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I’ve just had an email from Lotus: ”Dear Dave, We are excited to announce that Emira is now available for viewing at our retailers, however we have been overwhelmed with bookings. As an Evora Launch Edition owner we would like to offer you some rare unobtainium spare parts for your Evora in exchange for hosting a roadshow event for Emira in your dusty garage. Options include door latch mechanisms, window regulators, headlights, and rear sail panels. Please confirm you have a large supply of bacon and eggs and a greasy old frying pan with a loose handle. New screws for your pan handle are available from Lotus @ £19.99 plus VAT. Be quick before they go out of stock. We anticipate a strong take up for this option. Be aware some customers are coming from Porsche/McLaren so ensure they are given extra bacon, but absorb the fat before installation in the sandwich so as to avoid potential chino stains. Conversely, Lotus owners will be content with one hastily bronzed rasher that falls out of the bap during usage, as they are accustomed to such practices. Lastly, we will be sending you Emira signage for your garage door and badges for your Evora, including the larger diameter (6”) nose badge, designed by our local primary school children here in Hethel. Please practice a full reveal with your neighbours but don’t waste your bacon on them such that it becomes a back-order item. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards Emira ‘Overflow Car Park’ team”

Some of the dozen or so Esprit that showed up for the Lotus Owners Gathering in Salt Lake City Utah last weekend

The first ever post was made on what was then 'LEF' Things have changed somewhere! We're very close now to 1,000,000 annual visits and 5,000,000 annual pages served, nuts! Onwards and upwards folks

Today the Club Lotus (Bucks, Berks, and Oxon area) held its annual concourse competition at a big (100+ cars) classic car show. I took the Essex all polished up but didn't win anything (despite being in a class of just two cars..) but 10 minutes later the car show organisers announced the Classic Car of the Show and now I'm chuffed to bits.

Personally I don't think it's that bad, I think speculation and lots of communication between depositors on the forum can lead to the anxiety which some people are having(me included). If I wasn't on the forum and was fairly relaxed about the whole thing then when you look at it on the surface we put a deposit down, they said they would send more info in September which they've done and that cars will be delivered starting with FEV6 in Spring 2022 and FEi4 later in the year. None of that info has changed and we just have to wait for a new car. Anyone who was expecting the first edition cars to be £60k were naive to put it bluntly, it was no secret the cars would have £15k of options as a first edition and that wasn't going to be free. I really wouldn't be surprised if other manufacturers launches don't have forums saying the exact same thing as we are now. Come April 2022 i think we can be more justified to say it's a shambles but it's pretty early days for that give them a chance 🤣

It’s interesting how we all share a passion for Lotus but have varying expectations of past, present and future cars. I grew up with posters of an Esprit, Type 72 and Countach on my wall. My dad collected Bentleys, about as polar opposite from “add lightness” as you could get. My cousin’s Excel was the first Lotus I rode in. My own first cars were hot hatches until I could get an M100 Elan. For me Lotus isn’t about ultimate lightness, it’s about nimbleness and a feeling of connection to the car and the road. So many cars are just a way of getting A to B, with little engagement. The Elan was (and still is) an amazingly capable FWD car that handled and drove like nothing else. Of course Elises set a new benchmark and the pared-back driver-focused philosophy was fantastic (right up to when mine lost it’s “connectedness” with the road one dark frosty January morning and we took off into the scenery - I’m forever grateful that Lotus engineers protected me from my lack of talent with only minor injuries). The Evora was a bold attempt at a different tack and an unsung hero in that. A car that handled like a Lotus but was practical enough for road trips, dad’s taxi, daily driving, track days and ferrying cases of wine, TVs and bikes. The absolute weight didn’t matter, because it handled brilliantly and sounded awesome and did everything I wanted. The Emira won’t be the lightest in class, or the fastest or most powerful. But it will drive like nothing else. And this time it’s a Lotus that unequivocally looks on point and will feel like a great space to sit. It’ll tick boxes that mean more people will consider it, drive it and maybe be converted. And it’ll raise a smile every mile, whether threading over the moors or grand touring around France or blasting down to Goodwood for a track day, or just popping to the shops. And on days when I want to practice yoga, sweat bucket loads, jar my teeth and scare myself sideways to prove you can drive something weighing 750kg (half a 911) on the road at what feels like warp factor 10 then I can always take the Exige.

We did that with the Evora back in 2009 and I've suggested the same with the Emira. Watch this space!

