📓 Journals New member with actual Emira

[lion shf]

Agree. Modern Porsches are not the bulletproof cars that urban myth dictates. Fortunately you can extend their warranty up to 15 years... and you will need it.

Tell me of one single engine or transmission replacement required under warranty in a v6 Evora or Exige?

I’d argue people DD their p cars, Evora etc not so much. I’ll DD the Emira

 

[neonate]

I agree with emotions, heart vs head analogy when it comes to Lotus. I had an Elise (72D) for 10 years before I sold it 3 years ago. Sold it because I wanted a little bit more comfortable Lotus (Just crossed 50…). Evora didn’t excite me. It was my first and only sports car I ever had. My daily driver is a sofa on wheels aka a Lexus.

I fell in love with the car (Elise) when I was working 20 years ago in UK and decided if I ever get a sports car- it would be a Lotus. After getting it in 2008, I really enjoyed it every weekend putting 20k+ miles- it prods you to play, get the best out of driving experience, reliable and cheaper to maintain. I don’t track or race, just spirited drives. Drove a 911 and AM Vantage- but they are different cars and I knew I would get bored of them.

Put down a deposit in October’21 and patiently waiting for it. The reviews of customer drives confirm that it meets my needs in a sports car- Thank you Nicolas and ott. Now, Lotus- Please give me my emira at least before next Christmas. It is going to be my second and last sports car. I guess it a Lotus thing- once you like it, you love it for long time.

 

[lion shf]

I hope that Emira will be trouble free based on experience with Exige. Zero problems and it is also early car from start of production. Done 70 k. km, mostly on track and pushing hard. And its tuned from 350 to 460 hp. Sure, never skimped on (preventive) maintenance.

BTW. someone asked about Komotec parts for Emira. Saw some of what they are developing, several nice upgrades will be released soon. Can't give details, but similar like they offer for other models.

Found I have also picture of underbody, its nice and flat.

View attachment 10103

Geese and Jack are gonna LOVE that bottom

 

[Cachaco131]

Yup and as stated million times before I'm a 'not too bothered about a cars looks kinda guy' sooo.....
And I can take the roof off which may be the deciding factor

You have to take the roof off because the Spyder with the soft top looks quite bad

 

[Leonard]

You have to take the roof off because the Spyder with the soft top looks quite bad

That is true. But again I really dont care
I drive because I like driving, not to be gawped at and have strangers give me weird hand gestures. I do find the whole car/perception of the person thing interesting though.
When I was running my Porsche/Skoda Fabia combo there used to be a girl that would finish at a similar time to me and Id catch her crossing the road more often than not in front of me. Eventually she started smiling, looking back over her shoulder and strutting just that little bit more. That was when I was in the Porsche obviously. When I was in the Skoda I used to purposely smile, wink and wave and she would make a concerted effort to ignore me every time

 

[695 to Emira]

That is true. But again I really dont care
I drive because I like driving, not to be gawped at and have strangers give me weird hand gestures. I do find the whole car/perception of the person thing interesting though.
When I was running my Porsche/Skoda Fabia combo there used to be a girl that would finish at a similar time to me and Id catch her crossing the road more often than not in front of me. Eventually she started smiling, looking back over her shoulder and strutting just that little bit more. That was when I was in the Porsche obviously. When I was in the Skoda I used to purposely smile, wink and wave and she would make a concerted effort to ignore me every time

I used to run a GT3 RS / Fabia vRS combo. Hope your Fabia was green with black roof

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Not sure the build integrity at Porsche is better. Two reasons, firstly we have no idea of the Emira build integrity, and secondly, 4 out of 5 Porsche cars I have had major warranty claims, one 911 had the engine out and rebuild etc and my 918 GT4 had the dash assembly replaced (which took 6 months for parts) and a 911 had the brake master cylinder explode with instant loss of brakes, plus a Boxster had the clutch fail with the car immobile on a roundabout!

Yes, I know, I will get a Friday Emira, lol.

Luck of the draw I guess.
I've had 3 porkers previously,2 with high miles, never skipped a beat.

I can't really put it into words,but you know when you just feel like it's a solid car and you don't feel worried that it's going to breakdown every 5 minutes...

I'm sure Lotus have come along way since the early woes,my elise was good to be fair, but it's not the reason why I'm opting for the Emira.

