The Emira comes from a bygone era.
There are no signposts to Putnam’s Leap, the quiet corner in the English county of Norfolk. It lies on the narrow lane that connects the small villages of Hethersett and East Carleton near the Lotus company’s HQ in Hethel and is a strange double hump. Approached from the north there is an abrupt rise, a gentle fall and then another upward slope: a topographical quirk created by the way England’s medieval lanes were thrown over the scenery rather than driven around it. It will always be both an infamous and beloved part of Lotus’s history.
Lotus’s new mid-engine Emira deals with Putnam’s Leap without breaking a sweat. I hear the engine flair momentarily as the rear tires unload. The impact of the first rise is absorbed cleanly, steering goes light for a discernible beat as the road drops away and then the second, harder bump is digested with an equal lack of drama. The Emira’s springs, dampers and bump stops are all working hard, especially as the mass of the rear mounted V-6 creates a hammer blow. But in the cabin, all is calm.
In the late 1960s the Leap was a popular shortcut for traveling to Lotus’s then-newly opened factory at Hethel. One of these regular commuters was the company’s sales director, Roger Putnam, who – like most of the fledgling company’s staff – was young and keen. In a display of loyalty, possibly helped by a generous discount, the 20-something Putnam had bought a Lotus Elan with his own money. One morning he was traveling to work at what must have been a very serious pace when the Elan left the road at the top of the first rise, landed awkwardly, then hit the second at a speed the lightweight sportscar’s finely honed suspension wasn’t able to defuse. It bounced at an angle, entered a field and rolled several times. Putnam was thrown clear of the wreck and, dazed and shocked, was standing next to his pride and joy when another car screeched to a halt.
This was, according to the corporate legend, a vast Ford Galaxie: the car that Lotus founder Colin Chapman had been presented after winning the Indy 500 in 1965, with the boss himself driving. “Whose car is that?” Chapman shouted. “Mine, sir,” replied the shaken Putnam. Having established the Elan wasn’t a valuable item of company stock, and that his sales director wasn’t mortally injured, Chapman blasted off. Putnam’s Leap had found its name; the road has been a favourite for Lotus’s chassis engineers ever since as they strive to ensure future models could handle it better than that ill-fated Elan.
Putnam’s career? That too was unharmed by the incident. He retired as Ford of Britain’s Chairman in 2005.
The Emira digests the sizeable shocks without any of the active systems now fitted to so many sports cars. The Lotus has passive rather than electro-adjustable shock absorbers, and a mechanical limited-slip differential instead of clutch packs juggle torque from side to side according to some algorithm. It is so analog – the hydraulically assisted steering is powered by an engine-driven pump as a fluid-aided rack is reckoned to give superior feedback to even the best electrically powered systems. Old school. Slide rule and graph paper stuff.
Two engines will be available from launch. The first is the one I drove in Norfolk; a lightly developed version of the 3.5-liter supercharged Toyota V-6 that Lotus has been using since the previous generation Evora launched in 2009. In the Emira this produces 400hp and 310lb-ft of torque, and works against 3150 lbs of mass – the car’s structure continuing to use the combination of a bonded aluminum frame and glass fiber bodywork that Lotus has utilized since the Elise arrived in 1995. A six-speed manual gearbox will be standard with the V-6, with a torque converter auto optional for those parts of the world with an aversion to clutch pedals.
A 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from AMG, making 360hp and working exclusively with a twin-clutch transmission, will come soon afterward. Lotus insiders say that more powerful versions of the four-pot will ultimately replace the V-6 altogether as Europe reaches the combustion endgame. Meaning that the Emira won’t just be the final Lotus launched with a powerplant that runs on liquid hydrocarbons, but also the last with a manual transmission. Pity.
The car I drove was the fully loaded V-6 First Edition with the stick shift, and sitting on the firmer of the two optional chassis tunes, branded as the Sport set-up. It rode on a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, which will be optional in Europe but possibly won’t be offered in the U.S. These are radical tires that street legal but track biased. Basically, they’re semi-slicks in place of the standard Goodyear Eagle F1s. In short, it was as hardcore as a launch-spec Emira will get.
