RE: Gavan Kershaw on Lotus Emira | PH Meets

[GPH]

The Harry's Garage film shows the space behind the seats. Lotus say it will take cabin cases but it looks like you might have to sacrifice a couple of inches of legroom (but even at 6 feet plus it seems you don't need the seat all the way back on its runners as is the case with the Evora so most should be OK)
Soft bags will be much easier to fit in.

Edited by GPH on Friday 9th July 10:21

[NextSlidePlease]

Really like the look of this, if the arse end had a maserati badge on it you wouldnt think twice. Stunning bit of kit.

[fantheman80]

That blue one has 15mm spacers and a signifiicant drop in ride height

The black one defo didnt look as mini supercar to me on the move, thoguht it was due to wheel choice and colour. S'pose they all do it...

[Olivera]

fantheman80 said:

That blue one has 15mm spacers and a signifiicant drop in ride height

The black one defo didnt look as mini supercar to me on the move, thoguht it was due to wheel choice and colour. S'pose they all do it...

They are IIRC offering different passive suspension setups, touring and sport, which could account for the differences?

[cypriot]

I think looking at the picture of the boot of the emira and generally the timeline, I would hazard a guess that the Emira's shown on the launch are actually re-bodied Evoras, not the final Emira car. The boot and the panels in the boot are identical to an Evora. It would also make sense given the timeline of spring 2022.

[fantheman80]

Olivera said:

They are IIRC offering different passive suspension setups, touring and sport, which could account for the differences?

yep could be, but I thought htat would be more on the damper stiffness than ride height, but could be. Suppose anyone lookin for the show car stance, would need to get the spacers on and at 15mm grind the lug nuts.

[Olivera]

cypriot said:

I think looking at the picture of the boot of the emira and generally the timeline, I would hazard a guess that the Emira's shown on the launch are actually re-bodied Evoras, not the final Emira car. The boot and the panels in the boot are identical to an Evora. It would also make sense given the timeline of spring 2022.

That doesn't make sense at all. The in-depth footage so far shows a fully trimmed and production ready interior, with custom KEF integrated speakers and infotainment. In fact the whole car looks pretty much production ready, interior and exterior.

What really struck me with the video footage is how far down the line they are with development, and just how much money Geely must have pumped in to make this happen. In years gone by (e.g. Bahar era) Lotus would have revealed a styling buck that would need pushed in by hand, with a final car to be revealed some time in the future.

[havoc]

SidewaysSi said:

shoestring7 said:

Lotus bloke said:

"It'll never feel lazy, it will breathe into the road and out of the road", he continues, "it's not got that trapped feel".

Why do other manufacturers of 'sporting' (or even non-sporting) cars find the desirability of this so hard to get their heads around?

Yep annoys me too. I have just spent a load of money on my 911 to soften it off and make it more Lotus-like. It's a far better car now..

Agreed...it's my one real complaint with the FD2.

...and one key reason* I'm struggling to think of anything to swap the NSX for.


* Ever-rising prices for good stuff being another...

MDMetal said:

?! the V6 engine is 25,000 extra?! geeze thats a buzzkill

Given the tuning potential on the AMG motor, that surprises me. Got to be predatory pricing (it certainly won't be close to the cost differential) for those who insist on multi-cylinder and manual 'box...which is disappointing.


Oh...did that image on page-2 show a kerb weight of 1455-1500kg??? In a 2-seat Lotus?!?!?

Edited by havoc on Friday 9th July 13:36

[AW111]

Olivera said:

fantheman80 said:

That blue one has 15mm spacers and a signifiicant drop in ride height

The black one defo didnt look as mini supercar to me on the move, thoguht it was due to wheel choice and colour. S'pose they all do it...

They are IIRC offering different passive suspension setups, touring and sport, which could account for the differences?

I doubt they'd have spacers like that in a production model.

[Harry H]

Watched a youtube vid last night where Gavan Kershaw specifically said there were no visual differences between the sport and tour setups.

Looks like they're dropped the display car deliberately then.

[otolith]

havoc said:

Oh...did that image on page-2 show a kerb weight of 1455-1500kg??? In a 2-seat Lotus?!?!?

You mean the image of the specs I posted for a current Civic Type-R after someone said they were 1300kg?

[clowesy]

cypriot said:

I think looking at the picture of the boot of the emira and generally the timeline, I would hazard a guess that the Emira's shown on the launch are actually re-bodied Evoras, not the final Emira car. The boot and the panels in the boot are identical to an Evora. It would also make sense given the timeline of spring 2022.

