Comparison: Lotus Emira vs GT

[Blackthought_]

I’ve been wanting to do a comparison of my 2024 Lotus Emira and my old 2021 Lotus Evora GT 6 speed. A bit of background I’ve owned several different lotus cars including an 05 Elise, a 12’ Evora and a 21’ GT.

I owned the GT for about 2 years and put about 10k miles on it as a canyon carver. My overall impressions of the car:

Evora GT:
Exterior:

• While looks are purely subjective, I was never really fan of the overall Evora looks, but the rear of the GT with the massive vents made the car look mean as hell. The rest of the car I felt was ehh
• I had a non carbon pack model GT, but I ended up adding a carbon hatch (saved crazy amount of weight and it looked awesome). This plus a set of GRP tail lights made the rear look incredible.
• Overall, the GT is a pretty small car compared to other cars.

Power, drive train, exhaust, etc:

• The car had a good amount of power and always felt very linear. Sure it could have used a few more HP but never really felt underpowered.
• The shifter is a mechanical shifter. When you changed gears there was the Clickty clack sniper rifle feel
• The clutch is heavy in comparison to Honda/BMW, etc
• Brakes need some progression to bite (Eg you needed to press the brake 2 inches to engage )
• Great exhaust note. Can hear the exhaust the cabin like it’s right behind you. I added the GRP decat pipe and an intake and man that supercharger wine was wild!

Suspension:

• I thought the suspension and chassis was prefect. Not too firm but not soft. Was just right.

Steering:

• Easily the best part of the Evora GT. Nice and heavy.
• Very agile car that made you feel like you can make turns at great speed.
• I didn’t really feel the weight of the car. It felt planted and felt really good on turn ins

Interior:

• The car was covered in alcantara which was really nice, but, after that it went downhill
• The infotainment screens is one of the weakest points. It’s like Lotus walked into a bestbuy and picked up a radio off the shelf. It had decent sound on it, I suppose.
• Nice knobs for the climate control etc but outside of cruise control, nothing other tech present
• The analog gauges were decent and got the job done, but what really irked me was the comical pixels that showed tire pressure next to the gauges. On a 90k car, really? The pixels were on my 12’ Evora so I was disappointed they were there 10 years later
• Same goes for the backup camera. It was potato quality.
• Decent seats. The OEM Sparco seats have nice bolstering but never fit me right. It used to hit the lower part of my back that would annoy me but I know others love the seats. The recaros on my 12’ Evora were much better.People often say that the Evora GT is better on track than an Emira but that is not was I experienced. When I brought my GT on track I was sliding all over the place. I ended up swapping in s3 exige/elise seats and it completely transformed the car from a GT type car to something I could not stop driving. I don’t think either the GT or the Evora are good on track without some mods.
• Reliability:
  
  
• In the 2 years I owned the GT, I did not see the check engine light one time. I got a faulty windshield fluid sensor that needed replacement, cracking headlights (common issue) and a window seal that needed to be replaced but outside of that, nada.

Emira:

Exterior:

• Do I need to say anything here? I the Emira incredible and looks like a car that is 3x more expensive than it is. I made a conscious decision to get a bright color to switch it up from my GT so I went with the Seneca blue color.

Power, drive train, exhaust, etc:

• The car had a good amount of power and similar to the GT, it always felt very linear. It seems like it’s just on-par power wise as the GT but could also use a few more HP
• The shifter is identical in my view to the GT. Same Clickty clack sniper rifle feel
• The same for the clutch. It is kinda heavy in comparison to Honda/BMW, etc
• Brakes are super grabby and take a lot to get used to
• Decent exhaust note. Even after hearing a decat, the exhaust is good but not as good as the exhaust from the GT, especially when then GT had a wild supercharger noise from the intake

Interior:

• This was the biggest difference between the 2 cars. The Emira interiors was leagues ahead of the GT. From the infotainment screen, to the digital gauges that aren’t too much, plus a nice backup camera is a step in the right direction here. It feels like a 100k car

Suspension:

• I opted for the sports suspension on my Emira and felt the suspension was identical to that of the GT. Not too firm but not soft.

