I'm back, but different....

[kratedisease]

TomE.......007

 

[Matthaus]

Not quite sure if I should laugh or cry that the post that's given me the most hope for the future of the Emira experience and communication turned out to be one massive joke

 

[Tonyshepp]

Not quite sure if I should laugh or cry that the post that's given me the most hope for the future of the Emira experience and communication turned out to be one massive joke

Hasn’t the joke been on us since July last year?

 

[Matthaus]

Hasn’t the joke been on us since July last year?

Sad but true

 

[andrew6382]

As some of you noticed, I stopped posting on here about 3 weeks ago. A couple of observant folks saw I came back to lurk and a few people sent private messages. It was funny seeing some of the speculation on the "Three cheers..." thread. Thanks for your messages and kind thoughts.

First off, I needed to take a break from some of the stuff going on here and elsewhere online. After Phil posted the pictures from his visit to the factory with Matt, I realised things had (from my point of view at least) got out of hand. The poor Lotus comms and inconsistent info meant every leaked picture, rumour and snippet of half news was generating a wave of speculation and often perpetuating stuff that was just wrong. Trying to be helpful and explain or correct stuff meant I often ended up caught in the crossfire. Sometimes I got wrong info from my own sources, which then undermined my attempts to help. I was also spending way too much time reading and posting, often on the same points across multiple channels. I was also concerned my involvement was inadvertently fuelling the debates.

So I needed a reset.

With the weather improving I also decided to scratch a long-held itch, add another keeper to the fleet to enjoy while I wait for my Emira to arrive in June, and take some time off to do some driving:

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A couple of other things have been keeping me busy. I think many of you know I was involved with the Emira launch at Hethel last July. Due to Covid restrictions the group of 131 superfans had to join that via video rather than be on site - the upside was we didn't get drenched like the people who were there! I got special access to the show car on the first day of Goodwood to make up for it. Well, I was honoured to be asked to join the superfans again for the Eletre launch.

This also involved some "secret squirrel" stuff to help with preparation and rehearsals. Someone very sharp-eyed spotted the Hethel Yellow Emira used at the launch was the same spec as mine. Funny that, eh? We had fun doing the setups and dummy runs for camera angles. No registration plates on the car, so we couldn't take it on the road or get much above walking pace. But the noise! You might have spotted Scott Walker driving the white Esprit. I wonder who drove the Emira?

View attachment 4238

The launch event was really impressive. So many participants, lots of rehearsal, very slick and high production values. Not all of it was everyone's cup of tea (interpretive dance, anyone?) but a huge splash and a statement about New Lotus. I'm not sure if it was apparent to people watching online but there were actually two events running in parallel. The whole thing was also being broadcast simultaneously in Chinese, hosted by presenter Fenfen Huang:

View attachment 4240

I'll write some more thoughts on the car on the other threads (it's big!), but here are a few pics ... and of course of that Emira:

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The second project I've been working on has been following on from the Hethel visits we did to feed back about comms and customer care. I finally got to meet some of the people now charged with improving the customer experience. Equally importantly, Lotus have decided to pursue more owner community involvement, including direct liaison between the factory and several of the Lotus forums through a group of reps and Lotus ambassadors.

It's great to have Lotus backing this. I don't think there will be a big launch event but individuals and forums are being brought in to the new Lotus Community Representatives and Ambassadors Programme over the coming months. This will replace the old Lotus Community Relationships And Partnering initiative. So guess who is now one of the Community Ambassadors for Emira in the UK?

Excited that this is going to provide more access to teams at Lotus. I'm hoping at some point fairly soon we'll get to host a live Q&A on Zoom with Gav Kershaw about suspension choices, get definitive details on the finalised production seat (it's great!) and various other insights. You never know, we might even get some actual pictures of painted cars!

More to follow...

#uslot
#ForTheCommunity

Footnote: any of you folks who like to take my write-ups and pictures and cross-post them elsewhere, could you please give due acknowledgement to me and publicise the Community Representatives and Ambassadors Programme. Better still, you could direct people to come and visit this lovely forum. Thanks!

Welcome back, glad you been having a nice time, am sure you noticed I have pulled out, when dates blew up, made no sense , looked nothing like the dates you had been posting..... i have lost all faith in the company . Have fun, @TomE

 

[EM33RA]

Welcome back, glad you been having a nice time, am sure you noticed I have pulled out, when dates blew up, made no sense , looked nothing like the dates you had been posting..... i have lost all faith in the company . Have fun, @TomE

Such a positive member. You will be missed . Congrats on the new car purchase.

 

[andrew6382]

Such a positive member. You will be missed . Congrats on the new car purchase.

