Day four was pretty special. An early morning start heading to the Furka - Grimsel passes from Andermatt. As mentioned, the Radisson Blu is in a great location for the nearby roads (and clearly popular with Emira owners,
@emirahl ) and helpfully, having convinced my girlfriend to leave pre 6:45, serves breakfast until midday!
The area at that time of day (before the caravans and cyclists hit the roads) certainly has a feel of Le Mans about it in that there are almost exclusively great cars on the roads heading in all directions for the hills and enthusiastic drivers all giving each other the nod of approval.
The attention the car gets is truly surprising. Despite reading anecdotes from others about the petrol station chats, glances from passers by, experiencing it for yourself is slightly surreal. There were some serious bits of kit on the passes first thing (GT3 RS, 356, 296, Dino etc.) and each time even when in an unplanned convoy the Emira was the car that, without fail, got the thumbs up from oncoming cars. A stop at the Belvedere Hotel (even at 07:30 AM!) saw photographers gravitate to the Emira - it really feels like you’re driving a car at three times the price (or two times the price depending on when you’re reading this…).
The morning saw the mythical 1000 mile marker passed. I still gently eased it towards the red line, but over the course of the next 200km I got to hear the full noise for the first time (and this was caught on film
@Toomanyloti ). What a sound. Hearing videos doesn’t do it justice - it’s a proper spine tingling howl, made even more special winding up the revs in the Swiss tunnels. I’m envious of the owners yet to ring it out who get to hear that for the first time, it’s special. Full disclosure is that I haven't driven/been in a Lotus that has had this V6, so it may be muted for those who are used to Exige/Evora. Versus the GTS 4.0, the noise more than compensates for the lower red line in the Emira.
Returning back to the hotel, the concierge (who the previous day told me is a huge car nut) had actually been sent photos of the Emira from car spotters on the passes so immediately came to ask how the drive was.
An underrated route from Andermatt is the Lukmanierpass. It’s much less busy than its more famous siblings and has some spectacular sweeping roads - the perfect alternative route to our overnight stop in the Swiss/Italian lakes. I went with the Tour set up (
@Porter ) having test driven the Seneca blue sport car at Central Lotus. I will not take the car on track - it’s intended use mainly is for summer touring or longer drives within the UK. I feel validated in that decision from the last few days of driving, albeit the European tarmac is much better than what we have to put up with in the UK, so I think that sport would probably work just as well here. The car feels so much more fluid over the road than the Cayman, especially on sweeping roads at pace. That being said, there is some pretty noticeable tramlining if you sit on the inside lane but an easy fix is to just drive it quicker.
Today’s observation, and one that I’d made previously, is the need to constantly fill it up. The fuel tank itself isn’t much smaller than the Cayman’s, but on the longer stretches of motorway the Porsche would hit upwards of 38mpg - this trip I am averaging under 25. No other issues to report and my apprehension for such a long drive straight from the factory (in part as a result of reading some of the experiences of others on here) has all but been quelled.
Hotel tip for this evening is Cannero Riviera on Lake Maggiore. Whilst an interesting drive down a pedestrian only promenade to get to the hotel (truly felt parallels to Roger Moore / The Spy Who Loved Me scene where he drives the esprit out of the water, across the beach), there were camera phones a plenty and a 964, 599 GTB and 718 Boxster all tucked up in the car park which immediately calmed my parking nerves.
Tomorrow is mainly a motorway slog to the South of France.
