Lotus Driving Academy today - good news

[Andrew P]

Just got back from the session today having driven both Touring & Sport spec on the skid pan, slalom etc & track. The cars looked fantastic in the sun - saw all colours and they were excellent to drive. All of us who attended have plenty of experience of driving many different types of sports cars (Lotus & many other brands) & nobody will be disappointed with the Emira. The brakes are fantastic, great handling (hard to provoke even on the skid pan) and no issues with the gear change despite what some expert reviewers have claimed. The engine also sounds great. Both Touring & Sport suspension worked well and without Cup tyres I don’t think the difference is substantial.

 

[Scruff111S]

Just got back from the session today having driven both Touring & Sport spec on the skid pan, slalom etc & track. The cars looked fantastic in the sun - saw all colours and they were excellent to drive. All of us who attended have plenty of experience of driving many different types of sports cars (Lotus & many other brands) & nobody will be disappointed with the Emira. The brakes are fantastic, great handling (hard to provoke even on the skid pan) and no issues with the gear change despite what some expert reviewers have claimed. The engine also sounds great. Both Touring & Sport suspension worked well and without Cup tyres I don’t think the difference is substantial.

Great review. Any news on Emira production and delivery dates?

 

[Citizen]

Just got back from the session today having driven both Touring & Sport spec on the skid pan, slalom etc & track. The cars looked fantastic in the sun - saw all colours and they were excellent to drive. All of us who attended have plenty of experience of driving many different types of sports cars (Lotus & many other brands) & nobody will be disappointed with the Emira. The brakes are fantastic, great handling (hard to provoke even on the skid pan) and no issues with the gear change despite what some expert reviewers have claimed. The engine also sounds great. Both Touring & Sport suspension worked well and without Cup tyres I don’t think the difference is substantial.

Do you see and sit on the new seats ? The ones with the 3 stripes ?

 

[MCS]

Soak up the positive review peeps

 

[New to Lotus]

Anybody 6.2 sat in the new seats are they lower than the pre prod cars?

 

[Porter]

Do you see and sit on the new seats ? The ones with the 3 stripes ?

I don't think anyone has ever seen a seat with the stripes yet, have they? Will they even be a production feature?

 

[TomE]

The Nimbus car at Goodwood was also on display at HAC a couple of weeks later. That was described as the last stage of pre-production, so 99% production spec and used to prove the build processes.

That didn’t have any stripes and the Lotus staff at HAC said they were production-spec seats.

 

[EmiraMike]

I don't think anyone has ever seen a seat with the stripes yet, have they? Will they even be a production feature?

Here’s a screenshot showing the 3 stripes from the recently released German review. The seats looked great when I saw them a few months ago at Hethel, but they’re looking even better now.

 

[Joel]

To echo's Andrew's sentiment, I was also at the event today and think good news is definitely accurate!

Today's event saw 6 of us on the tailor made advanced, full day course, led by 2 instructors, Martin Donnelly and Toby Goodman. We used two cars, the dark verdant on a sports setup with cup 2s and the nimbus on a tour setup with the goodyears.

I spent the entire day with Toby in the nimbus car, which, I don't mind as I've got a tour on order. For me, the car was fantastic. I'll admit, I'm not the most experienced driver (daily driver is a Mustang GT) in the world and today was my first track experience. But WOW!

The steering wheel which others have complained as too chunky, not an issue for me, it felt great and the feeling through the wheel was very positive. What I didn't like, is that while in the heat of the moment in some of the chicanes my hands ended up pressing a few too many buttons on the steering wheel sending the middle bit of the digital dash into some menu, I have no idea what I did.

The gearbox, at the beginning of the day, I'll admit I missed a few gears. A change into third that didn't quite hit and a change down to second that went nowhere near! By the end of the day though (and during our track sessions in the afternoon) I got used to it and the changes were smooth and again, very positive. By the end of the day I was really enjoying the gearbox. When I got back into my Mustang at the end of the day, it's gearbox felt clunky and difficult to manage, I missed the Emira box so I guess when I get mine, I won't be disappointed. I really think the complaints about the box go away within a few minutes.

The sound, oh the sound. During the first half of the day, we were doing skills based tests. Brake and avoid, slalom and a bit on the skid pan. In this section of the day I had no time to really take the sound in. But on the full track sessions, getting to ring through the gears, I was not disappointed. I think the sound really kicks in after about 2k RPM (IIRC something to do with the valves opening at that point?) and as it grows the V6 really sings. I've always enjoyed the sound of the mustang but the Emira might just have pinched it!

All in all, in driving the car today, it was a new experience for me and has re-invigorated my excitement for getting my Emira sometime later this year!

There's a lot more I want to write about today's experience but I'm short on time right now, so I'll leave what I have here. I'll try and post some more about things I learnt about the car and the event at some point tomorrow.

The TL;DR here, the car is great, I'm not a professional driver but as an average joe who's driven a variety of different cars (from caterham, to hot hatch, to mustang, to mclaren), I loved it!

 

[Pegasi]

To echo's Andrew's sentiment, I was also at the event today and think good news is definitely accurate!

Today's event saw 6 of us on the tailor made advanced, full day course, led by 2 instructors, Martin Donnelly and Toby Goodman. We used two cars, the dark verdant on a sports setup with cup 2s and the nimbus on a tour setup with the goodyears.

