Emira Wheel Gap Discussion

[Lankan]

Another one for the people with wheel gap FETSH issues



View attachment 5907

Is "bagged" the latest technical term in use these days?

 

[VL3X]

Is "bagged" the latest technical term in use these days?

"Bagged" typically refers to air suspension. "Slammed" for super low or cut springs and extreme negative camber.

 

[TomE]

Here's a comparison against the yellow "reference production height" shot. We're down to millimeters now but I wish we could just get down another 5mm at the front and 3mm in the rear. Is it worth $3k in aftermarket coilovers? I'm still on the fence there. We'll see what it looks like in person.

View attachment 5904

You don't need to spend $3k on coilers, just $475 on lowering cups, if the height is a concern. Advantage is the lowering cups will make negligible perceived difference to the ride and handling, unless you're a driving god or a Lotus development driver.

Evora Lowering Cups – BOE Fabrication

Evora suspension is pretty good right out of the gate. If there's one common complaint, it's the ride height. These lowering cups are designed in-house and will lower the car about 3/4 of an inch. After suboptimal experiences with aftermarket "lowering springs", which were both of inferior...

www.boefab.com

 

[TomE]

Yes to my eyes to does look a bit high at the front. Could be the road camber, but we've seen several pics now where it looks similar so I reckon that's probably the way it going to be. Far from being a deal breaker though.

The Evora does indeed look great. When you see them together like that it still seems odd that the Evora sold in such tiny numbers while the Emira is already a sales smash hit. They are different but not all that different

Compare the Emira with the Series 1 Evora and it may be more apparent why it didn't sell very well. Side profile is OK but from some angles it's not so coherent as a design. By the time the 400/410/GT came along it was priced up at £80-90k. Plus when it launched it was just after a financial crisis - seems to be a Lotus thing to launch cars just as we hit choppy economic waters.

 

[dgrace]

You don't need to spend $3k on coilers, just $475 on lowering cups, if the height is a concern. Advantage is the lowering cups will make negligible perceived difference to the ride and handling, unless you're a driving god or a Lotus development driver.

Evora Lowering Cups – BOE Fabrication

Evora suspension is pretty good right out of the gate. If there's one common complaint, it's the ride height. These lowering cups are designed in-house and will lower the car about 3/4 of an inch. After suboptimal experiences with aftermarket "lowering springs", which were both of inferior...

www.boefab.com

Again, Lotus's decision not to just add threads to the shock bodies is baffling for a $90k sportscar. Stupid call. Should have bundled that with the Driver's Pack.

 

[TomE]

90+% of buyers won't lower the car, so why add a feature most people don't need?

 

[dgrace]

90+% of buyers won't lower the car, so why add a feature most people don't need?

Because it's cheap to implement and you can sell it for a profit. Same as bespoke seatbelt colours. Nobody _needs_ them, but many would happily pay $600 extra to be able to pick their seatbelt webbing, and the incremental cost to Lotus would be miniscule.

 

[eclat2emira]

Here...... chew on this !!


View attachment 5905

Oh dear, his suspension appears to have collapsed!

 

[Eagle7]

Again, Lotus's decision not to just add threads to the shock bodies is baffling for a $90k sportscar. Stupid call. Should have bundled that with the Driver's Pack.

Except it wasn't designed for your desires, nor was it advertised as a $90k car. When it was announced, it was announced as a $70k sports car, and Lotus made it clear it was aimed at being an all-around sports/touring car. It's not a track car you can drive on the street; it's a street car you can drive on the track, and I would guess at least 90% of the buyers won't care about lowering it.

And keep in mind, that when they designed and specced the car, it was before they showed it to the public and had no idea it would be received the way it has. If they had debuted it and only gotten 50 deposits, and were overwhelmed with complaints about wheel gap and ride height, they would likely have revisited that, but of course that didn't happen. With a 2 year backlog of orders before even shipping a single production car, it looks like their target goals were pretty good after all; yours and a few others who care about wheel gap and lowering notwithstanding. That's what aftermarket is for, so people like you who want to go beyond or outside of a manufactured car's specs can do so.

Rather than being upset, you should be excited that they got it so close to what you want, that all you have to do is adjust ride height for a few hundred bucks.

 

[kitkat]

90+% of buyers won't lower the car, so why add a feature most people don't need?

If not for lowering, I would have appreciated the ability to corner balance the car with an additional package that had adjustable ride height.

 

[Daz]

Sending out a radio check to all call signs - is everyone ok as nobody has mentioned wheel gaps for nearly 10 minutes

 

[kitkat]

You don't need to spend $3k on coilers, just $475 on lowering cups, if the height is a concern. Advantage is the lowering cups will make negligible perceived difference to the ride and handling, unless you're a driving god or a Lotus development driver.

Evora Lowering Cups – BOE Fabrication

Evora suspension is pretty good right out of the gate. If there's one common complaint, it's the ride height. These lowering cups are designed in-house and will lower the car about 3/4 of an inch. After suboptimal experiences with aftermarket "lowering springs", which were both of inferior...

www.boefab.com

I've mentioned in another thread that I'm not sure losing 19mm of damper travel is good thing even if you don't have Lotus development driver adonis DNA.

