As Lotus prepares to ramp up production of their latest Emira core model, the company has released a short clip on the capabilities of the sports car.
Driven by Gavan Kershaw, the director of Attributes and Product Integrity, the Lotus Emira First Edition slides through the corners so smoothly and easily like a hot knife through a slab of butter at their Hethel test track.
Amid some sideways action, he explains the Emira’s outstanding performance on both the track and the road, adding, “With the supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine, you start an acceleration from as low as 1,500rpm and the car just pulls and pulls and pulls, getting stronger and stronger as the revs increase. This is what a real sports car feels like.”
Gavan also expands on the car’s intuitive driving performance, plus the four different driving modes. Tour, for maximum stability and control; Sport, for increased body slip and throttle response; Race, with even greater motorsport-derived dynamics with more focused graphics in the 12.3 instrument cluster; and Fully Off, where the stability control is completely disengaged. ABS is still active in all modes.
Ergonomics also play a very important aspect in a sports car, with the shift lever positioned close to the steering wheel, and also on a shaft not too low to enable a very natural hand movement between steering and rowing the gears.
The Lotus Emira also proudly displays the manual shifting linkage and mechanism via an opening at the transmission tunnel, an important feature first seen in the Lotus Exige.
He concludes, “The whole package is tuned to give you maximum reward and confidence. It’s ‘For The Drivers.” With outputs of 405 hp and 420 Nm, the Lotus Emira V6 completes the benchmark 0 to 100 km/h sprint in 4.3 seconds and a top speed estimated to be around 290 km/h.
Lotus Cars Malaysia has announced the price of the Emira V6 First Edition starting from RM1,131,000 and RM449,800 in Langkawi, dearer than a Porsche 718 Cayman. For the drivers who prefer a lightweight four-cylinder behind their backs, be prepared to wait late until 2022, as Lotus is only planning to introduce the First Edition with the Mercedes-AMG sourced four-cylinder powertrain from autumn of 2022.
As for the much talked about variant with an entry price of under GBP60,000 (RM344k), production is only scheduled to begin in 2023.
GALLERY
