Reviews, Opinions and Emotions

[old dusty]

Now that a lot of reviews have come out, there's already a fair amount of emotion forming amongst the enthusiasm in this forum. For people forming their opinions on these reviews, what's worth noting is the difference between the reviewer's priorities.

One example is I used in the suspension thread is Jethro and Evos track review against Harry's road review:

Jethro categorically states that he doesn't understand why anyone would spec tour suspension in his track review - whilst comparing it to a gt4. In comparison Harry back to backs both suspension, you can see how busy the ride looks in sports and how much more compliant the ride looks in tour. He even states that he's changing his own spec to go from sports to tour.


If nothing else it shows what matters to reviewers (and in Jethro's case, a professional racing driver), Vs real world experience for you and I. Whether or not we're driving down a b road with a busy ride wishing we'd compromise some outright performance for something a little more liveable.


I'm not sure I entirely agree opinions that these reviewers are being bought out by different manufacturers. Having said that - those that know Jethro, know he's both a semi professional racing driver and also someone whose fun time is driving at the limit and beyond, hard on track. Ultimate performance matters to him. Whereas the likes of Rory Reid, Harry Metcalfe and Matt Watson are more of a breed of: this is a car you'll live with, how does it make you feel? Will you like living with it?

All in all, if ultimate performance in comparison to any other road machine matters, Evo's review tells you a lot. In comparison if you like the Emira and wanted to know whether or not it'll make you giddy and happy - I'd say the other reviews do a brilliant job of affirming that.


I'd highly recommend to those considering cancelling deposits to work out what actually matters to them. Whether they want the best comparable performance machine - if so, go get a GT4, or wait for a Emira GT of some sort. Or... Do you like the car and will it make you happy?

Naturally the biggest problems for us early depositors is the fact that we can't drive the cars and we're getting delivery soon. At least in the UK, you're under no obligation to accept a contract on a car prior to driving it. With the current waiting list for the car, there will be no shed tears by either lotus or the dealer if you turn around on the day you finally drive the car, and say "no thanks, I don't want it". They will no doubt be very very happy to take your allocation back...

Unless you get yellow with tan...

I suppose that on reflection none of the reviews should be a surprise. CAR had the car pretty even - but the familiarity and confidence they had built up with the Porsche was too much to declare the Emira a clear winner - but I, personally, was hoping for Emira to be better. EVO is my favourite car magazine and one I respect the opinions of - so Jethros review really did set me back a bit and actually made me hesitate on moving forward. But Harry talked me off the cliff! I know he is a Lotus fan but his reviews tend to be more "road" focused with daily use as part of his analysis - and he loved it. As others have mentioned here it all depends on your expectations regarding use and performance. I want a car that is engaging and sublime to drive and lovely to look at. That there are not millions of them on the road and the owners group seems a little less uptight than Porsche is a bonus. I have/like old Italian cars - they are neither the fastest or the most reliable- and have many flaws a reviewer would scream about - but they have character and put a smile on your face every time. I won't care if on my two a year track days I get passed by a Cayman.

 

[Corkdsp]

Passed on my FE V6 allocation for a more stripped base model V6 but now I will really need a test drive to commit to the base model after these reviews. Coming from a manual 981 cayman S maybe I need to pay the Porsche ADM and stay with Porsche.

Really need to test drive this Lotus it sounds like

 

[kratedisease]

CARWOW..... damn that EMIRA is slow 0-60 !!

 

[Daz]

I watched the EVO review first and thought that the Emira was a poor choice for me, then I watched Harry’s Garage and he loved it. I’ve since watched all the video reviews, read a lot of peoples opinions and I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t reached a conclusion . I think that I will wait out for the ‘customer reviews’ before I make a final decision

 

[BeHappy]

So overall yearh meh I was expecting more positive reviews. From viewing all the reviews my impression that I come away with from never owning a Lotus is should of had more power, won’t feel that fast, too early rev cut off, I’m going to mis-shift gears. Feel like I’m getting technology from 5 years ago just in a sexy shell. For me it’s all about the driving experience looks alone cannot make me part with £80k. So will all be down to my test drive whether I’m happy excitable bunny driving a new car in July or cancel or flip and if so I’d be stuck what to get as certainly wouldn’t get a Porsche look so outdated and never liked the looks. Probably back to 21 plate M3/4 again ( but overly large for my needs) Be interesting to see if any cancellations after our test rides.

