2026 Lotus Emira 420 Sport | PH Review
More power and less weight makes for the world's fastest four-cylinder production car - is it also the Emira we've been waiting for?
Spend just 30 seconds driving an Emira on the road and you’ll know you're in a sports car that can turn heads like something worth three times the price. It looks fantastic. But from behind the wheel, the four-cylinder Emira has never felt that exotic. Brisk and brilliant in the chassis, yes, but compared to the more tuneful Cayman GTS is was adjacent to in price, it lacked the special something that its pricier V6 sibling has in spades. In its fight against Porsche’s mid-engined coupe, that’s always been a problem.
That could all change with the launch of this, the Emira 420 Sport, which is the most potent and lightest version of Hethel’s two-seater yet, with a 186mph top speed also said to make it the world’s fastest four-cylinder production car. Its arrival couldn’t be much more conveniently timed either, with the Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster out of production, and Alpine’s A110 having also bowed out for a 2027 successor. It means the Emira gains a 421hp (no, that’s not a typo) range-topper just as the competition steps out of the ring - and with a starting price of £105,900, this is probably good news. Otherwise, the 420 would have found itself up against not only the A110 R, but also the Cayman GT4 RS. You know, the 500hp one that revs to 9,000rpm.
But while the Emira 420 definitely doesn’t come packing anything like the same kind of firepower as the Porsche, it does do a much better impression of a baby supercar. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a McLaren of some sort, although most pleasing is the fact that its supercar-aping design changes all come as part of a technical makeover, providing more downforce and more cooling - not to mention added stance. The latter is helped along by the fitment of uprated springs and dampers that come available in two grades (more on that shortly), lowering the Emira’s already squat ride height by a further 5mm.
At the front, there’s a new splitter that doesn’t just push the nose into the tarmac, it also diverts more cold air to the front brakes. It can be made of carbon fibre like the other aero pieces placed low on the car, including aggressive side skirts and a rear diffuser, which, along with an extended spoiler tip, combine at speed to generate 25kg of added downforce. Vents on the wheel arch draw heat away from the radiators, while air-scooping intakes on the rear arches add to the muscle. At the back, you’ll notice the rear window has been replaced by an Esprit Turbo-esque louvred panel, which helps to reduce heat soak from the mid-mounted 2.0-litre motor after heavy exercise and adds to the Emira’s supercar vibe, even it ensures the view out the back is 90 per cent obscured.
Most of the weight is saved at the very back via an optional titanium exhaust system that contributes a 10kg reduction to an overall 25kg diet. The exhaust tips have a lovely blue tint that’ll evolve with every heat cycle, helping to justify the £12,900 cost of the Lightweight Handling Pack it is a constituent of. Included with that are Multimatic spool valve dampers (Multimatic’s European base is just 20 miles down the road in Thetford) to offer 11 clicks of manual adjustment. The stiffest is firmer than any other Emira, but the softest is said to feel close to a standard car on the road. If you don’t go for the Lightweight Pack by the way, you still get uprated Bilstein fixed valve dampers all round - but you don’t get the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.
Non-performance-related changes include smoked taillights, an optional removable glass top (which is more like a big sunroof than a targa roof) that can be nearly stowed behind the seats but does add £5,000 to the price, as well as new colours and materials for the interior that include carbon fibre and perforated Alcantara to really lift the sporting ambience, with bespoke finishes offered depending on taste. Safe to say this is the most customisable Lotus we’ve seen yet, although it still doesn’t come with proper bucket seats to hug and sit you on the floor. The chairs are comfy, but not racy.
Most important for the driving experience though is a set of extended carbon shift paddles, which come with a ‘click-clack’ action that vastly improves on the previous DCT experience even before you get going. Good news for non 420 customers is these paddles will be rolled out across the four-pot range in due time, as will some of the other non-performance bits and customisation options.
Start the Emira’s AMG-supplied engine with that new exhaust, and it bursts into life with a louder stab of revs and accompanying crackle at the tailpipe. It’s still clearly a four banger, but it’s definitely more vocal. On the move, the character of the engine and dual-clutch setup initially feels much the same as before - in automatic and Tour mode the ‘box is smart enough to lean into the motor’s torque, but it can be hesitant to change down with sudden requests for power. In Sport, it’s much quicker to automatically react.
Our Lightweight-equipped car’s Multimatic dampers come set at what Lotus calls its sports road setting at click ‘five’. While not even halfway along, it’s noticeably firmer than a standard Emira. That said, the quality of the chassis is immediately clear, as no amount of broken tarmac outside Lotus’s Hethel home troubles the 420. The car is constantly telling you what the surface below is like, but with a cushioning bump stop to insulate you from the harshest impacts and potholes.