Steering;

• To me, the steering felt identical. Any noticeable difference was due to the tires (cup 2s on the GT and eagle f1s on the Emira)
• Seats: easily the worst part about the Emira, while I understand why they made the seats the way they did, the seats can definitely use more bolstering and some more padding. Will be resolving that with aftermarket seats soon.

Reliability:

• Not too shocking given it is a first edition, I’ve had a few teething issues ranging from a faulty trunk latch to o2 sensors/cats that needed replacing. I’ve had issues that were annoyances but not show stoppers. I’ve added 7500 miles over 6 months so it’s been pretty reliable for me. Fingers crossed though!

TLDR:
Overall impressions is that both cars are really fantastic and you can’t go wrong with either. The GT is a fantastic drivers car with intentional, minimal drivers distractions and if you’re OK with a dated interior at a still relatively expensive price tag, this could be your ticket.

The Emira I’d wager offers 90% of the driving experience than that of the GT, but, it includes wicked good looks, a much nicer interior, and warranty that you may need to use.

 

[cyanmauve]

I’ve been wanting to do a comparison of my 2024 Lotus Emira and my old 2021 Lotus Evora GT 6 speed. A bit of background I’ve owned several different lotus cars including an 05 Elise, a 12’ Evora and a 21’ GT.

I owned the GT for about 2 years and put about 10k miles on it as a canyon carver. My overall impressions of the car:

Evora GT:
Exterior:

• While looks are purely subjective, I was never really fan of the overall Evora looks, but the rear of the GT with the massive vents made the car look mean as hell. The rest of the car I felt was ehh
• I had a non carbon pack model GT, but I ended up adding a carbon hatch (saved crazy amount of weight and it looked awesome). This plus a set of GRP tail lights made the rear look incredible.
• Overall, the GT is a pretty small car compared to other cars.

Power, drive train, exhaust, etc:

• The car had a good amount of power and always felt very linear. Sure it could have used a few more HP but never really felt underpowered.
• The shifter is a mechanical shifter. When you changed gears there was the Clickty clack sniper rifle feel
• The clutch is heavy in comparison to Honda/BMW, etc
• Brakes need some progression to bite (Eg you needed to press the brake 2 inches to engage )
• Great exhaust note. Can hear the exhaust the cabin like it’s right behind you. I added the GRP decat pipe and an intake and man that supercharger wine was wild!

Suspension:

• I thought the suspension and chassis was prefect. Not too firm but not soft. Was just right.

Steering:

• Easily the best part of the Evora GT. Nice and heavy.
• Very agile car that made you feel like you can make turns at great speed.
• I didn’t really feel the weight of the car. It felt planted and felt really good on turn ins

Interior:

• The car was covered in alcantara which was really nice, but, after that it went downhill
• The infotainment screens is one of the weakest points. It’s like Lotus walked into a bestbuy and picked up a radio off the shelf. It had decent sound on it, I suppose.
• Nice knobs for the climate control etc but outside of cruise control, nothing other tech present
• The analog gauges were decent and got the job done, but what really irked me was the comical pixels that showed tire pressure next to the gauges. On a 90k car, really? The pixels were on my 12’ Evora so I was disappointed they were there 10 years later
• Same goes for the backup camera. It was potato quality.
• Decent seats. The OEM Sparco seats have nice bolstering but never fit me right. It used to hit the lower part of my back that would annoy me but I know others love the seats. The recaros on my 12’ Evora were much better.People often say that the Evora GT is better on track than an Emira but that is not was I experienced. When I brought my GT on track I was sliding all over the place. I ended up swapping in s3 exige/elise seats and it completely transformed the car from a GT type car to something I could not stop driving. I don’t think either the GT or the Evora are good on track without some mods.
• Reliability:
  
  
• In the 2 years I owned the GT, I did not see the check engine light one time. I got a faulty windshield fluid sensor that needed replacement, cracking headlights (common issue) and a window seal that needed to be replaced but outside of that, nada.