 

[Dlirium]

Unless you get yellow with tan...

HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, no one wants that combination ;-)

 

[vision]

I watched all reviews now and think that the EVO review was a bit too negative, however I see where the guy's coming from. What Porsche is doing is building the best performing cars for the track since forever, especially if there is a GT batch on it. Did anybody really think that the Emira would outperform a more expensive GT4 on a track? Why should it? First the guys from Porsche also made their homework and know better than anybody else what they are doing whilst having more budget than anybody else and second track performance was never a top priority for the Emira.
As for engine and gearbox: I've seen every Evora review ever made and rarely anybody said one bad thing about the engine. They rather all said that it has a very linear power delivery, great sound, and real character. However the redline could be a tiny bit higher. On the gearbox side of things, nearly everybody was pleased with it, but Porsche or Mazda in the MX-5/Miata seem to do an even better job. And no surprise, it's the same for the Emira. That doesn't mean that it's bad, it only seems as if you have to get used to it and that there are two or three better feeling transmissions out there. Where's the problem?
A big plus for my overall feeling was the sequence I chose to watch all those reviews in. I somehow managed it to go from negative to positive starting with EVO and ending with Harry's garage. Everybody except EVO was very positive, Autocar and CAR magazine both said that it's a really tough call between Cayman GTS and Emira (which is the biggest compliment that you can get) and Harry smiled like a kid the whole time and said what I wanted to hear: It's the Lotus he always wanted and it's well worth the wait.
The people who thought Lotus can build a car that beats Porsche in every category at a cheaper price point out of nowhere just have to wake up now I guess.

EVO - I would like to point something out,
Emira car review, oh accidentally a GT4 just happened to rock up cos they're filming it for another feature. absolute bullshit. whitewash

Ok all you spies show me the pink GT4 footage!!

 

[Schumacher]

I am going to wait till I test drive it to make up my mind. I actually don't plan on owning the car long as I am moving to the mountains where I will have no use for a sports car. I just want a fun car for six months and then flip it.

 

[Cachaco131]

Now that a lot of reviews have come out, there's already a fair amount of emotion forming amongst the enthusiasm in this forum. There's a lot of positive news, but it's always tempting to latch on to things you don't want to hear or that don't align with your own priorities. For people forming their opinions on these reviews, what's worth noting is the difference between the reviewer's priorities.

One example is I used in the suspension thread is Jethro and Evos track review against Harry's road review:

Jethro categorically states that he doesn't understand why anyone would spec tour suspension in his track review - whilst comparing it to a gt4. In comparison Harry back to backs both suspension, you can see how busy the ride looks in sports and how much more compliant the ride looks in tour. He even states that he's changing his own spec to go from sports to tour.

If nothing else it shows what matters to reviewers (and in Jethro's case, a professional racing driver), Vs real world experience for you and I. Whether or not we're driving down a b road with a busy ride wishing we'd compromise some outright performance for something a little more liveable.


I'm not sure I entirely agree opinions that these reviewers are being bought out by different manufacturers. Having said that - those that know Jethro, know he's both a semi professional racing driver and also someone whose fun time is driving at the limit and beyond, hard on track. Ultimate performance matters to him. Whereas the likes of Rory Reid, Harry Metcalfe and Matt Watson are more of a breed of: this is a car you'll live with, how does it make you feel? Will you like living with it?

All in all, if ultimate performance in comparison to any other road machine matters, Evo's review tells you a lot. In comparison if you like the Emira and wanted to know whether or not it'll make you giddy and happy - I'd say the other reviews do a brilliant job of affirming that.


I'd highly recommend to those considering cancelling deposits to work out what actually matters to them. Whether they want the best comparable performance machine - if so, go get a GT4, or wait for a Emira GT of some sort. Or... Do you like the car and will it make you happy?

Naturally the biggest problems for us early depositors is the fact that we can't drive the cars and we're getting delivery soon. At least in the UK, you're under no obligation to accept a contract on a car prior to driving it. With the current waiting list for the car, there will be no shed tears by either lotus or the dealer if you turn around on the day you finally drive the car, and say "no thanks, I don't want it". They will no doubt be very very happy to take your allocation back...

