📓 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.

 

[Quasimoto]

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.

Agree with you on the trade! M491’s are such special cars. Like the Lotus it seemed custom suited for bombing less than perfect secondary roads, and looked amazing doing it. Every trip in them just seems special…

 

[Quasimoto]

Installment #3

Fast forward another 6 months or so and we received an email from the dealer saying that our car had been completed and was awaiting pickup at Hethel. Needless to say, we were a bit surprised that it was actually going to happen…although we felt a little bit like queue jumpers as we had only been on line for about 18 months…

So you know the drill, we now had about 7-8 weeks to make space in the garage and raise a little cash to pay our tab at the bar. Sadly, this old girl lost her spot…one goes out, one comes in...

We had kept a fairly tight lid on talking about ordering the car, so on collection day we actually took an Uber up to Gator. We ordered from a color chip, and had still not seen a Vivid Red in person, so we were super jazzed at seeing one for the first time. The color exceeded our expectations! Not too orange, and not too carmine…phew!

'

Gator was super good about getting the car prepped and ready, and the paperwork was a breeze, so we shook hands and were on our way to a leisurely backroad drive home with a stop for some Thai dinner along the way…

New perch at home…

*Notice anything different?

I did have to oil the hinges on the door out to the garage as we nearly wore them out taking a peek before bedtime…

 

[JonFuller]

*Notice anything different?

Wheel centre caps?

 

[Quasimoto]

Silly vanity, but it seemed like the traditional badges gave off an "other brand" vibe, so one of the first tasks at hand was to replace them with black... (not trivializing the memory of Mr. Clark, we just like the look of black on red)

While the wheels were off, I took a minute to ponder the size of the rears. They just seem a bit massive for a Lotus...

 

[Quasimoto]

Knowing the car would never be this clean again, I took a moment to snap a few photos for the scrapbook...

 

[JonFuller]

Silly vanity, but it seemed like the traditional badges gave off an "other brand" vibe, ...

You're preaching to the converted....

📓 Journals - My DV Emira and modifications

Hi guys, thought I'd share a few pics of my DV Emira which has a few small aesthetic mods, for anyone that's interested. Full PPF from GVE in Uxbridge (discounted 10% thanks to Ade's video), roof centre area is black PPF. Rear tailgate glass dark tint (so the whole centreline of car is black)...

www.emiraforum.com

They (Emira) look fabulous in that bright red by the way!

 

[Quasimoto]

We knew that winter weather was around the corner, so we got out just about every evening after work and had done about 350 miles before the first weekend arrived. We drew the lucky straw with the weather and set out from Hoosierland to Tapoco Lodge in Robbinsville via some nice secondary roads through Kentucky and Tennessee...

Visibility out of the front of the car is amazing, and we really love that the front wings echo the view from that old 911...with a modern twist...

No time to order suitable luggage, so we gathered up a hodgepodge group of bags that we thought might work. Two small airline rollers fit behind the seats perfectly with a couple of small coolers behind the headrests. Nice sized backpack in between still allows for visibility out the back window. A good size duffel, a small detailing bag and even a Keurig coffee machine...we lacked for nothing on a 4 night trip...

The car just looks a million bucks in about any setting. You definitely can't travel incognito as just about everywhere you go, people want to talk or take a picture...

Car was fully broken in just a couple days out and we were obliged to give it the lash a bit on the remainder of the trip... Cherahala Skyway, Deals Gap, Foothills Parkway, Missing Link etc...an outstanding driving car on all of these roads whether fully loaded or just us...so pleased with the way the car can go from tourer to sportscar on a whim...

So 4 nights out and 1,500 miles of twisty roads, the car exceeded our expectations through it all. Even did about 100 miles of highway on the way home to see what that was like... Was a bit sad when we had to unpack the bags as we found ourselves wishing it was a weeklong journey...

Next post...fewer gratuitous pictures and more unsolicited observation and opinion...

 

[Quasimoto]

Some observations beyond the stunning coach work…

Like many on here, I tend to think of sports cars in an analog sense. One of the gambles with the Emira would be whether or I could be happy with the modern interior…

Here’s the interior shot of our favorite car going into the Lotus decision. Pretty hard to beat as a place to spend the day…

A pretty big contrast as compared to this spaceship…

What I thought might be a long period of adjustment sorted itself on the first road trip. The interior really suits the nature of the car and having CarPlay/Android is handy enough that I’m no longer offended by the screens.

I expected to be most annoyed at the center screen which to my surprise is actually very well placed. It’s not intrusive to the view out and most importantly it is usable by both the driver and passenger which is really nice…

Great to have a useful tool for the navigator when in rally mode!

Side note, I thought I hated non-round wheels…but I’m actually digging this one. A good tactile reminder that I’m in something special before ever leaving the driveway.

Apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks!

 

[cyanmauve]

It’s a nice interior to be in, for sure. Though it matches the car well, I would still love to have round dial analog gauges.

 

[JonFuller]

I'm not sure what's considered so nice about the porka, I have to be honest, I always thought they looked boring and plasticy inside, I wouldn't wanna sit behind that dash. Just very ordinary, 'could be VW' type stuff.

I appreciate that many will consider that blasphemous, but so-be-it, I've never been a fan of those cars.

That's not to say I wouldn't like to see the Emira with at least 'virtual' round analogue style instrument cluster shown on the LCD.

Maybe at some future point in time, someone clever will write the code to achieve that?

I loved the original Giugiaro Esprit style 'command binacle' and old skool gauges. I felt that style broke the mould when it appeared in 1976 and felt very special.


Jon

 

[Quasimoto]

Nearly every surface in that pic is leather, alloy or glass…if that’s “plasticy” give me more…

 

[JonFuller]

That's just how it looks to me.

Fortunately we all have differing tastes, otherwise everything would end up being the same.