Late afternoon run after a proper valet - just love this car 😍

Y A Y !!! My phone rang... 0330 726 7864 I answered with excitement and glee: "Ah, Mister Bond. I have been expecting you!!" Reply: "Hello? This is Samsung Support about your Television" 🙈

This will probably be my last update as I have now sold this car to a fellow TLF member. So a big thank you to everybody who allowed me to buy all those missing obsolete parts. It was certainly a challenge but between us we've managed to save another one from the scrap heap. When I factor in all the other parts I've personally donated to the project I broke even, which is fine with me as I think the car has gone to a good home. I hope the new owner will keep us updated on his progress and I look forward to seeing it back on the road in the future

More yesterday than today, but what made me ecstatic was the unexpected news that the US is opening its borders in November! Literally 2 minutes later the wife was on the phone booking our flights to go and see our son for the first time in 2 years.

https://www.thelotusforums.com/latest-news/lotus-cars-news/lotus-reveals-pioneering-blueprint-for-next-generation-of-electric-sports-cars/

Blimey, on that basis we will all need to stump up the full non-returnable £60-90K with no more than a fleeting glimpse as we stumble past in the swirling crowds No, come on, Lotus and the dealers will surely have rock solid confidence that when deposit holders get to see the car properly the majority of them will quickly commit. TBH it's more likely that they will lose sales due to a 'less than professional' launch etc than the car itself. The car is a winner

This morning I received my call and the URL to save my spec and pay my £3k, both of which have now been done. I guess it's just a waiting game now, roll on next spring!

Click for full info

Just been contacted by Lotus and they tell me there will Hethel/more local options to viewing the car coming soon for those of us in Norfolk who can't get over to the other places. So I'll hold off for now.

After ten years of ownership, I finally met another Lotus owner last weekend; well, a few of them actually!

V6 £3k order placed 😁 placed my original deposit on the morning of the 7th July, I’d echo the comments from others very slick process, there is I’m told a problem sending email confirmation of orders so there may be a delay in getting an email back from them with order summary etc. Now for the roadshow and the winter wait

So I went on the live chat and there was a very helpful lady who spelt it out for me. I think the confusion is where some people are getting more specific information than others. Essentially there is a difference between a build slot and a delivery date. Yes if you get a phonecall ahead of somebody your car spec is sent to the factory first to be allocated a BUILD SLOT however it does not directly affect your DELIVERY DATE, she was adamant to tell me my delivery date was safe she did not confirm which order the cars are then built. This is why there is a cut off date of 5th November as they can then plan the most efficient way to do it without fucking over order priority. That being said it did kind of read on the chat like if you put your configuration in on 4th November it doesn't matter if you were an april deposit because your build slot is at the back, we purely don't know how they will then manage that. This would then follow from Marclurr's quote of the terms and conditions which do state it is Lotus's complete discretion what order they build them in. She also said that everyone should be getting contacted in deposit order. So if you were an April deposit and haven't been rung, personally I would get on the live chat which is on the emira page. If you were a 7th July and the guy on 8th July has been rung, don't stress about it it's not going to make a difference. If you are 7th July and you aren't rung for another week and August people start popping up, I would get in contact with them. She was also basically saying get your configuration correct first time as it is not going to be that easy to change it. lol there will be material and paint samples on the roadshow factory collection is not a thing currently due to covid and some staff still working from home so this may not be possible. Only automatic cars will have the top dead center coloured marker and contrast stitching due to supplier demand (ie manual has no yellow stitching and will be plain black), this is reflected on the configurator if you choose the automatic car you can then pick more steering wheel options. My advice, get leather then pay https://royalsteeringwheels.com/ £300 to do it in alcantara and whatever colour you want. She could not tell me my order position @Evotion and @697OK I would get in contact if I were you just to be safe as you should have been phoned by now. The live chat was helpful https://www.lotuscars.com/model/emira/

Maybe Lotus is going through the depositor phone list alphabetically? Any Aaron Aardvarks on here? As for Zak Zimmerman, I wouldn’t hold your breath mate.

Apologies for the late introduction.. I'm John, currently living in London but about to move to Cambridge.. I recently took delivery of an Exige 390 sport Final Edition and am blown away by the car.. It's currently in for its 1000 mile service (at 1400 miles.. apparently up to 1500 is fine! 😅), and they are putting back the switch to keep the exhaust valve open all the time, not just above 4500 rpm.. This actually my third Lotus.. I bought a standard series 2 Elise (from new) back in 2002 and then a 111s series 2 Elise in 2006 (second hand). I didn't test drive any Exiges before buying the 390 because the Elises were so good that I knew it would be a fantastic car and unbelievable handling and of course it absolutely is. I wanted to get back into the Elige platform right at the end because I feel a strong emotional connection with it, having fallen in love with the Elise when it was released back in 1996 (I was 16 and could suddenly actually imagine myself being able to afford a Lotus one day).. The Exige of course backs the great handling up with much more torque and it also sounds amazing for a V6.. Feel free to give me a shout if you're anywhere near Cambridge, cheers!

