cape Fear Lotus (Shane and Shane) and Tom from Lotus for the ride-along. Also, I got to meet at least 4 others from this forum at the event and we snapped a pic so hopefully that's forthcoming as well!

Cheers!

Kevin

Great write-up @K_Squared ! You captured much of the sentiments I had during my drive as well. One thing that really struck me was the way the suspension soaked up bumps and other road imperfections. I should know this from all of the reviews and feedback from others, but only having been on the Hethel track with the car I had not experienced it for myself. Even when going over a railroad grade the car was planted and there was only a slight jiggle to let you know it was there. Now I see what all the fuss is about with Lotus suspension and handling. I totally agree with your point about the Emira being a car that you have to get used to a bit. But with every passing minute you connect with it more and more and it becomes something quite special.

My wife and I really enjoyed meeting you and the rest of the gang from the Raleigh area and we look forward to sharing drives, stories and good times once we all finally get our cars!

DPB said:

Great write-up @K_Squared ! You captured much of the sentiments I had during my drive as well. One thing that really struck me was the way the suspension soaked up bumps and other road imperfections. I should know this from all of the reviews and feedback from others, but only having been on the Hethel track with the car I had not experienced it for myself. Even when going over a railroad grade the car was planted and there was only a slight jiggle to let you know it was there. Now I see what all the fuss is about with Lotus suspension and handling. I totally agree with your point about the Emira being a car that you have to get used to a bit. But with every passing minute you connect with it more and more and it becomes something quite special.

My wife and I really enjoyed meeting you and the rest of the gang from the Raleigh area and we look forward to sharing drives, stories and good times once we all finally get our cars!

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We enjoyed meeting you both and the RDU crew as well! My father in law, Dale, said he had a blast without even being able to drive the Emira. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting up around here in our Emiras!

Let's see if we can get Peter to post the group pic (if he can get it from Andy!).

Great write up and thanks for sharing your thoughts. Several of the UK Lotus dealers I know say that once they get someone behind the wheel of a Lotus they don't need to sell the car as it sells itself. It sounds like you and DPB had an "a-ha" moment about Lotus ride and handling.

Also great to hear of forum members meeting together in real life. Look forward to seeing the picture!

K_Squared said:

I wasn't sure at the very beginning but every minute into the drive, it became more and more fun. By 15 minutes in and after rolling down the windows, I was really starting to find myself smiling constantly.

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This is something that many test drivers are not quite feeling so the car may never be for them.

I loved the car from the start and it has grown on me AT THE SAME RATE as from the start which is really impressive. The car starts to become one with you and the little nuances of feel and dynamics really start to stand out. After running it in, it was still more of the same.
Remarkable car and glad you managed to see how good it is and, I can assure you, it gets better and better.

K_Squared said:

We enjoyed meeting you both and the RDU crew as well! My father in law, Dale, said he had a blast without even being able to drive the Emira. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting up around here in our Emiras!

Let's see if we can get Peter to post the group pic (if he can get it from

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Here’s the Raleigh group after we had all completed our drives. What a great day. And as someone mentioned, it’s good to be able to meet other forum members and a pact was duly made; whoever gets the first Emira delivery has to host the celebration party. I’m further down the list so I think I’m safe!

Evotion said:

This is something that many test drivers are not quite feeling so the car may never be for them.

I loved the car from the start and it has grown on me AT THE SAME RATE as from the start which is really impressive. The car starts to become one with you and the little nuances of feel and dynamics really start to stand out. After running it in, it was still more of the same.
Remarkable car and glad you managed to see how good it is and, I can assure you, it gets better and better

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In all fairness, on a short test drive with a bad route or with limited revs, most drivers would not get enough of a chance to explore the Emira's nuisances and dynamics, especially if they were not searching or interested in said nuisances.

That's not a knock on the car. The Emira's learning curve is higher than most (i.e. clutch takeup / brake feel / unassisted shifter / power band at the top of rev range) and an extended amount of time is needed to become familiar with it, as with anything.