Rather like London buses, my experience with press cars is that you wait a very long time – and then two turn up at once. Last week was a fine representative of the marque’s future – the , their luxury, all-electric “hyper SUV”, made in , and, with any luck, a reliable profit centre. This week it’s a nod to the past – the , most likely the last all-petrol engined Lotus sports car to be launched, and it takes its place firmly in the great tradition.
Lotus has been through a succession of unlikely owners over the decades since the firm was founded by – whose motto was “just add lightness”. and Proton had mixed success, but now it’s under the stewardship of the Chinese giant , and, allowing for a certain amount of sentiment about the old days, they appear to be honourable custodians. The Emira, like the Sevens, Elans, Europas, Elites and Exiges of the past, is .
The Emira is a great car and really nicely set up. The version I tried, the Emira i4, was fitted with the “touring” chassis, designed for longer distance “civilian” driving, as opposed to the harder riding “sport”, more the track day weapon. It was well suited to the smaller, slightly less powerful engine option, a detuned 2-litre four-cylinder unit from the Mercedes-AMG A45 sports hatch, with an eight-speed auto-box with semi-manual paddle shifts if you want them.
A Toyota V6, with automatic or manual transmission is also available, at extra cost. From the moment you set eyes on the Emi.