Within the first hundred yards of leaving the factory it’s clear that the Sport set-up is on what could be politely termed the firm side of comfortable. It’s not harsh or unpleasant, and it handles large bumps and compressions (like Putnam’s Leap) and also low-quality asphalt tacked at speed without complaint. But at lower speeds there is a definite busy edge to the ride quality which active dampers usually eliminate. Old-fashioned would be the wrong term, but it does feel reminiscent of the way passively suspended sportscars riding on big wheels did about ten years ago.
The steering is similarly retro, but also outstanding. While chassis engineers tuning electric systems tend to try and eliminate all distraction from the basics of response, weighting and caster feel, Lotus has the confidence to leave some unnecessary disturbance in; this is the stuff that used to be referred to as ‘feedback.’
The Emira’s rack is slower than segment standards. That means there is a small patch around the straight-ahead where not much happens, but that is otherwise rich with sensation. Even without big steering inputs the rim of the Emira’s microfibre wheel is reporting on surface texture and camber changes in real-time; which helps build the sense of dynamic connection. The expense is occasional, mild kickback over rougher surfaces. Adding more steering angle proves that the reactions are proportional and that the steering’s weighting builds progressively as lock is reached.
Not that many of these were encountered at even rapid road speeds. ‘Over-tired’ is a big accusation to level at any performance car, but on Cup 2s the Emira has such an abundance of adhesion it is difficult to introduce the level of force necessary to properly awaken the chassis. It responds cleanly to accelerator inputs, tightening or broadening its cornering line in response to the gas pedal. But it lacks subtlety while doing so; especially when compared to my memories of driving a prototype Emira riding on the softer Tour suspension and Goodyears a few months ago. Grip is good, but sports cars are most fun when there is an easily accessible hinterland between grip and slip. It takes a later stint on Lotus’s test track at Hethel to confirm that bigger loadings do indeed create much more throttle steerability and a sense of the help the rear-biased mass gives to turning the car.
To get the criticism out of the way, this Emira’s brake pedal felt a bit wooden and inert under gentler loadings, and the gearshift often seemed to snag when moved quickly between its planes – especially second to third and fourth to fifth. The V-6 engine continues to feel more effective than special. The supercharger delivers strong, linear urge across a broad rev band; the lowly 6750 rpm limiter doesn’t feel like a major imposition given the engine’s tolerance for short shifting. A quoted 4.3-second 0-62 mph time and 180 mph top speed put it close to the Porsche Cayman GTS 4.0-liter for both benchmarks, even if it never gets to sound quite as good.
Yet, overall the Emira definitely drives like a Lotus should. But the rest of the user experience is dramatically transformed compared to its ancestors. The Emira’s is more spacious, better finished and has vastly superior ergonomics to the cramped, plasticky Evora. Its cabin trimmed to what can genuinely be described as near-Porsche standards. It’s easier to get in and out thanks to wider door apertures and narrower sills. And although the Volvo-sourced switchgear feels a touch incongruous in something so sporty, every previous Lotus has also taken its controls from some other vehicle’s parts bin. The crisply rendered digital instruments and central touchscreen feel generations removed from even its most immediate predecessors.
Practicality is still limited. Although the Emira has respectable levels of cabin space, with drivers over six feet able to get comfortable, it is lacking in the luggage space expected from a practical, everyday sportscar. There is no frunk under the nose, and at the rear there is only a bijou five cubic-feet compartment positioned behind the engine. And that bin is an oven with the contents getting baked by the heat soak generated by enthusiastic vehicle use. There is also a usable gap between the seats and the rear firewall to stow a few random items. But storage is one area where the Emira is comprehensively beaten by the (relatively) commodious Porsche Cayman.
The Emira is a car from a vanishing age. Even as it is launched, it’s already archaic. It is the most modern Lotus – at least until the brand unleashes its electrics – but it is also a simple, unadorned sportscar in an age of increasing complexity. Given the choice, go with the more pliant Tour suspension, and definitely skips the Cup 2 tires if they make to the States. The First Edition’s $93,900 base price is hardly back-to-basics, but on first impressions it feels like the encapsulation of everything lovable about this famous British brand.
2023 Lotus Emira First EditionEngine:3456cc V-6 petrol, superchargedPower:400hp @ 6500rpmTorque:310lb-ft @ 3500rpmTransmission:Six-speed manual, rear wheel driveWeight:1430kg0-62 mph:4.3-secTop speed:
180mph
Keyword: The 2023 Emira Is an All-Time High For Lotus