My test drive thoughts:
Magma 6MT, Michelins, reportedly sport suspension but my testdrive companion wasn't 100%
Exterior:
9/10
-Paint looked really good
-Wheel gap is fine in person. Would look better lower, but major functional trade offs for me without a front-end lift on offer
-Rear angle and 3/4 look better in person, something about the rear bumper openings doesn't come across great in 2D
-The hood seal is godawful itself, but doesn't remotely ruin the front of the car. Still hoping for removable with minor wind noise penalty here. In person it looks like it is emphasizing what would otherwise be an okay gap size. The one on my demo was uneven and wavy to add insult to injury.
-The hips on this thing look awesome in person... could almost support saddle bags if you ran out of storage space!
Interior:
8/10
-Comes across as generally high quality
-Materials felt good
-Switchgear borrowed from Lotus/Geely appears to be a general positive
-Didn't trial the KEF at all, sorry -- open window driving was the ticket here
-Speakers, covers, and infotainment visually looked better than expected, the bezel on the center screen was a gripe for me in pictures, but didn't bother me in person. That might be because of the poor brightness/contrast/color content on the center screen making it less apparent.
-Not a big fan of the driver-side screen, slightly washed out, not a lot of visual appeal. I'm also not a fan of the non-linear RPM grading represented on a linear scale. Lots of cars handle this better by having a kind of sideways hockey stick kind of representation where "the part that doesn't matter" is more vertical on the left side and then it levels off and the horizontal part is linear. It's strange to me to do both the linear visual with the uneven numbering in track mode
-Zero interior rattles or groans for me
-Good overall noise isolation with the windows briefly up
-Small amount of non-buffeting wind noise and muted road noise from the rear of the cabin / rear window area. I would describe it as very similar to driving a normal sedan with the rear seat folded down. Was totally fine for me.
-I don't like the first edition placard, I would prefer not at all, but it wasn't intrusive in a brief test drive
-Plenty of interior space for 2. I'm a fatty and my sales guy was on the taller end. We both fit fine and we weren't shoulder to shoulder
-Steering wheel: I liked the grip on the perforated leather, the shape took me zero effort/experience to get used to
-Pedal box on LHD: I actually liked it more than a typical arrangement. It took me feeling around with my right foot for maybe 3 seconds to get used to it. It didn't actually result in a turned driving position for me. If you think about cruising your right foot is on the gas and your left foot is to the left of the clutch and neither of those pedals have moved from the typical layout. Same for normal driving/shifting the left and right are both in their normal position. The only difference for me was less movement of the right foot when transitioning from gas to brake, which I actually liked. (Size 10, wearing tennis shoes)
-Noticeably little cross buffeting with both windows open. I'm overdue for a haircut and going double the speed limit on surface roads didn't even ruffle my hair. Maybe I just didn't consider it with the shape of the car vs current sedan, but major upside to driving with the windows down whenever weather permits.
Steering - 10/10. Communicative with just enough damping to not be jittery. Good input resistance, not overboosted. Good wheel grip, turn in, etc. Slightly notable heaviness at very low speeds, which I prefer.
Handling - (With the caveat that I'm not 100% I was on a sport suspension). Felt flat from inside. My sales guy actually encouraged spirited driving and I pushed it hard enough in an empty roundabout to get some mild understeer that neutralized very easily (sport mode, might have been some ESC magic there, they didn't want it in track for test drives per the Lotus guy). Not remotely too harsh over small bumps on good pavement. I'm currently dailying a 2019 M5c and the BMW rides rougher in sport mode
Transmission / clutch - 9/10. It was just "notchy" for me. I did not get the impression that it was overly sensitive to quick shifting and I didn't have any problem landing a hard 2/3 shift on my first try.
Clutch engagement was relatively high in the travel, as seems to be pretty standard
Power:
5/10 for overall power. If they offered this in a 500+ state of tune with a warranty I'd pay a healthy markup for it, but it's unlikely to ever come in the V6 and the manual is absolutely mandatory for me
3/10 for power delivery. This is the thing that I view as the biggest negative
-Little torque on the low end (expected, essentially non-issue)
-No apparent squat, linear power build, (and good interior isolation with windows closed) diminish the sense/drama of speed even if they're good on their own
-The high end being cut off creates a very strange sensation to me. I've driven a couple commuter cars that really gasp for air by redline and feel like they fall on their face. Then there's a natural-feeling of "rounding off" of power that I'm used to that's almost a separate indication of time to shift without that total fall-flat sensation. This does neither and feels like you're at redline when there's still more to give. I didn't actually hit the gas cutoff or have a ton of time to play with it, but it simultaneously felt like you had to rev it out for power and that it prevented you from revving it all the way out.
-I want to be clear that it isn't slow, it puts on MPH faster than it feels like it is doing. But the acceleration is not impressive, is not on par with the rest of the car, and doesn't feel as fast as it could for the power/weight.
-I don't care how old the engine is, it's tech level, or its sourcing. I do care that it's not up to par with the rest of the car. It doesn't have the drama of revving to the moon or the low end punch of making max torque by 2000 RPM, but it does sound good -- it's got that going for it.
-Ultimately I suspect keeping the manual meant keeping the engine for Lotus, which is a little unfortunate
-This might be the first car where the tune ends up being worth the risk for me, even in-warranty if one is available by then, especially if it can safely raise the redline
Hood seal:
Hips wider than mirrors from the rear and prompting the saddle bags comment:
