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I've put together a piece including photos of my views on visiting the car at Rybrook in case anyone is interested. https://rmsmotoring.com/feature/lotus-emira-first-edition/

A Luvverly pair

A little driving on a Saturday night…. (ok it is Friday, but anyway..) 😉

The cynic in me thinks that they are suspending things for 10 days because they were all about to get a kicking or worse. I am surprised someone hasn't run any of them over yet!

I can finally share some pics myself also. Outside our brand new (only just sign written) national Lotus dealer; Lotus Auckland. Thanks to covid lockdown I cannot pick her up. So she's being rail freighted down to me instead. She's on her way, and I should be able to pick up from the depot early next week. They've sold a green cup250 (not the one in the pic, that looks like a 240FE), my friend has a 240FE factory order on the way and I know they've taken some Emira deposits, and no doubt there are other deliveries also. Mine is the first Exige FE sold in the country.

Just had my call from the customer service team. I was told to expect pricing for the i4 FE by the end of the year/ start of 2022. I asked about the rumours of delays going into 2023 but was told they still expect deliveries from autumn next year.

Excellent article Andy!

Excellent write-up! I appreciate the fact that you kept it in perspective, that this was a non-running demo car for show. By now it's also seen quite a bit of wear and tear from all the people who have seen it. The drawer with the paint color samples, once again shows the green looking anything but green. It simply looks black there. I don't think I've seen two photos where it looks the same. It looks different each time. Thank you for posting this; I enjoyed reading it.

Just one small issue: now I can't get the bloody wheels off. Anyhow, been making some progress on this one, albeit somewhat glacial. Engine is now all sorted and runs sweeeeet. Brake master cylinder has been sent for bore & sleeve. Exhaust downpipe is blowing plenty. Nick has sourced a replacement but unfortunately the current system is a custom built mongrel and every joint is a sleeve instead of a flange, and none of it is a fantastic fit. Except for the rear silencers. I discovered after 20 minutes of heave-ho with them that some evil human had tack welded them. Removed the lot. Had to cut the downpipe to get a good handle on 2 very reluctant K-locks. Nick sourced a full correct replacement, but even that is going to be fun as bolts have been tacked to the flanges and then cut, so more stuff to do there. Meanwhile, I was able to fit the replacement parts back to the Y-piece. So, more fun with grinder and drills imminent. Old stuff: New(!) stuff, bloody annoying: And fitted so far: Nick has already dealt with the calipers and hoses, but left the rusty rear pipes to me. A modicum of violence and half a trade pack of expletives dealt with them. Rather pleased that I was able to release all the cable clips and screws without a single casualty, using a bit in a ratchet driver. The T-piece is toast, so I'll be sourcing an alternative. I made up the replacement pipes today. Now waiting to get hold of the brake T-piece, the master cylinder, and some more exhaust mountings. And more expletives for the next bout of violence. Then, hopefully, MoT!

Well I’ve just been to see the Emira in the flesh and it looks fantastic. Real Supercar looks for pumped up saloon money. In saying the above I could be in a very small minority who actually prefers the old school look of the Exige when they are sat in the same showroom. This comment is not meant to detract from the Emira, just personal taste.

Looks great!

I saw that, these pics. Looks nice - hints of Lotus Storm Titanium.

Nikasil wont fit your engine (which I assume is LC spec) without precision machining to modify the block and not really sure they offer any benefit for a carb turbo. I'd save the £££ and use that money elsewhere in the rebuild.

So disappointed to not see coconuts! But, the cars do like great.

Engines have been known to move and people have proposed engine stay designs in the past. If you drop the engine/gearbox out the bottom you can just leave that connected and undo it from the chassis? Then worry about it when it's out.

Ah, so you have met my wife and my son then? My wife or Son would not even know that you shouldn't use washing up liquid in a bucket of water to wash your car. In fact, in almost 30 years I don't think my wife has ever washed HER car, once! Yes - it seems these days every complains they are poor and has no money yet has no time/can't be arsed to do anything themselves! The irony is that the stuff I have built at home (walls, patios, sheds, etc has lasted longer, or needed less remedial work than so called "trained" professional builders. As for decorating - after our extensive water damage the Insurance company (who themselves by the way were great) employed some "professional decorators" to redecorate. I am still finding shit shoddy jobs done. The bathroom ceiling they replastered but then just painted normal emulsion straight on to it without priming the fresh plaster - so all the paint above the shower has peeled and cracked off! Fooking muppets. Other rooms they skimmed the plaster on the walls and system was the same - so the paint is just peeling away in places. My beautiful Oak Staircase that was handmade and sealed with danish oil they didn't bother to sand back and just varnished over - looks a fooking mess etc. End result, I complained like mad, the insurance company said they would get them back - I said "no way, and don't even think about paying them as i'll send you photo's re how bad their work was" - Insurance company then coughed up a cash settlement for me to do the work/get it done (again, they were great) and I found out that from the surveyor that refused to pay the cowboys! i laughed. Lesson is, if you can DIY then DIY - I try to not play with electrics other than real, real basic stuff. I get someone in local who knows what he is doing for that. The rest, my approach is I'll DIY and even that will be better than the shyster cowboys so called "trades"! I now only use people personally recommended to me, and some of my faith is being restored, but even then, I wonder how they run a business as their time keeping is poor, appointments usually are missed, invoicing is slow, and communication is like what I'd expect from a 2 month old chimpanzee. But at least they do quality!