Not surprisingly, the 420 is noticeably quicker with the extra power, with a 3.7-second 0-60 time feeling totally believable. The gearing is relatively short too, certainly more so than any PDK Porsche, meaning you’re able to work that DCT gearbox even at legal road speeds. With the optional roof of our test car off, full throttle upshifts will soon have you giggling with every crack of exhaust pop.
Still, even though software improvements make it quicker in manual mode, the gearbox remains this i4 Emira’s weak point. In a world where even a base-spec PDK Porsche has instantaneous responses, a ‘box with even only a few milliseconds of delay feels off the pace. Moreover, with a soft limiter instead of a hard one, the AMG motor punishes you for hitting the redline with half a second of fading power. You soon learn to stick a gear higher and use the motor’s torque, but it means the DCT-only 420 doesn’t always feel 100 per cent in sync with your requests for power.
That chassis, however, is a masterpiece. On the road, the 420 reacts keenly and provides useful front-end feel via its hydro-electric power steering. On circuit at Hethel, where a) there are no tractors hiding around bends and b) you can safely set the car to Track mode and fully switch off the ESC, the 420 comes properly alive.
Attack a corner on the brakes and the 420 is one of the most on-its-toes cars money can buy. It rotates on request around its centre point (where you sit) with minimal instruction. Even a flick of steering lock mid-corner or (of course) a heavy dose of throttle while you’re turning the wheel results in the car pitching into slides that feel natural and easily managed. It seems lighter and more nimble and certainly more forgiving than anything else of this level of seniority thanks, no doubt, to the shedding of mass at the rear.
Should you prefer to keep things tidier, the Cup 2s of our track-spec car can easily handle full power exits, while the brakes - which at times feel a little grabby at low speed on the road - have fantastic pedal progression and terrifically strong bite. Fade is minimised thanks to that enhanced cooling, and consistency is excellent. With this stopping power, superb body control and a wonderful balance, the Emira 420 simply never understeers, and yet it’s forgiving and approachable too. Hethel’s kerbs are pretty flat, but the speed you carry over some of them means less settled cars would launch off them into oversteer. Not the 420; it hugs them.
On track and at high speed the Emira 420 is nothing short of thrilling. Nevertheless, the DCT setup’s earlier limitations, although much improved, remain - and of course even with the fruitier exhaust, it still doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as a V6-powered Emira. But what the 420 can claim to be, aside from the quickest four-pot on sale, is a track-capable car that you can actually live with day-to-day. It’s more forgiving on the road than a GT4 RS, and much quicker than an A110 R.
Alright, it still falls short on storage space versus the alternatives (which is saying something), but with an optional premium sound system, heated seats and perfectly adequate infotainment setup, it doesn’t compromise or beat you up like old track-focused Lotuses. In a world where the competition is out of the game until 2027, the Emira 420 is an enormously appealing two-seater. But even if the rivals were still around, this Lotus genuinely offers something different enough to be worthy of the perennial sports car fight.
Best of all, the 420 isn’t some short-term run out. With regulations being relaxed for low volume OEMs, Lotus sees an opportunity to continue building combustion-engined Emiras with both engines beyond 2030. Presently Hethel builds just 2,000 Emiras a year, far below what it’s capable of. Which begs the question: how long until we get an Emira 430 with a manual V6? Because that really would be something...
SPECIFICATION | LOTUS EMIRA 420 Sport
Engine: 1,991cc, four-cyl turbo
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 421@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 369@5,000rpm
0-60mph: 3.7sec
Top speed: 186mph
Weight: 1,421kg
MPG: TBC
CO2: TBC
Price: £105,900 (as tested; £148,075, including £12,900 Lotus Lightweight Handling Pack, £900 Full Black Pack, £5,950 Tangelo Orange paintwork, £5,000 removable roof, £500 Tangelo Orange calipers, £500 orange seat belts, £450 Duotone black Alcantara steering wheel with details, £1,500 black perforated Alcantara interior theme, £1,950 hand painted interior highlight pack, £950 carbonfibre mirror caps, £750 extended co-driver pack, £1,500 KEF premium high end stereo, £600 convenience pack, £250 HomeLink, £300 heated seats, £450 privacy glass)
Surely a s/h 911 would be a better option
I think the question is whether a new 911 would be better option.
Spending £150k on a 4 cylinder is a massive ask. Especially when a V6 lightly used example is half the price.
It’s a long way from the original concept not that long ago with the £60k suggested new price tag.
I’m still tempted by one but it would not be new.
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