German Car Guy

[TomE]

Thanks Tom, it's a pretty crazy world nowadays and the delays are happening all over the industry as I'm sure you know. I'm used to it and have a couple nice vehicles with low miles to keep me going so I'll just enjoy the wait on the FE i4.

Yeah, YT was all over it during the reveal...I was watching a video comparing the 718 Cayman to the new Supra and the BMW M2 and on the sidebar there was a short version of the reveal from the day before. At first, I don't know which stuck out more the Emira or Helen Stanleys green sneakers, lol...All kidding aside I then watched the video, and the rest is history for now.

I had originally spec'd a V6 with sport chassis and Goodyears thinking that it would be the sweet spot for street use. I never got to put the order in so at the time was still up in the air on everything else and kind of still am, although pretty sure on the DV with BA and YS and yellow steering wheel marker (nice you can get this with i4 FE) or Magma with BA, RS and red marker. DC wheels but not sure about the calipers yet. My dealer has a V6 Demo on order that is Hethel Yellow, BA, YS and DC wheels with the yellow calipers so seeing it live will help out a lot with my final decisions especially if I go the DV route...If I don't like the Alcantara I can switch to the leather.

I've read several of your posts here and in one saw you are getting the touring suspension with the Goodyears for your driving purposes with the Emira...I'm looking forward to your eventual review of the way the car handles with the setup you have chosen and of course wondering what else you have chosen as your spec.

The delays are affecting almost every area of our lives. I was at a cycling event today and the manufacturer supporting it said they too had major headaches with raw materials and bought-in parts plus shipping of finished products. I don't think we're going to see it get back to some kind of normal for at least 2 years.

Interesting to read your spec thoughts. Magma looks stunning in real life. DV is very classy but needs strong lighting. I think the DC wheels are the signature ones for this car but not to everyone's tastes. On calipers I was told by the Lotus design team that the "design" way of picking them is to either go plain/hidden (black) or tie them to the interior so it's a coordinated accent colour - so red calipers with a red accent stitch, yellow with yellow. Advice was also to avoid trying to match caliper to bodywork colour.

I'm going with V6 manual, Touring + Goodyears, Hethel Yellow, Black Pack, no privacy glass, DC wheels, black calipers, black leather interior. All decisions based on some kind of reasoning for each, although it's a heart decision as much as a head one.

Write ups will be coming once I've got my car. But expect some radio silence in the first week or so, as I'll be out driving it rather than being on here!

 

[695 to Emira]

The delays are affecting almost every area of our lives. I was at a cycling event today and the manufacturer supporting it said they too had major headaches with raw materials and bought-in parts plus shipping of finished products. I don't think we're going to see it get back to some kind of normal for at least 2 years.

Interesting to read your spec thoughts. Magma looks stunning in real life. DV is very classy but needs strong lighting. I think the DC wheels are the signature ones for this car but not to everyone's tastes. On calipers I was told by the Lotus design team that the "design" way of picking them is to either go plain/hidden (black) or tie them to the interior so it's a coordinated accent colour - so red calipers with a red accent stitch, yellow with yellow. Advice was also to avoid trying to match caliper to bodywork colour.

I'm going with V6 manual, Touring + Goodyears, Hethel Yellow, Black Pack, no privacy glass, DC wheels, black calipers, black leather interior. All decisions based on some kind of reasoning for each, although it's a heart decision as much as a head one.

Write ups will be coming once I've got my car. But expect some radio silence in the first week or so, as I'll be out driving it rather than being on here!

The bike shop I use deals in top end bikes. Some brake levers are still on a 2 year wait, and a year or so ago there were no 12sp chains. So your exotic £10k build couldn’t be finished for the want if an 80 quid chain.

I am pre ordering spares.

 

[NWFL]

Lotus of Jacksonville is my local dealership, but I ordered at Lotus of Orlando. No regrets. Back in July 2021, Lotus of Jacksonville was guaranteeing me a FE slot if I put down a non-refundable deposit of $5K, while other Lotus dealerships couldn’t guarantee it. Ultimately I just didn’t feel comfortable with them. I own a 2021 Evora GT so I still go to Lotus of Jacksonville for service.