Can someone please tell me how long these speed bumps have been on the M25? Thanks.

Sorry just meant that I don’t think Lotus will be shouting from the rooftops about the V6 FE’s actual weight and might well gloss over it altogether. I think for people that haven’t previously cared a great deal about their car’s weight before (let’s face it, most buyers) it’s quite reasonable to not care greatly about their V6 FE’s weight. Still lighter than a modern 911 and most don’t think of that as a particularly heavy car. Taking a more casual approach to weight has won Lotus many new customers and the package and pricing is so strong the Emira seems to have won over most Lotus diehards too. The car has already proven itself to be exactly what Lotus need to be doing right now. Worst thing they could have done is listen to someone like me. Same with Porsche when I genuinely thought the Cayenne would irreparably damage the Porsche brand and was the beginning of the end for them. Thought Bentley were playing a very dangerous game going after footballers too. How wrong can you be?

They finally finally finally go official with alloy casting on subframes... They've been refining this - or kept it on a shelf somewhere - for the better part of a decade. The core chassis looks nicely evolved from VVA now known as SCA/Elemental, the side sills are really thin and they have built in more rigidity below the Bpillars it seems. My question is always the same right now with the powerpack, if it goes bad how do you service it. because, it will be an issue. it seems Lotus has engineered an access from down below. But with the slab that will be a whole lot of aluminium sheet to be removed. They've been working on this since JMG...

Agree re years out, but when you are being asked to make a decision on the cars 6 months apart without sharing the price difference, it makes it a little harder.

Completely with you - and as you might have guessed, I'm a certified Lotus fanboy. My heart sinks when you see public representation of the brand I love like this, but it's not without a certain amount of justification. It's not a great experience when things go wrong. And they do go wrong for all manufacturers. It's how you deal with it pre-sale, execution and post.

We already know it was from a dealer. But it is ultimately Lotus responsibility to ensure dealers are making the experience of buying a car a positive one. If Lotus don’t communicate with dealers about a customer’s car that makes it very difficult for them. But Lotus need to build and protect the brand by dumping dealers that don’t perform to the necessary standard.

We were supposed to retire May 2021, but COVID put paid to that, as the employer couldn’t get a suitable replacement. I retired January this year. In February local trust asked Sue if I would consider returning to work with major infrastructure/energy scheme, in the last 7 months I will have been asked half a dozen times by recruiters if I would be interested in working on continent; so my conclusion Europe are possibly in need of British engineers as much if not more than UK

Garage swept and tidied - ready for the new arrival on Thursday

So - I’ve bought new - VW, Hyundai and Vauxhall - and sadly not once have I received a welcome hamper or Christmas card from the CEOs of any of them. I'm sure this chap purchased the car from a dealer - and that is who he should be directing his “not feeling special” towards. I have to say I think this chap is “special” but that’s not in a complimentary way. The dealer is utterly responsible for PDI of the car - and by the sounds has completely failed in that duty - no wonder Lotus wish to shitcan some of the dealerships. Yes you’ve bought a new car - you’ve made many mistakes in the process by adding halfords accessories and stuff off ebay - again - nowt to do with lotus themselves. The video is frankly a damning indictment on the expectations of folks these days.

Was in Henley yesterday, there were loads of people cheering and waving union flags as I drove down the road, they had even got a marching band to follow me down the road. Might have been because I managed to accidentally find myself at the head of an organised parade through town, but I'm taking it.

Lots of people have driveways.

Hello guys, I'm François-Xavier from France (Nantes), former owner of some Lotus (Elise SC RGB, Exige V6 Club Racer, Exige V6 380 Sport, Exige V6 410 Sport, ...), I bought last year with a friend an Exige V6 350 Sport for track and recently an Elise S1 111S (what a pleasure this grandma !!!) Hoping to find more information to increase performance and reliability of our car Exige V6 350 Sport 2017 Sky blue Elise S1 111S LHD origin 1998 Racing Green

Yup, it's exciting. Also new configurator goes live on Monday I've been told.

I'm alive. Today.