Nope never positive, am sure some will say.... wish I had money to let £5K just sit doing nothing, and money to not care how much its going to cost next year. I hope Lotus get better at sorting things out, but things are not right now, 621 Bhp is lots of fun in a car with AWB, and hand made leather seats I am sure the Emira is going to be wonderful,

 

[Green]

Nope never positive, am sure some will say.... wish I had money to let £5K just sit doing nothing, and money to not care how much its going to cost next year. I hope Lotus get better at sorting things out, but things are not right now, 621 Bhp is lots of fun in a car with AWB, and hand made leather seats I am sure the Emira is going to be wonderful,

You need 650bhp when your car weighs 5000lbs

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Well played sir, well played.

 

[EM33RA]

Nope never positive, am sure some will say.... wish I had money to let £5K just sit doing nothing, and money to not care how much its going to cost next year. I hope Lotus get better at sorting things out, but things are not right now, 621 Bhp is lots of fun in a car with AWB, and hand made leather seats I am sure the Emira is going to be wonderful,

Absolutely concur champ… Enjoy the new beast….

 

[DaaS]

No offense intended (seriously), but when I initially read the title “I’m back, but different…”, I thought it was a gender reveal thing.

Goodbye TomE. Hello Tommie.

 

[Autopsy]

No offense intended (seriously), but when I initially read the title “I’m back, but different…”, I thought it was a gender reveal thing.

Goodbye TomE. Hello Tommie.

that's what I thought too!
“These brits are progressive indeed”

 

[andrew6382]

You need 650bhp when your car weighs 5000lbs

Oh very true, but it doing sub 4 seconds 62's, 202mph top end, yes it needs the power.... oh AWD as well, its a real beast, Jokes aside, I still think the Emira is going to be a wonderful car, I have chosen to do may thing, for my reason, I wish every one all the best.... and hope the Emira is every thing you hope its going to be

 

[andrew6382]

HI @TomE Not that it matters to much to me, but I am sure other will be interested. That Lotus are now saying August depositers will get cars earliest 2023...... A some way off what you had foreseen, was the information you had been given at fault ? Look forward to seeing you and others at Chatsworth

 

[FederGigant]

HI @TomE Not that it matters to much to me, but I am sure other will be interested. That Lotus are now saying August depositers will get cars earliest 2023...... A some way off what you had foreseen, was the information you had been given at fault ? Look forward to seeing you and others at Chatsworth

I'm quite sure they will delay the cars. I was originally told that I will get mine late July. Now Lotus confirmed the build slot for somewhere in August. My dealer told me that in the past it took another three weeks for the car to arrive at the dealer after it was built and one more week for the dealer to get it ready for delivery. All in all that leads to a September delivery for me instead of July.

 

[andrew6382]

I'm quite sure they will delay the cars. I was originally told that I will get mine late July. Now Lotus confirmed the build slot for somewhere in August. My dealer told me that in the past it took another three weeks for the car to arrive at the dealer after it was built and one more week for the dealer to get it ready for delivery. All in all that leads to a September delivery for me instead of July.

Yes had seen your post before, its what prompted me to check with Lotus CC, that when they told me about August depositers, and 2023.... I do hope the car is all you hope.... I still think its going to be a wonderfull car. But just lots faith, had to question, in the end whats it going to cost next year, looks like it gone up a little already. What the market is going to be like next year.... loans up to what 11 or 12 % ? perhaps I could of waited, only to find when it was ready, i could not afford it.... and then not be able to get into a nice car because loans costing more

 

[Lankan]

It's almost identical. The car at the launch had silver exhaust finishers and rear lettering, rather than the full black pack. And it's LHD. But the rest is the same: black pack, diamond cut wheels, black calipers, black leather interior. It does look stunning.

View attachment 4277

Ah, yes, missed that this was LHD - did notice that the lettering and tailpipes were silver, and since I am not going for the black pack, I am now considering to only have the LOTUS lettering in black and leave the tailpipes as they are.

Agree, that it does look stunning in this colour...

 

[TomE]

No offense intended (seriously), but when I initially read the title “I’m back, but different…”, I thought it was a gender reveal thing.

Goodbye TomE. Hello Tommie.

Funny you should say that. My alternative April Fool prank was going to be stepping forward as "Tammy", but in the context of pretending that TomE had actually been a cover for Emira customer relationship manager Tammy McKenzie for all this time. I thought people would have seen through that pretty quickly, hence the version I used.

Maybe it subconsciously influenced my choice of title?

 

[EspritGuy]

that's what I thought too!
“These brits are progressive indeed”

Actually yes, there was a reveal, as in `carved by the wind,'
Preferred pronoun is Ele/tre.

 

[eclat2emira]

Funny you should say that. My alternative April Fool prank was going to be stepping forward as "Tammy", but in the context of pretending that TomE had actually been a cover for Emira customer relationship manager Tammy McKenzie for all this time. I thought people would have seen through that pretty quickly, hence the version I used.

Maybe it subconsciously influenced my choice of title?

Perhaps our group can now be summed up as:
Lots
Of
Transvestites
Usually
Sexy