Lotus Emira V6 | Test Drive | Auto Class Magazine

Lotus Emira V6 | Test Drive

3 July 2024 Redazione News, Stories, Tested

I grip that steering wheel with the awareness that this high performance dream is running out of time and I savor the need to immediately close the door and start the engine, almost as if to escape from a hateful expiry date that will mark the end of driving fun as we know it. This is the Emira and carries a very heavy legacy on its shoulders, as well as the responsibility of celebrating the memory of the British super-lightweights with a model that must set off fireworks at every curve.

Words Alessandro Marrone / Photos Alessio Becker

For 70 years a single name has been associated with two words that are oxygen for enthusiasts: driving pleasure. The brand in question is Lotus, a small English manufacturer that has always avoided compromises and trends by creating cars for those who love to drive – for the drivers, as they say. Today, with an all too rapid transition towards a lineup entirely made up of fashionable and luxurious EVs, we have one last model to hold on tight. It’s called Emira and it will be the last Lotus with an internal combustion engine.

With Elise, Exige and Evora out of the picture, the Emira is the swansong hailing from Hethel’s gates, the last bastion of a world made of noises, sounds and sensations that crawl up your spine from the first moment you enter the cockpit, a situation that immediately appears simpler and more comfortable than on any other Lotus I’ve ever driven. I grip that steering wheel with the awareness that this high performance dream is running out of time and I savor the need to immediately close the door and start the engine, almost as if to escape from a hateful expiry date that will mark the end of driving fun as we know it. This is the Emira and carries a very heavy legacy on its shoulders, as well as the responsibility of celebrating the memory of the British super-lightweights with a model that must set off fireworks at every curve.

It is beautiful and despite the obvious structural impediments that the presence of an internal combustion engine entails, it takes up the shape of the Evija electric hypercar with extremely marked lines, air intakes that connect perfectly with the lateral wedges and a tail that points upwards and culminates with a small integrated spoiler positioned above the two exhaust pipes just above the diffuser. At the front, the two slits that separate the line of the bonnet make it immediately recognizable, while the side perception is that of a proper supercar. Forms, but also substance, since this time Lotus has not spared its energy and the overall attention to detail embellish a cockpit that keeps it ahead of the competition. Two seats, with a small but practical space to place two backpacks immediately behind your back. There is space in height, as you don’t jostle excessively with the passenger during gear changes and above all you get in and out of the passenger compartment without having to visit the osteopath the following day.

The Emira is then available in various versions, not only in terms of chassis – Touring or Sport – but with the new engine derived and detuned from the AMG A45, a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbo with 360 horsepower only combined with a dual-clutch automatic transmission, or the supercharged V6 I am testing here, available with automatic transmission or with a good old 6-speed manual. This last configuration is the one to have. Why? The answer is very simple and although some might argue that it is less efficient or even less effective than the AMG-sourced one, hearing the supercharger blowing in your ear and acting on the gear changes with a lever with a visible mechanism is one of the many priceless emotions that Lotus is able to offer like few others do.

Don’t be fooled, the Emira is not a new Evora. It is in fact a Lotus that embarks on a new path, unfortunately destined to end too soon, but this is due to pure Company policy. Geely, the Chinese group that owns the brand, has very clear ideas about the future of Lotus and with the Eletre starting to put its gigantic wheels on the road, we are grateful for this last gift exquisitely aimed at those who still seek thrills while driving. The V6 is the one from the Exige – or Evora – and here delivers 406 horsepower at 6,800 rpm. The maximum torque is 420 Nm and comes into play at 3,500 rpm, making the Emira a rubber band: push and pull. You press the gas and it presses you to the seat, if you do it in the ideal gear it will do it hard, very hard. Rear-wheel drive only and – as mentioned – a mechanical transmission. That short and precise lever is the ultimate tool towards a constant climb for the red line, also capable of moving itself at 7,000 in Track mode, one of the three available driving modes and certainly the most suitable for use between the curbs. Then there is Tour, which is ideal for daily coexistence, and Sport, which increases the volume emitted by the dual exhaust, the best one for today’s weather conditions, with wet asphalt and a series of curves that will allow me to understand if the Emira is the best Lotus to close the most important chapter in the history of the brand.