 

[Leonard]

I used to run a GT3 RS / Fabia vRS combo. Hope your Fabia was green with black roof

Not that good. I had a Mk1 (£300) in white with the Porker and later with my M2 Comp a yellow Mk2 Sport (£750) both 1.9tdi but not VRS. Great daily. Apologies to OP for clogging up thread with Skoda talk

 

[Watstone]

Not sure the build integrity at Porsche is better. Two reasons, firstly we have no idea of the Emira build integrity, and secondly, 4 out of 5 Porsche cars I have had major warranty claims, one 911 had the engine out and rebuild etc and my 918 GT4 had the dash assembly replaced (which took 6 months for parts) and a 911 had the brake master cylinder explode with instant loss of brakes, plus a Boxster had the clutch fail with the car immobile on a roundabout!

Yes, I know, I will get a Friday Emira, lol.

Thank you Round In Circles, for highlighting your Porsche ownership woes.
I am pig sick of Porsches being held as the holy grail of everything. I unfortunately purchased a new Porsche 718 (982)It was the most unreliable car I have ever owned. It was a standard car in all respects except for a rear spoiler and summer alloys. Numerous faults, blown head, turbo, exhaust manifold etc.
So to all the Porsche worshipers, go and buy one and stop criticizing people who prefer the Bespoke, Beautiful and Prestigious Lotus Emira.

 

[Blue97]

Thank-you for the comparison to the GTS. Having owned a Spyder, My choice was either going back to the 718 or moving onto the Emira. I will need to drive one myself to feel the differences to finally make that decision. I was hoping the Emira would feel a little more alive in the low-end compared to the 718's 4.0's. Have you driven a manual 718 4.0 before? ( I know that your current GTS is PDK) The PDK is such a good transmission that I would imagine it would have a great effect on the perception of power and quickness, especially in the bottom of the rev range.

I had a manual GT4 - engine was very flat and disappointing all because of the gearing - made the engine sound muted. No fun unless you were doing 90 mph in second !! I sold the car after 2 months.
My son has a pdk Gt4 and it is so much better . With the extra gear you can keep it on the boil more + sounds
much better because of this.

 

[lion shf]

Thank you Round In Circles, for highlighting your Porsche ownership woes.
I am pig sick of Porsches being held as the holy grail of everything. I unfortunately purchased a new Porsche 718 (982)It was the most unreliable car I have ever owned. It was a standard car in all respects except for a rear spoiler and summer alloys. Numerous faults, blown head, turbo, exhaust manifold etc.
So to all the Porsche worshipers, go and buy one and stop criticizing people who prefer the Bespoke, Beautiful and Prestigious Lotus Emira.

On the 718 board I rarely read about problems with the cars and we all accept people love to bitch on car boards. I’m on there everyday

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Thank you Round In Circles, for highlighting your Porsche ownership woes.
I am pig sick of Porsches being held as the holy grail of everything. I unfortunately purchased a new Porsche 718 (982)It was the most unreliable car I have ever owned. It was a standard car in all respects except for a rear spoiler and summer alloys. Numerous faults, blown head, turbo, exhaust manifold etc.
So to all the Porsche worshipers, go and buy one and stop criticizing people who prefer the Bespoke, Beautiful and Prestigious Lotus Emira.

You might want to change your profile picture before waving that last statement around

 

[ott]

What a change of topic ! I’m not a fan of any particular brand, most companies with history have made at least one great drivers car during their existance, some more some less. Porsche have made many, no doubt.

My Exige is far from perfect, lots of rattling, cabin noise is deafening at high speed, very uncomfortable to enter and exit, undesteers too much, has high center of gravity and I will probably die if I got into accident, as all other cars are like buses. But I have owned it for 9 years, longer than almoust everything else and still not get bored. Its compact, light, fast, has incredible steering feel and demands effort to drive slow or fast. Feels like sport prototype and is event every time I take it out. Sportcars have no other function than make you feel good. If it does, then its mission completed, no need to be “perfect”.

 

[Toomanyloti]

Not sure the build integrity at Porsche is better. Two reasons, firstly we have no idea of the Emira build integrity, and secondly, 4 out of 5 Porsche cars I have had major warranty claims, one 911 had the engine out and rebuild etc and my 918 GT4 had the dash assembly replaced (which took 6 months for parts) and a 911 had the brake master cylinder explode with instant loss of brakes, plus a Boxster had the clutch fail with the car immobile on a roundabout!

Yes, I know, I will get a Friday Emira, lol.

my mate has had umpteen porkers and the latest macan has been back in loads of times

 

[Lotustoronto]

I had a manual GT4 - engine was very flat and disappointing all because of the gearing - made the engine sound muted. No fun unless you were doing 90 mph in second !! I sold the car after 2 months.
My son has a pdk Gt4 and it is so much better . With the extra gear you can keep it on the boil more + sounds
much better because of this.