There's absolutely no chance that's the case, the cars you see will be pre-production, pretty much completely representative of what will roll off the line at Job 1 bar software calibration. If they were still running/displaying Evora based mules at this stage then vehicles would most definitely not be getting delivered next spring.

[havoc]

otolith said:

havoc said:

Oh...did that image on page-2 show a kerb weight of 1455-1500kg??? In a 2-seat Lotus?!?!?

You mean the image of the specs I posted for a current Civic Type-R after someone said they were 1300kg?

Ahhh.

:checksanyway:

...so 1,405kg for the lightest spec 2.0, and ??? more for the V6? Still not exactly light, and pretty close to the equivalent Porsches (Cayman 6-pot, 992 C2). I guess if Lotus are trying to keep pace with Porsche on PQ and equipment then that's to be expected...

[AW111]

havoc said:

Ahhh.

:checksanyway:

...so 1,405kg for the lightest spec 2.0, and ??? more for the V6? Still not exactly light, and pretty close to the equivalent Porsches (Cayman 6-pot, 992 C2). I guess if Lotus are trying to keep pace with Porsche on PQ and equipment then that's to be expected...

No free lunches in engineering.

[CraigyMc]

havoc said:

otolith said:

havoc said:

Oh...did that image on page-2 show a kerb weight of 1455-1500kg??? In a 2-seat Lotus?!?!?

You mean the image of the specs I posted for a current Civic Type-R after someone said they were 1300kg?

Ahhh.

:checksanyway:

...so 1,405kg for the lightest spec 2.0, and ??? more for the V6? Still not exactly light, and pretty close to the equivalent Porsches (Cayman 6-pot, 992 C2). I guess if Lotus are trying to keep pace with Porsche on PQ and equipment then that's to be expected...

It's not actually that clear, because the AMG motor is quite heavy for a 2.0 i4 (about 161kg dry) and the V6 is quite light for a 3.5l V6 (about 163kg wet for the basic engine, but you'd have to add some weight for the supercharger).

It may work out to be similar given that the AMG motor is only coming with a double-clutch gearbox, and the V6 has a manual or IPS option.

[otolith]

havoc said:

Ahhh.

:checksanyway:

...so 1,405kg for the lightest spec 2.0, and ??? more for the V6? Still not exactly light, and pretty close to the equivalent Porsches (Cayman 6-pot, 992 C2). I guess if Lotus are trying to keep pace with Porsche on PQ and equipment then that's to be expected...

It would appear that the figure quoted there is the EU (i.e. DIN + 75kg) so 1330kg actual kerb weight. But yes, broadly comparable to the Cayman. A 350bhp four pot PDK Cayman is 1460kg EU / 1385kg DIN. A manual one is 1430kg/1355kg. An entry level one is a bit lighter at 1335kg/1365kg DIN and 1410kg/1440kg EU.

[anonymous-user]

Cold said:

CraigyMc said:

Has anyone seen an Emira with an open boot yet?

No, none of the pre-production cars were permitted to be photographed with the boot open. Most likely the final packaging and finishing is to be completed.

They’d have finished with the packaging a good 1-2 years ago. Those car might not have had all their production level parts fitted, but all the major packaging would’ve been done and dusted ages ago - late 2019 if not earlier.

From the main thread:

danp said:

Someone asked for a pic of the boot, here you go!:

[TdM-GTV]

Boot is different to the Evora but similar. We have to be clear that 100% all new may in fact mean... We tweaked the Evora, after all the Evora 400 was 'all new' with a 'new chassis' when it was released according to Lotus.

Read, they tweaked it to drop the sills. The Emira is remarkably similar in dimensions and basic looks.

[98elise]

TdM-GTV said:

Boot is different to the Evora but similar. We have to be clear that 100% all new may in fact mean... We tweaked the Evora, after all the Evora 400 was 'all new' with a 'new chassis' when it was released according to Lotus.

Read, they tweaked it to drop the sills. The Emira is remarkably similar in dimensions and basic looks.

Same sort of logic that proves the current 911 is in fact a Beetle. Made of the same stuff and looks vaguely similar.

[CABC]

when is a chassis ever "new"? not many I'd venture. ironically it probably is Lotus that did actually produce a totally new chassis with the first Elise. Even the quite different and much larger VVA would have been developed from the original Elise tub surely?
I imagine most chassis are actually developed from old models, even "new" platforms like TGNA.
Any auto engineers able to enlighten us?