I ordered a V6 FE, manual, sports suspension, cup 2, secena blue, black pack, black wheels, yellow calipers. Inside is alcantara with yellow stitch.

Well, being that I haven't done business with them before and am like 288 miles away (but at least in FL) they asked me for a 5K non-refundable deposit, which I am comfortable with as that is it until I take delivery. I didn't get a guarantee on a FE but being #7 I was pretty confident that I would get one. When I missed out, I was ok with it and now it's #4 for an i4 FE...Kind of like the "when one door closes another will open" cliche. Thern there's the eventual servicing of the i4 and I'm hoping there will be some kind of support thru Mercedes so I can get it done over here.

That's a nice car you've spec'd, I have thought of the blue as well and will look forward to your eventual take on the car. Having spec'd the Cup2's do you plan on tracking it at all? I bet you like the Evora GT, any comments on it would be appreciated as well. Did you buy it at WI?

 

[NWFL]

I've seen Cup2s wear out extremely quickly as well! Depends how much you are sliding around I guess.

The GTI is a blast at the track! I actually took it to a Skip Barber HPDE day bone stock (including the terrible OEM Hankook tires) and she did alright (or course I wasn't pushing it too hard). Eventually I upgraded some parts and went back to the track a few times with Firestone Indy500 tires and it made a huge difference. Still managed to sling some rubber into my spokes, but traction was much improved and my bigger issues was brake fade by the last session.

The 718 base features the 2.5L flat 4 turbo engine, correct? I know the purists insist on the flat 6 NA for that signature Porsche exhaust note, but I had a blast driving the turbo 4 one day. Dare I say more so than the 981 GT4. Especially around town and on the back roads.. the turbo engine just has so much torque down low and I found the GT4 doesn't necessarily shine until it's revved up and performing at it's limits on track. For a daily or weekend toy, I'd take the 2.5T all day! I'm also a little biased because I love my forced induction toys and their tunability is unmatched.

Yeah, well any way you slice it you're gonna have a lot of fun with your V6 6speed Emira. Each of the 2 tires Lotus has chosen for the car have their merits. I'm not gonna track mine so it's the Goodyears all the way. A lot of time went into the Goodyears and many tire compounds were tested before finalization from what I understand.

I've heard that the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 does well at the track from friends who have used them on Nissan Z's. I put a set on my 2004 E46 M3 back in June of 2019 and ran them on the street for about 1K miles before finally parting ways with the car last May 2021. Best tire out of the 3 sets on that car in less than 20K miles. The grip around 90-degree corners at 40mph+ in 2nd gear of the SMG transmission was incredible and then as soon as the car straightened, and then shifting into 3rd I could really feel the grip again under intense acceleration. Whew! Great tire for your GTI no doubt!

You are correct on the 718 Base, also the 718 S and T have the turbo 4 cyl. Base and T have 300hp and the S has 350hp. The turbo turns on around 1700-1800rpm and off around 4500 so yeah, the low end is really there all right! My 718 with the $2900 Sport Exhaust option is a lot louder and probably somewhat more powerful than the regular 718 Base, but it's the lightness of the car that I really like and makes the handling just phenomenal for street use and I'll leave it that. I'm sure it would also be a lot of fun with the PDK (I had PDK in my 2016 Cayanne), but the 6 speed gives it that real purist feel. However, in the e46 M3 my preference was the SMG for street use.

 

[NWFL]

The delays are affecting almost every area of our lives. I was at a cycling event today and the manufacturer supporting it said they too had major headaches with raw materials and bought-in parts plus shipping of finished products. I don't think we're going to see it get back to some kind of normal for at least 2 years.

Interesting to read your spec thoughts. Magma looks stunning in real life. DV is very classy but needs strong lighting. I think the DC wheels are the signature ones for this car but not to everyone's tastes. On calipers I was told by the Lotus design team that the "design" way of picking them is to either go plain/hidden (black) or tie them to the interior so it's a coordinated accent colour - so red calipers with a red accent stitch, yellow with yellow. Advice was also to avoid trying to match caliper to bodywork colour.