Unless you get yellow with tan...

My only disagreement with your post is that I encourage those on the fence to cancel right away. That way we move up the list. And then they'll be on the Porsche long list...

 

[TomE]

Did you choose Goodyear or Cup2? My understanding is that there is a geometry change for the road tyres so it may not be so harsh as the pure sport setup.
Any change is 2023 now

I’ve not heard before of any suspension setup difference between Sports + Cup and Sports + Goodyear. It’s possible they might change geometry I guess, but it’s never come up in any discussions with Hethel. The springs, dampers, bushes, ARB will be identical with either tyre.

Of course it should be straightforward to do the Sports geo on the Touring suspension and Touring geo on the Sports suspension. You might choose to do that if you want to run Cups with Touring or Goodyears with Sports.

 

[Pegasi]

I heard/read a few times today that the Emira is fun a low speeds. I think that speaks to the character of the car and the overall experience. I love a nice 50MPH curvy road in the mountains,

 

[Green]

I can honestly say I have very mixed emotions right now on the Emira. Just like hot models, you lust for the looks, but you fall in love with the personality. What i got out of all those reviews were, meh. When I drive my Lexus LC, It is a gorgeous looking car, but like the emira, it is not fast. But boy, does the LC have a beautiful exhaust and engine note, everything about the "driving" portion of the car is hands down a winner for me. Every reviewer of that car says exactly the same thing.

I will wait till the test car is delivered before i proceed with the i4. I'm now leaning towards a base 911 C4.

I was briefly behind a Lexus LC at a track day in my Nissan GTR. I literally was laughing out loud at the way the LC would roll in the corners. It literally looked like it was going to flip over. I recognize the LC is not a track car but man did it look out of place in the corners. It was very slow compared to the GTR. They are pretty!

 

[r1lee]

I was briefly behind a Lexus LC at a track day in my Nissan GTR. I literally was laughing out loud at the way the LC would roll in the corners. It literally looked like it was going to flip over. I recognize the LC is not a track car but man did it look out of place in the corners. It was very slow compared to the GTR. They are pretty!

100% agree, the LC is not a sportscar in any sense of that word. It is a very plush grand tourer, but when you are at the right throttle input, it screams like an F1 car and at WOT, sounds like a muscle car. It's downshifts are outright heavenly music to my ears. Lexus wanted to build a car with soul and I think they achieved it in spades. If I wanted to go faster, I would have bought a Civic TypeR.

 

[Lotustoronto]

One item that has bothered me a bit when it comes to track reviews of the Emira vs 718 GTS 4.0, is that a 718 does not produce any downforce. I know the GT4 does, but realistically the Emira is more of a GTS 4.0 competitor. I can not wait to see some lap times against the 718 GTS, I get a feeling that the Emira will be faster.

 

[kitkat]

One item that has bothered me a bit when it comes to track reviews of the Emira vs 718 GTS 4.0, is that a 718 does not produce any downforce. I know the GT4 does, but realistically the Emira is more of a GTS 4.0 competitor. I can not wait to see some lap times against the 718 GTS, I get a feeling that the Emira will be faster.

I’m sure the Porsche produces downforce — just not through any visible aero elements. They claim a 7:40 ring time in the 718 GTS 4.0 — that isn’t even remotely slow. I’d personally be surprised of a faster lap time of the Emira.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I’m sure the Porsche produces downforce — just not through any visible aero elements. They claim a 7:40 ring time in the 718 GTS 4.0 — that isn’t even remotely slow. I’d personally be surprised of a faster lap time of the Emira.

Emira produces 55KG @ 120 mph. With no active aero or wing. Porsche GT4 produces 122 Kg at about the same speed. The GTS does not have a rear diffuser, wing or front splitter like a GT4. I would safely guess that the current 718's don't create any significant downforce (maybe neutral w/o lift). The fact that Emira does create 55KG is actually fairly impressive. Would love to see a ring time.

I assume that ring time is with a PDK of course... Would like to see manual vs manual. but 7:40 is quick!