It doesn’t matter if it’s 8° outside, fog alternating rain and very strong gusts of wind, because this time there is no infiltration. I am perfectly insulated in the cabin and kept warm by an air conditioner that works well, brought to my destination by the new sat-navigation system and with everything within reach of the two 10″ displays. There are also practical storage compartments to make living together better, but we are here for one reason and one reason only: to drive, after all you buy a Lotus for this, right? With the road completely deserted I start to increase the pace and it is at that point that I realize that if you don’t reach the red line you really have no way of appreciating the dynamic skills of the Emira.

It is fast in an absolute sense: it has notable progression, but above all it manages to read the curves without making you perceive a weight that is just over a ton and a half (approximately 1,568 kg). This is also thanks to the balance and the mid-rear engine which, using the supercharger, manages to provide a marked boost, but not instantaneous as happens with a traditional turbocharged engine. Whether it is an advantage or a flaw is something purely personal, but I believe that a sports car which implies knowing how to be used properly, rather than having enough power to get you out of trouble no matter what, is what an enthusiast is really looking for. And then changing gears with the clutch and a gear lever is a luxury that we are now missing too much; who cares if that means losing a few tenths of a second in the 0-100. You earn engagement. The Emira V6 takes just 4.3 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100 kph, reaches a top speed of 290 per hour and turns heads like a supercar, especially in the splendid yellow of this First Edition spec.

The steering is precise and with the electric seat adjustments I can sit down as I like, finding the ideal position as you couldn’t do on other Lotuses, the more hardcore ones so to speak. There are floor mats, plastics that don’t creak, the windows close well and no warning lights come on for no reason. In short, everything is going well and I’m already wondering when the giant “but” will arrive making me stop and regret the various Elises and Exiges. For the moment I’m too focused on keeping the Emira on the road, with tires almost at the end of their life and a soaked asphalt which makes me understand that however precise it is, it’s not at all an easy car to put sideways or rather, to put sideways and then straighten properly.

I hear that whistle when accelerating and I can’t help it anymore. It burbles on release and the road seems not to be enough for the power available, demonstrating that you don’t need the thousand horsepower of current hypercars to increase your heart rate, but above all that on everyday roads, 406 horsepower is a adequate figure if you want to redefine your idea of speed. I’m on a Lotus and I haven’t yet talked about the aspect that perhaps more than anything else makes it great: the chassis. Equipped with the Sport Pack we therefore have stiffer suspension (which is further stiffened in Sport mode) and a self-locking diff. The steering is hydraulically servo-assisted, but manages to provide extremely vivid feedbacks on where the front wheels point and on every slight imperfection in the asphalt. More civilized tires in my case – Goodyear F1 Eagle – and a great desire to widen the tail when exiting corners, but never suddenly and this also thanks to a mass that is certainly not super light.

In the current scenario and obviously without considering a useless comparison with the Exige – the one still to be chosen if you are looking for a raw experience – the Emira has a decidedly more exotic look than the Porsche Cayman and superior performance to the Alpine A110, which however has a few kilos less on the scale, as well as a price significantly lower than the approximately €100,000 of the Lotus. Of the three and without financial impediments I would take the Lotus mainly because it is the one that offers you a more direct driving experience. Furthermore, it has the increasingly rare ability to turn your head countless time the rare moments you’re not sitting in the driver’s seat. It is such a beautiful object.

It happens that after having traveled kilometers and kilometers you no longer want to get out, looking for the most tortuous and long road regardless of the difficult asphalt conditions. What happens is that after a few hours it’s as if I’ve been driving it forever, as if I’ve found a childhood best friend again, or the ultimate Lotus to close a long and exciting chapter. With the Emira, not only does an era come to an end, but a way of understanding driving involvement, a line of thought that has taught the whole world that you don’t need an avalanche of horsepower to go fast and have a good time at the wheel. For 70 years we have combined the words “driving pleasure” with the Hethel brand. Tomorrow everything will be different: the cars, the customers, the emotions. But today, thanks to the Emira, we can still experience those sensations and let our hearts explode in our chest in a blaze of old-school petrol and power. If everything really has to change, let us get closer to that moment behind the wheel of cars like this.

We thank Gino SPA, official Lotus dealer for Italy for letting us experience firsthand one of the best sports cars around.