I now had a chance to test-drive the Emira and it was a blast to drive!
Observations:
Steering wheel first feels a little weird but you get used to it very quickly. Alcantara feels very good, first time for me and I’m glad I chose the Alcantara wheel.
Seats: They feel quite comfortable actually, I first thought they were bolstered a little too hard. But driving was ok, lateral support could be better, but Alcantara keeps you in place.
Placing of the pedals in the LHD is very centered I would say, it's the opposite direction of that in my M2's seating position, but no real issue for me, after some minutes you don't notice it anymore.
Gear changing is also better than I felt when I first tried to shift, it’s really good, but the shift action has to be deliberate.
Seats and shifting were my main concerns in advance. That’s fine for me now.
Engine power is ok, it’s a totally different power delivery though if you are used to Turbo-engines. Throttle response is quite crisp, especially on-off throttle, big advantage against Turbo-engines.
Weird though is the rev limit of approx. 6800rpm, you just feel that the engine wants clearly to go beyond that limit and that’s the reason you have no good natural feeling for the rev limiter to be honest. That needs to be sorted out later on, I guess Komo-Tec will have an answer for that finally.
This Emira was equipped with the Sport suspension and it’s brilliant. It’s so compliant that I personally can’t think of ever needing the Tour suspension (keep in mind the streets in Germany seem to be much nicer than in UK).
It has so much grip with the Cup 2’s, it just grips and is very confidence inspiring so you want to explore more and more of it.
It’s a real grown-up car, no toy I would say. In comparison to the Alpine A110 is true, it’s more planted and not so playful, but it’s nevertheless quite engaging. And you have a stick. And you also feel the car want to rotate if you lift the throttle.
Sound inside of the cabin is also nice. You really hear that supercharger-whine and in Sport you also hear the V6 sound, but it all comes from behind. For all of you who are not familiar with mid-engined cars.
All in all I will say the want is strong.
And then the looks. My god, it’s so stunning and all the people staring at you when you come along. It’s like driving an UFO.
It’s really special.
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