📓 Journals A Vivid Red Dream

[Quasimoto]

Our Emira journey starts with a bit of a warning for those of you considering selling a beloved vehicle...

With the goal of rallying cash to complete a home improvement project, we had sold our 84 Carrera wide body and almost instantly had pangs of regret. It was a truly special car to us and we enjoyed touring, showing and sharing it…

Almost immediately we began the search to find a suitable replacement. The shoes this car needed to fill were pretty big…iconic looks, great driving, unique presence, all atop the long list. If anything could be added, it would be a bit more performance and some modern safety features.

Lotus had always intrigued us, but we always felt they were a bit small for us to tour in. Meanwhile, the launch of the Emira had not gone unnoticed. The configurator images looked phenomenal, so on a whim we started a dialogue with Gator Motorsports in Indianapolis.

A bit late to the party, but in the dead of the 2023 winter we plunked down the $2,500 to get in the queue.

There were no firm dates of course, but we were hearing rumblings of Q1 2025 and thus had no expectation of hearing any news for quite some time. We were super surprised to hear from Gator a few months later that Spring saying that they would have some demo cars and that we were welcome to stop in and test drive a car!

(That’s our Cayman in the background…I suspect more than a few Emira people have owned one as well.)

We were blown away by the presence of the car, and the test drive was amazing with the exception of me missing the first gear change coming out of the parking lot due to my big feet not being able to navigate the tiny pedal box…lol.

Beyond the looks, we loved everything about it...the size, the interior, the storage, the uniqueness...etc.

We were definitely sold on the car now, and it started to seem like it might actually happen…

 

[netsinah]

What a BEAUTIFUL Porsche. I can see why you were attached to it. Out of interest: how long did you own it...how many miles put on it...and was it "good to you" for all those miles, mechanically speaking?

I'm partial to the color of your Carrera (lol), which helps me drool over it...plus its wonderful/classic/simple body shape/lines, which is something that hooked me on the Emira.

That said, I'm surprised at how much more I enjoy driving my V6 standard transmission Emira, compared to the '20 and '23 C8 Corvettes I owned (no manual transmission), or my previous 2005 BMW M3 Cabriolet (even with its manual transmission). I think you'll enjoy the drive as well. Hope you get yours soon and thanks for the story.

 

[Quasimoto]

What a BEAUTIFUL Porsche. I can see why you were attached to it. Out of interest: how long did you own it...how many miles put on it...and was it "good to you" for all those miles, mechanically speaking?

Our stewardship of that fine machine was short, but sweet...just 4 years and about 8,000 enjoyable miles. During that time, we did numerous projects from small to large including an engine out service and gearbox/clutch rebuild. This car saved my sanity during the covid isolation period as it was possible to work in the garage and take short day trips whenever possible...

It also helped immensely that the air-cooled Porsche scene has a vibrant online community of pros and diy'ers to support your ambitions! While there are obviously fewer things that need to be done with a new car like the Emira, I do see some parallels here on this forum, and that seems like a good thing to me.

 

[Quasimoto]

Installment #2

Like a lot of you, we had a long time to think about color choices while we waited to get an allocation. A few months after placing our deposit, Gator called to say they had a few demo cars to look at…Verdant, Cosmic, and Hethel. We were blown away by the Hethel in person…but just didn’t think we had the rizz to pull off a yellow car…

So now we are about a year into our wait and Lotus has announced a few new colors. Gator had some color chips and a Magma demo on display so we popped up there to take a look…

About this time, we were offered the opportunity to lock in an allocation for an earlier build. (likely due to delays with the I4 as I recall) We clicked through the configurator about a zillion times trying to make some choices. Our final picks looked like this:

1st Choice – Seneca Blue – Probably power of suggestion because the website cars were Seneca and looked fairly stunning.

2nd – Osmium Silver – We love the basic simplicity of a silver sportscar with black interior, so it seemed like a no-brainer….however, our Cayman was already silver on black and we had no plans to let it go unless we were over the moon with the Emira…

3rd – Vivid Red – All of our favorite fun cars have been red, so the temptation was there…but we had concerns that it looked a bit Ferrari wannabee.

After much hand-wringing, we landed on a pretty conservative spec…some might say boring even…

V6 Manual
Vivid Red / Lower Black Only
Silver Wheels / Black Calipers
Black Leather / Black Leather Wheel
Privacy Glass

Up til now it hadn’t really felt like it was going to happen, but here we were just 12 months later writing another check to square up our deposit and lock in the allocation…

 

[benjh1028]

An absolutely stunning 911. I would trade strait up for a low mileage M491 optioned 911 without blinking an eye. That said, enjoy the Emira. It’s pretty amazing too.