Misha Charoudin drives my Emira round nurburgring.

[firstedition]

Misha Charoudin drives my Emira round nurburgring.
Touring suspension. He liked it, said the touring suspension was way too soft for the ring. Liked the gearbox and engine.

 

[Tokion]

Misha Charoudin drives my Emira round nurburgring.
Touring suspension. He liked it, said the touring suspension was way too soft for the ring. Liked the gearbox and engine.

For those who don’t already know; Misha Charoudin is a very accomplished driver and YouTuber associated with the Nurburgring based “ring-taxi” and “rental” firm APEX. He is driving all kinds of cars from classics with small engines, tuning cars of all kinds, up to true super-cars like McLarens and Ferraris.

I am super-happy to see him drive the Emira on the “Ring” through “The Green Hell”. It is one of the best tests to see what the Emira really can do on one of the toughest racing tracks in the world.

It is also to be noticed that the road called the Nurburgring is a part of the national road network in Germany, so to a high degree ordinary traffic rules and laws apply. But it does help that there are still no speed limit on many stretches of German Autobahns, including the road through the “Ring”.

 

[VL3X]

My heart was racing just watching that video. Very cool footage though and the car performed and sounds great!

 

[Porter]

Follow up comments from Misha...

 

[Pegasi]

The person riding shotgun had more fun than the driver. Lol.

 

[Nova]

Didn't look like a busy day at the ring. He was only passed by one car, a green Porsche. The Cayman with the graphics didn't look like it was going anywhere near it's limits. In all, a great look at the car and his driving technique. He stayed in gear all the way down to just under 3000 rpm. The car pulls strongly in 3rd gear which is where a lot of the work is done on this track.

 

[GetawayDriving]

Someone get this man a sport suspension and Cup2s

 

[luciddaydream]

Sometimes I have a hard time differentiating steering/nimbleness with suspension.

So when he said he didn't like the suspension -- was it mainly the body roll on the track?

 

[Cutting42]

Sometimes I have a hard time differentiating steering/nimbleness with suspension.

So when he said he didn't like the suspension -- was it mainly the body roll on the track?

He is a racing driver and the ring is a race track essentially so it would be way to soft. In fact I suspect even the std sport suspension would be too soft for him. Misha would like a stiff nitron setup with buckets, maybe we should get him to try the @hagen111 setup.

 

[Tokion]

He is a racing driver and the ring is a race track essentially so it would be way to soft. In fact I suspect even the std sport suspension would be too soft for him. Misha would like a stiff nitron setup with buckets, maybe we should get him to try the @hagen111 setup.

I have been following Misha Charoudin for a long time, and I have noticed his comments regarding suspension in many cars he has driven around the Nurburgring.

The issue is definitely not “as hard as possible”. Actually the Nurburgring has many anomalies and even areas that function like a small “jump”, and also the suspension must be able to absorb without bottoming.

I think that the newly developed JUBU/Komo-etc Öhlins TTX may have the greatest chance to work, and this suspension is even adjustable. One problem is that the price is almost €8000, so you have to be quite committed to “invest”. It is of course also possible that the Nitro suspension recently launched for EMIRA also will function well. The problem at Nurburgring is that the suspension must keep full control at all times, and at the same time be compliant enough (long travel).

I actually have the experience of having a professional install of another Öhlins suspension on a non-Lotus car I own; and my experience is that this suspension truly transformed the car and made it much more enjoyable. But I haven’t driven it on the track. However the installer I used do 50% track cars (race and rally), and 50% street cars.

I personally think the JUBU/Komo-tec is too expensive for me; so I hope Öhlins will come out with a directly sold set that fits Lotus Emira, even if it is a more basic set up than the TTX.