The final petrol-powered Lotus ever has a lot to live up to – so is the Emira a fitting last hurrah? On sale Now Price from £75,995
Neil Winn Neil.Winn@haymarket.com
JUST AS THE Beatles’ Savile Row rooftop gig marked both the end of something (the band) and the beginning of a new era of music (Imagine, anyone?), the Emira is the last Lotus with a petrol engine before the British brand plugs itself into an electric future. As such, it’s a big deal for Lotus. If the Emira is good, it could be as iconic as Get Back. But if it’s merely average, it might sink like a Yellow Submarine.
From launch, the Emira is powered by a 400bhp supercharged 3.5-litre V6 (sourced from Toyota) that sounds fantastic. A Mercedes-AMG turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine with 360bhp will follow later.
When you push the Emira’s starter button – after lifting its bright red rocker cover – the engine blares into life with real enthusiasm before settling into a deep timbre at idle. So, it’s a real shame that the car’s performance doesn’t quite live up to the menacing soundtrack.
If you mash the accelerator pedal into the carpet without selecting the ideal gear, it can be a little slow to gather momentum – something we suspect is down to the car’s 1486kg kerb weight (around 350kg heavier than the Alpine A110). The saunter transforms into a full-on sprint once the supercharger kicks in at 3000rpm, but you don’t have long before the performance tails off quite suddenly at around 6000rpm.
As a result, you find yourself continually having to row between gears – not a problem if you’re an ardent manual gearbox fan, but we do wish the shifts were a little crisper. You need to really concentrate to execute a clean shift from third to second, and engaging reverse can be a challenge. A manual Porsche 718 Cayman GTS is much slicker.
The Emira claws back points for handling, because it does a stellar job of hiding its kilos. In the Touring suspension set-up of our test car (buyers can also opt for a stiffer Sport set-up), body control is superb along challenging stretches of flowing roads. Sudden changes of camber, big compressions and vicious crests do little to upset the balance; the car just grips and goes.
The steering is near-faultless, too. It chatters away in your hands, streaming messages about the road surface for you to interpret. That could get tiring on a long journey, but once you reach the right road, the way the steering weights up in quick corners is impeccable.
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