More Lotusy than a Lotus Emira!
Discussion
One of my customers is a serial Lotus owner of Esprits, Elan, Elise, 2 Evoras and he had a deposit on an Emira I4 which he has cancelled after a recent test drive, he did like it but lost patience with the endless delays and price increases.
This week I took him out in my A110GT and let him have a drive as well, he was very impressed.
To him a Lotus should have great steering, good ride and be small and light - all of which the Alpine does better than the Emira hence him saying it was "more Lotusy than a Lotus Emira!
Plus the Emira being £20k more expensive whereas if Lotus had stuck to their pricing it would have been much closer.
This week I took him out in my A110GT and let him have a drive as well, he was very impressed.
To him a Lotus should have great steering, good ride and be small and light - all of which the Alpine does better than the Emira hence him saying it was "more Lotusy than a Lotus Emira!
Plus the Emira being £20k more expensive whereas if Lotus had stuck to their pricing it would have been much closer.
Interesting observations.
I’ve been tempted by an Emira. I had a drive in an i4 automatic recently and it went well around Donington, felt good chassis-wise and suspension-wise and the brakes were good. I thought that electric seats were unnecessary and added to the weight. Most of all I found the gearbox to be very slow to respond to requests to change via the paddles - has anyone else found that to be the case?
I’ve been tempted by an Emira. I had a drive in an i4 automatic recently and it went well around Donington, felt good chassis-wise and suspension-wise and the brakes were good. I thought that electric seats were unnecessary and added to the weight. Most of all I found the gearbox to be very slow to respond to requests to change via the paddles - has anyone else found that to be the case?
Derek182 said:
To him a Lotus should have great steering, good ride and be small and light - all of which the Alpine does better than the Emira hence him saying it was "more Lotusy than a Lotus Emira!
All true, except for steering.If there's one thing I'd change about the A110 it would be to improve steering feel. Judging turn-in speed is still a mystery, mostly based on previous corners. A Lotus lets you know through steering feel in the braking zone.
I'm curious how bad it would be to delete the EPAS.
Liam22 said:
Derek182 said:
To him a Lotus should have great steering, good ride and be small and light - all of which the Alpine does better than the Emira hence him saying it was "more Lotusy than a Lotus Emira!
All true, except for steering.If there's one thing I'd change about the A110 it would be to improve steering feel. Judging turn-in speed is still a mystery, mostly based on previous corners. A Lotus lets you know through steering feel in the braking zone.
I'm curious how bad it would be to delete the EPAS.
Re the Lotus, now owned by a Chinese company so imho all the history is gone and not to be relied on.
TX.
James Elmer said:
Interesting observations.
I’ve been tempted by an Emira. I had a drive in an i4 automatic recently and it went well around Donington, felt good chassis-wise and suspension-wise and the brakes were good. I thought that electric seats were unnecessary and added to the weight. Most of all I found the gearbox to be very slow to respond to requests to change via the paddles - has anyone else found that to be the case?
Petrol Ped said the slow response to a downshift response ruined the I4 for him. So it doesn't seem like a one-off, but odd since I've not seen the same criticism of the A45 S.I’ve been tempted by an Emira. I had a drive in an i4 automatic recently and it went well around Donington, felt good chassis-wise and suspension-wise and the brakes were good. I thought that electric seats were unnecessary and added to the weight. Most of all I found the gearbox to be very slow to respond to requests to change via the paddles - has anyone else found that to be the case?
Edited by bcr5784 on Monday 1st July 19:02
My customer had similar reservations about the gear change in the Emira I4, wasn't a deal breaker for him as he wasn't looking at track use and thought it was ok for the road but did say the Alpine's gear change was far quicker.
I think Lotus had a few problems adapting the Merc engine to mid engine use, it runs lower power in the Emira than the A45, presumably less boost, due to cooling problems maybe? Not sure why the gear change would be worse though, I assume it electrically operated not relying on cables or linkages?
Lotus certainly took a very long time to bring the I4 to market.
I think Lotus had a few problems adapting the Merc engine to mid engine use, it runs lower power in the Emira than the A45, presumably less boost, due to cooling problems maybe? Not sure why the gear change would be worse though, I assume it electrically operated not relying on cables or linkages?
Lotus certainly took a very long time to bring the I4 to market.
Hi there
I had a V6 FE manual on order and after my test drive cancelled the order. It felt slow and heavy, had an Exige 410 and 987 Boxster Spyder at time, both of which felt faster than the Emira, I drove Emira in track mode flat out, was not impressed.
The A110S feels faster, lighter and the DCT gearbox is more responsive than the i4 AMG gearbox.
I had a V6 FE manual on order and after my test drive cancelled the order. It felt slow and heavy, had an Exige 410 and 987 Boxster Spyder at time, both of which felt faster than the Emira, I drove Emira in track mode flat out, was not impressed.
The A110S feels faster, lighter and the DCT gearbox is more responsive than the i4 AMG gearbox.
Gibbo205 said:
Hi there
I had a V6 FE manual on order and after my test drive cancelled the order. It felt slow and heavy, had an Exige 410 and 987 Boxster Spyder at time, both of which felt faster than the Emira, I drove Emira in track mode flat out, was not impressed.
The A110S feels faster, lighter and the DCT gearbox is more responsive than the i4 AMG gearbox.
The Emira does seem to be strangely slow - slower than the Evora by more than you might expect allowing for the increase in weight. In fact it's no quicker through the gears than a base 250bhp A110, and much less torquey in gear - see https://zeperfs.com/en/duel6621-10593.htmI had a V6 FE manual on order and after my test drive cancelled the order. It felt slow and heavy, had an Exige 410 and 987 Boxster Spyder at time, both of which felt faster than the Emira, I drove Emira in track mode flat out, was not impressed.
The A110S feels faster, lighter and the DCT gearbox is more responsive than the i4 AMG gearbox.
I took the Emira I4 for a test drive. lovely car to look at , very easy to drive , good visibility and a nice cabin. However for an 85K car the engine was average at best, the exhaust sound was awful and when i put it into sport it was offensive. The gearbox was completely confused when using the paddles from Auto mode, it took an age to revert back to auto and it changed down through slow corners quite unexpectedly. The car didn't feel at all fast, the Alpine feels far more keen to pile on the speed. For the original price of 65K you could forgive some of these issues but not for 85K.
The whole test drive experience was a bit of a let down with Lotus and the dealer falling out and the customer interaction somewhat lacking. Having had a deposit down for several years it all ended a bit flat and i cancelled. TBH had the Emira I4 been 65K i would probably still keep the Alpine.
The whole test drive experience was a bit of a let down with Lotus and the dealer falling out and the customer interaction somewhat lacking. Having had a deposit down for several years it all ended a bit flat and i cancelled. TBH had the Emira I4 been 65K i would probably still keep the Alpine.
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