I'm going with V6 manual, Touring + Goodyears, Hethel Yellow, Black Pack, no privacy glass, DC wheels, black calipers, black leather interior. All decisions based on some kind of reasoning for each, although it's a heart decision as much as a head one.

Write ups will be coming once I've got my car. But expect some radio silence in the first week or so, as I'll be out driving it rather than being on here!

Thanks for the input Tom...I like your spec too! We get a lot of sun here in Florida so I might be onto something with the DV and the yellow calipers which will tie into the interior if I go with Alcantara and YS. You're right about the red color being stunning as the real-life pictures of it look just incredible on my 4K oled computer screens and I have to say as of this juncture it is my #1 pick with BA & RS + R steering wheel maker and the DC wheels + Goodyears with probably black or maybe even breaking with Hethel, for the red calipers because of RS interior + wheel marker, which might actually look good as it is a different shade of red on the calipers. And lastly, I'm for sure keeping the dark glass here in Florida as well.

I know what you're saying about the DC wheels not being for everyone, but I've grown to like them quite a bit over the last year+ and from what I've read about them they will be the lightest wheel and being that I'm now on wait for an i4 FE (lightest Emira) I think the lightness of the wheel will perhaps benefit the handling ability of the car to a degree.

I don't suppose you have any more thoughts about when you will get your Emira, but hopefully this year, Yes? Good Luck!

 

[TomE]

You have the advantage of a better climate for showing off the colours ... although in the UK we're now into the 8th week of no rain and have had a few weeks of the UK being hotter than several holiday destinations. I think it's hard to spec a bad Emira! Magma certainly looked very impressive when I saw it in the sunshine and DV is going to be classy, interesting and much-discussed.

On mine, the last official update (last week) was still September delivery but the repeated delay to the expected update email to batch 1 customers is making me nervous. Hopefully they'll get it out as promised this week and we'll know more. If it is further delayed then that's how it is, manufacturing is pretty chaotic and unpredictable at the moment. I think we'd all just like to know something about progress, latest forecasts on deliveries, what level of confidence Lotus have got and when we'll get the next update.

Other people are having to deal with no car because of the delays. At least I can keep driving my Evora and Exige in the meantime.

 

[Lotustoronto]

You have the advantage of a better climate for showing off the colours ... although in the UK we're now into the 8th week of no rain and have had a few weeks of the UK being hotter than several holiday destinations. I think it's hard to spec a bad Emira! Magma certainly looked very impressive when I saw it in the sunshine and DV is going to be classy, interesting and much-discussed.

On mine, the last official update (last week) was still September delivery but the repeated delay to the expected update email to batch 1 customers is making me nervous. Hopefully they'll get it out as promised this week and we'll know more. If it is further delayed then that's how it is, manufacturing is pretty chaotic and unpredictable at the moment. I think we'd all just like to know something about progress, latest forecasts on deliveries, what level of confidence Lotus have got and when we'll get the next update.

Other people are having to deal with no car because of the delays. At least I can keep driving my Evora and Exige in the meantime.

They should know about any further delays to cars being produced within the next 3-4 weeks. It's irresponsible of them, especially directly from the factory to not let you know 30 days out from a potential delivery. As far as I see it... they have already failed to not email September deliveries of either further delays or a firm delivery time.

At the very least, I believe they are trying to get dealer demo's delivered first before you guys get the bad news of further delivery delays... At least they will soften the blow with "at least you can go to the dealer and take it for a test drive" That should keep people happy and entertained for a months. Just my guess.

 

[DaaS]

Well, being that I haven't done business with them before and am like 288 miles away (but at least in FL) they asked me for a 5K non-refundable deposit, which I am comfortable with as that is it until I take delivery. I didn't get a guarantee on a FE but being #7 I was pretty confident that I would get one. When I missed out, I was ok with it and now it's #4 for an i4 FE...Kind of like the "when one door closes another will open" cliche. Thern there's the eventual servicing of the i4 and I'm hoping there will be some kind of support thru Mercedes so I can get it done over here.