I spent the entire day with Toby in the nimbus car, which, I don't mind as I've got a tour on order. For me, the car was fantastic. I'll admit, I'm not the most experienced driver (daily driver is a Mustang GT) in the world and today was my first track experience. But WOW!

The steering wheel which others have complained as too chunky, not an issue for me, it felt great and the feeling through the wheel was very positive. What I didn't like, is that while in the heat of the moment in some of the chicanes my hands ended up pressing a few too many buttons on the steering wheel sending the middle bit of the digital dash into some menu, I have no idea what I did.

The gearbox, at the beginning of the day, I'll admit I missed a few gears. A change into third that didn't quite hit and a change down to second that went nowhere near! By the end of the day though (and during our track sessions in the afternoon) I got used to it and the changes were smooth and again, very positive. By the end of the day I was really enjoying the gearbox. When I got back into my Mustang at the end of the day, it's gearbox felt clunky and difficult to manage, I missed the Emira box so I guess when I get mine, I won't be disappointed. I really think the complaints about the box go away within a few minutes.

The sound, oh the sound. During the first half of the day, we were doing skills based tests. Brake and avoid, slalom and a bit on the skid pan. In this section of the day I had no time to really take the sound in. But on the full track sessions, getting to ring through the gears, I was not disappointed. I think the sound really kicks in after about 2k RPM (IIRC something to do with the valves opening at that point?) and as it grows the V6 really sings. I've always enjoyed the sound of the mustang but the Emira might just have pinched it!

All in all, in driving the car today, it was a new experience for me and has re-invigorated my excitement for getting my Emira sometime later this year!

There's a lot more I want to write about today's experience but I'm short on time right now, so I'll leave what I have here. I'll try and post some more about things I learnt about the car and the event at some point tomorrow.

The TL;DR here, the car is great, I'm not a professional driver but as an average joe who's driven a variety of different cars (from caterham, to hot hatch, to mustang, to mclaren), I loved it!

Please do some more comparisons to the Mustang. I know they are completely different cars but perspective is everything. Things like torque, visibility, would be good to hear. I am somewhat similar to you in that my first track experience was an Evora GT and I was like OMG why didn't I know about these things. Very hard to explain that handling feel. Even though I was the slowest person on the track it was awesome.

 

[TomE]

Great write up, look forward to reading more of your feedback when you have time.

Interesting point about the sound below 2k rpm. Were you running in Sport drive mode? As you probably know, the cars default to Tour mode on startup.

 

[Joel]

Great write up, look forward to reading more of your feedback when you have time.

Interesting point about the sound below 2k rpm. Were you running in Sport drive mode? As you probably know, the cars default to Tour mode on startup.

I wish I'd paid more attention/made better notes. But, I know that we used a mixture of the modes today, some of it in tour, some of it in track.

I felt like the slow, pootling around getting onto the track, the car was quite quiet. But under hard acceleration, it really did open up and sounded great!

To be honest, this is probably not a bad thing, certainly for myself, I don't want to wake the neighbours when I sneak out in the late evening

 

[Porter]

Here’s a screenshot showing the 3 stripes from the recently released German review. The seats looked great when I saw them a few months ago at Hethel, but they’re looking even better now.

My mind is officially blown. It exists!!

Video here:

 

[kitkat]

My mind is officially blown. It exists!!

View attachment 7793


Video here:

LOL, stripe-gate is next. Video shows stripes, TomE says stripes not there in production spec. Has anyone checked the gap between the stripes?

 

[virtualmacho]

Loving these first hand experience write ups! Thanks for taking the time to post them.
As for the 3 stripes, they might be a subscription model...

 

[TomE]

LOL, stripe-gate is next. Video shows stripes, TomE says stripes not there in production spec. Has anyone checked the gap between the stripes?

Hang on! There’s something fishy going on here. AU22 BUO is the yellow Emira I rode in up the hill at Goodwood. That’s got an alcantara interior with grey stitching. You can see that in the early part of the video when they do interior shots of the stationary car.

When they move on to the exterior shots on the Hethel track it’s the same car. But then when they cut to interior shots on track at around 7:30, it’s got tan leather seats. That’s a different car!

Why have they used two different cars and what’s the build spec of the tan interior one? BUO is definitely one of the pre-production press cars. I wonder if the tan one is an LDA car. Can anyone who did one of the LDA sessions confirm if the yellow V6 is an LHD with tan interior?

If it’s an LDA car then we know it’s 99% production spec.

 

[Lotustoronto]

How I just pictured TomE right now

 

[TomE]

More like this…

 

[Cachaco131]

Hang on! There’s something fishy going on here. AU22 BUO is the yellow Emira I rode in up the hill at Goodwood. That’s got an alcantara interior with grey stitching. You can see that in the early part of the video when they do interior shots of the stationary car.

When they move on to the exterior shots on the Hethel track it’s the same car. But then when they cut to interior shots on track at around 7:30, it’s got tan leather seats. That’s a different car!

Why have they used two different cars and what’s the build spec of the tan interior one? BUO is definitely one of the pre-production press cars. I wonder if the tan one is an LDA car. Can anyone who did one of the LDA sessions confirm if the yellow V6 is an LHD with tan interior?

If it’s an LDA car then we know it’s 99% production spec.

The videos suggested the one with the stripes was shadow grey from what I recall.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I never thought Surrey was like Hawaii - but I can see how Magnum is a better sleuth.