To illustrate, on my M4 Competition (Disclaimer: I don't know how comparable this is to the Emira):

I have ~18mm of front damper travel at OEM ride height before the progressive bump stop is engaged. Lowering that by 3/4" of an inch means I'm literally sitting on the bumpstops.

That being said, the BOE fab instructions do say to cut 6mm off of the top of the bump stops so it's probably closer to a 12mm reduction in travel.

 

[Eagle7]

If not for lowering, I would have appreciated the ability to corner balance the car with an additional package that had adjustable ride height.

You realize that the 90+% of buyers who would never lower their car probably don't even know what that is or what it's for? I would say send that in as a suggestion. It's not inconceivable that if Lotus sees enough interest, they could add that in the future as an option, which would mean it would be available as something you could buy from their bespoke shop. Although I would expect a 3rd party company to come up with that before Lotus would.

 

[dgrace]

And keep in mind, that when they designed and specced the car, it was before they showed it to the public and had no idea it would be received the way it has. If they had debuted it and only gotten 50 deposits, and were overwhelmed with complaints about wheel gap and ride height, they would likely have revisited that, but of course that didn't happen.

Keep in mind that all the prototype cars they showed last year when receiving initial deposits had much lower ride height than the close-to-production cars we're seeing now. Had they kept the height consistent with the grey dynamic prototype, this thread would not exist.

(also note, the grey car has threaded shocks, so it's not like the technology doesn't exist for this application)

 

[Eagle7]

Keep in mind that all the prototype cars they showed last year when receiving initial deposits had much lower ride height than the close-to-production cars we're seeing now. Had they kept the height consistent with the grey dynamic prototype, this thread would not exist.

(also note, the grey car has threaded shocks, so it's not like the technology doesn't exist for this application)

The blue car was lowered, but the gray car wasn't. It was the first running car, more of a proof-of-concept car, so of course it would have adjustable things on it. The blue car was a hand-built studio model; it didn't even run.

It's not a custom 1/4 million dollar sports car. It was designed to be a mass-produced car well below $100k, so it's not going to have everything exactly the way you want out of the box. That's ok. That's what aftermarket is for. How many people buy Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers, Vettes, Porsches, BMW's, Audi's, etc. and mod them afterwards? It's not like this is something new. No manufacturer makes the perfect mass-produced car that's exactly what everybody wants. There's always that small percentage, like you and some others in here, who want more. That's fine. When you lower yours, you'll be able to post pictures on the forum and be the envy of all those like you.

 

[SteveB]

The blue car was lowered, but the gray car wasn't. It was the first running car, more of a proof-of-concept car, so of course it would have adjustable things on it. The blue car was a hand-built studio model; it didn't even run.

It's not a custom 1/4 million dollar sports car. It was designed to be a mass-produced car well below $100k, so it's not going to have everything exactly the way you want out of the box. That's ok. That's what aftermarket is for. How many people buy Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers, Vettes, Porsches, BMW's, Audi's, etc. and mod them afterwards? It's not like this is something new. No manufacturer makes the perfect mass-produced car that's exactly what everybody wants. There's always that small percentage, like you and some others in here, who want more. That's fine. When you lower yours, you'll be able to post pictures on the forum and be the envy of all those like you.

Reading this thread it struck me that many are forming an opinion on ride height purely on the basis of how a brand new empty car looks from the side. What is the ride height with an adult driver and passenger seated + luggage? How will it look in 5 years time when the springs have lost some of their taughtness? How will it look when taking a hairpin bend at the limit of tyre grip with a fair amount of steering input and the suspension fully loaded? There is a gap between the edge of the tyre and the wings for a reason. Personally I will judge the Emira primarily on how it drives and secondly how it looks stood empty on the drive. #forthedrivers!

 

[TomE]

If not for lowering, I would have appreciated the ability to corner balance the car with an additional package that had adjustable ride height.

Maybe, but they've decided that's not going to be offered as an option on the launch models. On the Evora, adjustable suspension was a cost option on some of the (much) later and more expensive models.

The Emira was designed to a price point and the options have been limited to simplify procurement and manufacture, particularly for the First Edition. I suspect there will be more options on the Emira S or GT, including potentially adjustable suspension.

 

[Green]

Sending out a radio check to all call signs - is everyone ok as nobody has mentioned wheel gaps for nearly 10 minutes

Hmm you do know this is a thread about wheel gap. It is hilarious people said to make a separate wheel gap thread so they did not have to read about. The same people are now on the thread mocking it.

 

[kratedisease]

To those with psycho-medical-optical wheel gap fetish issues,......

we ALSO need to confront your (irrational) concerns (and phobias) related to wheel offset !!

Bring out your measuring tape and microscopes boys n girls !!

Luckily,...There is surgical mechanical treatment for those with C8 wheel offset fetish phobias. I am sure there will be a mechanical/medical device developed for the EMIRA to help those suffering from WOVDD, other side know as "wheel offset visual disturbance disorder"

Luckily, there is help for those with the optical disorder and horrible visual affliction.

 

[kratedisease]

Hmm you do know this is a thread about wheel gap. It is hilarious people said to make a separate wheel gap thread so they did not have to read about. The same people are now on the thread mocking it.

I am trying my best to take this thread seriously, honestly.....

I still cannot believe it exists.

If you don't like the ride height or wheel gap (or offset) , lower it yourself.

Very easy...... Whats the "biggie" problem ?