That's a nice car you've spec'd, I have thought of the blue as well and will look forward to your eventual take on the car. Having spec'd the Cup2's do you plan on tracking it at all? I bet you like the Evora GT, any comments on it would be appreciated as well. Did you buy it at WI?

They were asking me for the same $5K non-refundable deposit on day 1. Fishy part was that they were guaranteeing a FE slot, while it seemed that none of the other dealers had a clue about how many allocations they were going to get for the Emira. That was back in July 2021. Anyhow, Lotus of Jax have been around for many years and you did the best that you could by going with the closest dealer. We did purchase a car from them many years go (non-Lotus) and they were fine.

No, I don't plan to track the Emira. Maybe once just to explore it. I prefer tracking older and cheaper cars like BRZ/86 as it's for fun only. I've done my time with BMW, starting with E46 to F80. Have driven many Porsches as well (from base Cayman to GT4, and different versions of 911 up to 991.2 GT3). Reason for the Cup2 on the Emira is because it will not be my daily and I wanted the most extreme setup from the factory. I have (heard) that cars with sports suspension + cup2 have a tweaked suspension geometry. Who knows!

FYI - All 3 FE wheel options are same weight. Just the finish is different.

As for the Evora GT, I did not buy it from Lotus of Jax. In the world of refined sports cars that are super quick, have active suspension, rear steer, perfect leather interiors, etc... the Evora is something old school and unique. It is not for everyone. It is always an event to drive. Feels like Lotus focused on driving experience only and everything else was secondary. Interior is a mixed bag. Things that matter for driving (steering wheel and Sparco seats) are great. There are zero squeaks or rattles. Knobs and switches are easily questionable. Infotainment tech is from 1999.

 

[NWFL]

You have the advantage of a better climate for showing off the colours ... although in the UK we're now into the 8th week of no rain and have had a few weeks of the UK being hotter than several holiday destinations. I think it's hard to spec a bad Emira! Magma certainly looked very impressive when I saw it in the sunshine and DV is going to be classy, interesting and much-discussed.

On mine, the last official update (last week) was still September delivery but the repeated delay to the expected update email to batch 1 customers is making me nervous. Hopefully they'll get it out as promised this week and we'll know more. If it is further delayed then that's how it is, manufacturing is pretty chaotic and unpredictable at the moment. I think we'd all just like to know something about progress, latest forecasts on deliveries, what level of confidence Lotus have got and when we'll get the next update.

Other people are having to deal with no car because of the delays. At least I can keep driving my Evora and Exige in the meantime.

Your UK weather this summer was making quite a few headlines here in the States and looked rather dire in some cases, hopefully things will cool off for you now as it has here just recently.

Anyway, thanks for the update and continued Good Luck getting your Emira asap. I'll look for your and fellow UK members eventual take on the car as well. In the meantime, enjoy what you have to drive as no doubt will I and thanks for all you have done on this Forum so far! Most appreciated!

 

[NWFL]

They were asking me for the same $5K non-refundable deposit on day 1. Fishy part was that they were guaranteeing a FE slot, while it seemed that none of the other dealers had a clue about how many allocations they were going to get for the Emira. That was back in July 2021. Anyhow, Lotus of Jax have been around for many years and you did the best that you could by going with the closest dealer. We did purchase a car from them many years go (non-Lotus) and they were fine.

No, I don't plan to track the Emira. Maybe once just to explore it. I prefer tracking older and cheaper cars like BRZ/86 as it's for fun only. I've done my time with BMW, starting with E46 to F80. Have driven many Porsches as well (from base Cayman to GT4, and different versions of 911 up to 991.2 GT3). Reason for the Cup2 on the Emira is because it will not be my daily and I wanted the most extreme setup from the factory. I have (heard) that cars with sports suspension + cup2 have a tweaked suspension geometry. Who knows!

FYI - All 3 FE wheel options are same weight. Just the finish is different.