I am knackered! I've been fitting the new sills I bought from SJ a while back. The quality of the parts are fine but when you offer them up to the car there is a massive gap between the centre of the sill and the body which has to be pulled together as you fit it. It was something like 1/2" or more... That was at the back of the door and the gap is nearly big enough to fall down. Those two surfaces need to be touching and the sill needs to be tight against the body but you can't get behind it to push the two together. If you need to do this job... give it to somebody else!! With the first sill I fitted I managed to pull these together by fitting one pop rivet at a time and as I went along it pulled it bit by bit but on the other sill it pulled it out of square and I had to take it off and do it again. This was the first one... The pop rivets are 6mm diameter so don't bother trying to use one of those things you squeeze together to fit the rivets unless of course you have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I used one of these and they're dead easy to use and don't require a lot of effort... I did not enjoy doing this job at all and wasn't sorry when it was over... And before you fit them make sure you've put the seatbelt brackets and the handbrake bracket on or you'll have to take them off again! But at least it now looks a bit more like an S1... If you'd like me to fit some for you at any time... you can bugger off... I just need to drill the drain holes in each sill now and I can tick that job off the list. Then I have a couple of big holes in the body at the back that I intend to fill in and then I'm done with the bodywork. I will let the new owner deal with the star cracks and any splits that need fixing but that will be easy work and anybody could do it themselves. All the new panels will easily blend in with a coat of high build primer and some blocking. There won't be a lot of filler needed at all. I will probably be itching for a week now as fibreglass really is horrible stuff to work with.

I disagree. The only people who deserve a car lovers contempt are those who purely buy for profit/investment and never have a desire to drive!

@C8RKHI don't think Lotus marketed the Evora at all, let alone the 410 sport. You could also see the 410 sport and similar models as an admission by Lotus that the Evora had failed. Personally I can see the appeal in one (apart from the angle of the seats) but I am in the hard-core minority and that's not who Lotus need to sell the Emira to.

I shall do just that. The Evora isn't raw. Exige/Elise/Caterham - those are raw cars and there's a definite time and place for one of them. However, the Evora was meant to be an everyday, practical Lotus, with semi-exotic looks while delivering the traditional Lotus driving experience. I loved mine, although perhaps not as much as my previous Exiges... But, by the time I sold it, I had enough of the easily scratched leather and slow and frequently in need of resetting stereo. The mash up powertrain and noisy clutch. Second gear that went beyond the legal speed limit. The windscreen that took 10 minutes or more to clear in the station car park 6 months a year. An average 20MPG; and quite a lot less than that if it didn't get a run on a tank. Nowhere apart from the passenger seat to put my coffee cup on the way to the station 😉. The fact that my 5'2" wife couldn't drive it as she couldn't fully depress the clutch pedal! It was still epic to drive, made a fantastic noise, properly fast, amazing ride, supercar looks. Seeing the supercharger actuator in the rear view mirror never grew old. I'd tell anyone in the market to buy one and it did deserve to do better in the market than it actually did, in my humble opinion. It's miles more of an event than your equivalent 911. But there's loads of reasons why Lotus didn't sell many of them and the hardcore relatively few people who would put up with the downsides rather than just marching off to the nearest (and much nearer in all likelihood) OPC to put down a deposit on a 911 was insufficient to sustain the business. Hopefully the Emira solves my personal issues above, while still looking like a supercar, being fantastic to drive and delivering junior supercar performance AND at the same time returning a profit to the company. I'm very excited for more information on the AMG powertrain. I'm not 100% certain I will take up my place in the queue, but that's for reasons unconnected to the car itself. I tested an M2 last year. Never been more disappointed in a car. The ride. 💩

I am currently arguing with some idiots on a friends FB page where most of the people replying are against the idiots blocking the roads but "The few" are shouting louder and using words like "You are all ignorant and need to wake up before the planet dies. ANY way to protest about this gets my support". I thought my reply was actually quite measured: "Ahhhh jolly good. Selective breaking the law! Always a good way to run society. "It's ok to break the law as long as it fits my personal view and beliefs or if its for a good cause and to raise awareness!". Anyway, I'm off to Break into your houses so I can make a donation to their cause, that's obviously ok cause it's all in their cause. By the way, don't try calling 999 all the Police are tied up dealing with people blocking the roads!"

Just went back and added in the +0 as an option, they upped the offer to £63k and quoted it was because it was a "proper sports car". Who would have thought...

Probably a mistake - they will knock off £10k when they see it’s missing the rear seats

Round them up. Fill them up with foam sealant and then use them as cavity wall insulation. That's a good "green" use for them AND it supports their aims.

Errr, the future is electric, apparently!

I'm holding on for the i4, but the V6FE looks astonishingly good value on the face of it. Well played Lotus.

Deposit holders will be contacted with dates for viewings at each dealer, those dates shown are extra days at each dealer than can be booked by interested parties who don't currently have a deposit down.

Thank you, here's a couple after a quick wash and polish after driving her home.