I agree, felt the same way about the Spyder... below 4500 rpm wasn't as much excitement. Above 4500 it's one of the best!

 

[emiraspain]

That is true. But again I really dont care
I drive because I like driving, not to be gawped at and have strangers give me weird hand gestures. I do find the whole car/perception of the person thing interesting though.
When I was running my Porsche/Skoda Fabia combo there used to be a girl that would finish at a similar time to me and Id catch her crossing the road more often than not in front of me. Eventually she started smiling, looking back over her shoulder and strutting just that little bit more. That was when I was in the Porsche obviously. When I was in the Skoda I used to purposely smile, wink and wave and she would make a concerted effort to ignore me every time

I think the spyder looks great with the roof up..now just the same as the next man, I'd prefer.the bikini roof off, or any bikini, but sometimes a bit more is a bit less!

 

[Lankan]

OP, thank you for taking the time to share your observations and feedback.

Your comments on Emira's steering (feel) and how the touring suspension rides, especially over undulating surfaces, coupled with your other observations (excerpt below), made your write up(s) a very compelling read indeed.

"...has exotic construction, but is actually analog and kind of oldschool. Its flaws are not that significant and I'm driving something very rare, almoust hand made by tiny company with lots of heritage."

Analogue, old school, exotic construction and hand built are some criteria one would not normally find in the same sentence when describing the characteristics of a modern car. All such cars do have flaws and compromises need to be made, and should be expected. Oh wait, I see that even you didn't manage that...

Seriously, super write up.

 

[First Lotus]

That is true. But again I really dont care
I drive because I like driving, not to be gawped at and have strangers give me weird hand gestures. I do find the whole car/perception of the person thing interesting though.
When I was running my Porsche/Skoda Fabia combo there used to be a girl that would finish at a similar time to me and Id catch her crossing the road more often than not in front of me. Eventually she started smiling, looking back over her shoulder and strutting just that little bit more. That was when I was in the Porsche obviously. When I was in the Skoda I used to purposely smile, wink and wave and she would make a concerted effort to ignore me every time

I think it was the added wink

 

[Leonard]

I think it was the added wink

I promise I did start subtle and then it just made me laugh every day

 

[digilotus]

Hi again !

First trip in my Emira is done and I can share my impressions and thoughts. As we are all different then for the context bit about me. I'm 53 y. petrolhead, owned many enthusiast cars from every possible category and toured in them all over the Europe and UK. So I know well British b-roads. I'm acitve trackday goer, done these for over 20 years and also have raced in Baltics and German VLN, incl 2x24 hrs on Nürburgring. Did reasonably well.

Like said in my first post, mainly I will compare Emira to 4.0 Boxster GTS which we have in family since '21 June and have done 16 k. km in it. By numbers GTS and Emira are almoust identical, but actually they are enough different, so its easy to make choice based on individual preferences.

Handover, Friday morning in Mendig and its raining heavily:

View attachment 10071

Handover was done professinally, I was explained all functions, displays and etc. Everything is easy to understand and use, no issues at all to get familiar in 15 minutes.

View attachment 10073

About buttons on steering wheel. Left side controls cruise and right is for all other functions. Although they can be pressed, it is much more convinient to slide a finger on direction of arrows, they work also as touchpad. All except radio volume slider works well, as its too tiny for exact adjustment. For volume is better to use knob on central tunnel.

What is bit strange, once you have a phone connected, carplay will start as soon as you open the door and music will play from phone immideatly. My other cars it requires to start engine first. During all the trip there was no issues with displays and media, all worked well. Didn't use navigation as I prefer waze.

Second strange thing I noticed is related to cruise control. It works well, but if you set a speed it keeps GPS, not speedo reading. For example I set it on 135 kmh, speedo was showing 140 and waze was indicating 135. Never seen that before. These are not a problems of course.

View attachment 10074

After handover was finshed, car was driven out and off I go to south towards Schwartzwald.

View attachment 10075

Biblical rain, autobahn, trucks, crazy Germans doing 150+ kmh on left lane, new car, new tyres, still looking for convinient driving position and windshield wipers work only on interval position. Not ideal ! Fortunately it was fastest interval so somehow managed. After I stopped at petrol station and shut off the car, wipers started to work normally. Happened once again during the trip. Will be investigated why ?

This is part 1, will continiue.

That car cover looks great!

Did you end up buying it through the dealer or was it bundled?