As for the Evora GT, I did not buy it from Lotus of Jax. In the world of refined sports cars that are super quick, have active suspension, rear steer, perfect leather interiors, etc... the Evora is something old school and unique. It is not for everyone. It is always an event to drive. Feels like Lotus focused on driving experience only and everything else was secondary. Interior is a mixed bag. Things that matter for driving (steering wheel and Sparco seats) are great. There are zero squeaks or rattles. Knobs and switches are easily questionable. Infotainment tech is from 1999.

I originally contacted WI on 7/16/21 and finalized my Emira deposit the next day...I will say that I really like my salesman there a lot, even since the get go and that hasn't changed. But I have not always gotten accurate information on the car itself including the DC wheels and will leave it at that for now. Thanks for the wheel weight clarification, which makes perfect sense. I'm interested to see how they eventually get priced for the Base Model and also before I finalize my i4 FE.

When I thought I was in line for the V6 FE I was considering the black wheels with a leather interior, red or brown with the Magma and brown with the DV...But not having ventilated seats here in Florida was a turn off being that the FE seats are heated and otherwise programable and IMO should also have the ventilation included (I'd even pay extra for it) or at least be perforated like my 718 base (with manual seats for the weight reduction), but the leather may be too thick to perforate.

The E46 M3 was really something back in its day and still is...I waited for the 2nd generation beginning in 2004 to get mine. At the time the 911 was also a consideration, but in the end, it was the M3 with SMG that got me to give up my 1993 Mazda RX7 R1 TT 5speed that I had modified. I've driven a few 911's from the E46 timeframe and slightly beyond that as well as the 2008 E92 M3, none of which got me out of my M3. In the end I had wanted to go back to a roadster for my performance car and the 718 fit the bill perfectly as will the Emira I think.

The new versions of the M3 & M4 are incredible machines and although I've not driven any of them, I can more than somewhat attest to their performance from the 8K+ miles I have put on my 2021 X3M. It was especially good at altitude this past winter driving up and down Wolf Creek Pass from 8K to 11K ft. elevation in the Colorado Rockies where the performance was flawless and just incredible thanks to the twin turbos.

I'll look forward to your eventual overall take on your Emira and as of today how you like the Sport Suspension with the Cup2's especially after reading your comments about it above...Very interesting and may even make me want a set. And lastly, I really liked your take above on your 2021 Evora, Thanks!

 

[Leonard]

Your UK weather this summer was making quite a few headlines here in the States and looked rather dire in some cases, hopefully things will cool off for you now as it has here just

Don't worry about us its absolutely perfect, we just like to moan about things (in case you hadn't noticed lol)
We spend good money holidaying in Europe and beyond to get 25-40 degrees and then whinge when we get it for free

 

[supersix]

Hey all, I've owned 7 Hypo German cars this millennium with my current 2 being a 2018 Porsche 718 Cayman and a 2021 BMW X3M. After accidently seeing the Emira Launch (while watching a 718 video) on YouTube the day after it happened and then doing a bit of casual research over the next 10 days, I've had my order in for a Emira since 7/17/21...At the time I was #7 at my Florida Lotus Dealership and initially I thought I'd be getting an FE V6 but received an email from my Dealer Jan/Feb this year informing me that I had missed out by 1 (hmmm) but I would be able to tentatively build a V6 Base during the month of July for a tentative delivery Jan/Feb 2023. Once it became apparent that the serious delays were beginning, I opted out of the V6 Base and moved into #4 position at my Dealer on a Emira i4 FE. As of this juncture I really feel for the position that Lotus is currently in and if 1 word could sum things up for me right now it would be PATIENCE.
Best Regards,
Don

Welcome to the forum @NWFL & congrats on the order!

 

[NWFL]

Don't worry about us its absolutely perfect, we just like to moan about things (in case you hadn't noticed lol)
We spend good money holidaying in Europe and beyond to get 25-40 degrees and then whinge when we get it for free

You bet! You also have some great country roads in the UK as well. Perfect the Emira! Looking forward you your review of your forthcoming test drive.