Emira:

Exterior:

• Do I need to say anything here? I the Emira incredible and looks like a car that is 3x more expensive than it is. I made a conscious decision to get a bright color to switch it up from my GT so I went with the Seneca blue color.

Power, drive train, exhaust, etc:

• The car had a good amount of power and similar to the GT, it always felt very linear. It seems like it’s just on-par power wise as the GT but could also use a few more HP
• The shifter is identical in my view to the GT. Same Clickty clack sniper rifle feel
• The same for the clutch. It is kinda heavy in comparison to Honda/BMW, etc
• Brakes are super grabby and take a lot to get used to
• Decent exhaust note. Even after hearing a decat, the exhaust is good but not as good as the exhaust from the GT, especially when then GT had a wild supercharger noise from the intake

Interior:

• This was the biggest difference between the 2 cars. The Emira interiors was leagues ahead of the GT. From the infotainment screen, to the digital gauges that aren’t too much, plus a nice backup camera is a step in the right direction here. It feels like a 100k car

Suspension:

• I opted for the sports suspension on my Emira and felt the suspension was identical to that of the GT. Not too firm but not soft.

Steering;

• To me, the steering felt identical. Any noticeable difference was due to the tires (cup 2s on the GT and eagle f1s on the Emira)
• Seats: easily the worst part about the Emira, while I understand why they made the seats the way they did, the seats can definitely use more bolstering and some more padding. Will be resolving that with aftermarket seats soon.

Reliability:

• Not too shocking given it is a first edition, I’ve had a few teething issues ranging from a faulty trunk latch to o2 sensors/cats that needed replacing. I’ve had issues that were annoyances but not show stoppers. I’ve added 7500 miles over 6 months so it’s been pretty reliable for me. Fingers crossed though!

TLDR:
Overall impressions is that both cars are really fantastic and you can’t go wrong with either. The GT is a fantastic drivers car with intentional, minimal drivers distractions and if you’re OK with a dated interior at a still relatively expensive price tag, this could be your ticket.

The Emira I’d wager offers 90% of the driving experience than that of the GT, but, it includes wicked good looks, a much nicer interior, and warranty that you may need to use.

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[VL3X]

Solid comparison. I mostly agree. I own an Evora GT and have spent a ton of time driving an Emira. Here are my thoughts...

I actually LOVE the GT's Sparco seats. I guess they just fit me right. Like you, I very much dislike the reverse cam and the digital info screens are definitely dated. The Alpine head unit doesn't really bother me since I just connect my phone and run Android Auto. I think it works and sounds great.. Though I would prefer a volume knob instead of an up/down button. I also really dislike the Evora's side view mirrors. They're ugly and can't be adjusted far enough out. The Emira has fantastic mirrors, but I don't really love the seats. They're comfortable enough, but heavy and don't provide enough side bolstering. I also noticed the Emira has a lot more road noise in the cabin.. Which was surprising. I remember first noticing this when I test drove a demo in the rain, but it's very present still in final production vehicles and even on dry roads. The Evora GT is somehow quieter inside the cabin, but sounds better via the exhaust note at the same time.

From my experience, I'd say build quality is better on my GT. The Emiras I've handled in person have all had loose bits of plastic (seat belt bolt covers, engine cover, rear bumper trim) and random CELs here and there. Kinda expected with a new car, built in a new factory, by a mostly new team of workers with new methods. I just wish they spent more time on QC before going to customers.

But like you said, the Emira is the more beautiful vehicle and it makes a more liveable daily driver. The Evora GT is more exotic and a tad more aggressive in both performance and styling.

Just my 2 cents.. They both have their pros and cons and they're both fantastic exotic sports cars that most people only get to dream of driving.

 

[cyanmauve]

One area the Evora obliterates the Emira- paint color choices. I don't think most of the color choices on the Emira really get it quite right. They have too many "sophisticated" colors and not enough wild and crazy ones.