My son recently bought a house from Persimmon and paid to have a snagging report. It came back with 170 faults most of which were minor. These were things like poor silicone around shower, mark to dishwasher door etc. The worst one was the oven fitted 25mm lower than the nextdoor cupboards as the half wit who fitted the hob left he gas pipe in the wrong place. So rather than refit the hob they dropped the oven and cut the plinth. The main bits seem to be built ok. Their big problem seems to be its all built by subcontractors so nobody really cares as they probabaly wont be on the next job anyway.

I was merely trying to connect with the lower classes my dear boy!

Now that I'm entitled to draw my State Pension, I think that I really need to give my image a compatible makeover. The flashy sportscar is all well and good for the young, rakish, lad about town but I'm not sure how it sits with my newly-acquired OAP status, . Based on observations of some of my local contemporaries, I've narrowed down the possible replacements for the Evora to a shortlist of 3. Decision, decisions, decisions. I suppose at the end of the day, the final choice will be based on its availability in the obligatory hearing-aid beige colour scheme inside and out, and of course the ability of its rear parcel shelf to accommodate the required 'badges of office' identifying my man of leisure position, i.e. the Panama hat, box of paper tissues, and a couple of scatter cushions, . If it were your choice, which of these 3 beauties would you go for?

But but you are our glorious leader; how will we know when to eat, or leave. Basically we need a grown up there...

Even worse, people will come to rely on all that tech and be less prepared or capable to take over when needed.

I can see the image as posted, don't know what when wrong there? I can't see the pictures @LotusLeftLotusRight posted either, just a link that shows as broken if I try to open it. Second try: I'll add a tip, it's the same car Chris posted but with some modifications aimed specifically at OAP. 🤣

I have today fabricated an air box for my Elite. The engine was fitted with Zenith/Stromberg carbs but when I rebuilt the engine I decided to fit a pair of Webers which I had on the shelf rather than overhaul the existing units. I obtained an inlet manifold from a JH to which I fitted the Webers. Then I needed air filtration so I made a back plate to suit the twin Webers. Next I used some foam sheets to mock up a plug for a GRP airbox. Once it was done I glassed over it to produce an airbox. Getting air into the box was fixed by some 90 mm plastic plumbing pieces. I will fit a pod filter to at least filter the worst of the dust.

The latest LotusRescue find collected and taken home today on our own recovery truck after having been parked up in a store for the past 10 years. Last run 5 years ago. As usual with assistance from my personal navigator. Wendy. Nice turbo for someone to have back on the road for next summer. Could that be you. Sadly, my brilliant VW Amarok and I parted company today. She has been a fantastic motor and a brilliant tow truck. Anyone thinking of buying one, you wont regret it. She just didn't suit my purpose anymore.

Hi folks, I'm Alastair (Ali) a Scot living in Gloucestershire. I've been a massive Lotus fan for a long time and the Emira deposit is going be my first Lotus. Had Emira not been coming a long I'd have been buying an Exige and another runabout but I'm going to try and daily the Emira 🙂 I currently have an Audi TT-S, and an XC60 T8, and before that I had a heavily modified smart Roadster for a long time. The Roadie brought a kindred spirit with Elise owners, I used to track that and had uprated most elements of it that matter. I've had my Emira deposit down since July, and been to Rybrook Bristol to see the roadshow, even though Silverstone is my dealer of preference, but dates didn't work for me. I've driven Elises, Exiges and VX220Ts in the past, and as a relatively inexperienced Electronics Engineer went to Hethel for a job interview for Lotus Engineering. Glad to finally be on a forum of owners!

So my little VX220 went for it's MOT today. And despite have no dash and no interior trim and no passenger seat, everything that was there was in full working order and clean as a whistle (the interior was stripped for a full retrim that is waiting to go back in) and she sailed through with zero advisories or issues. Driving it back from the MOT testing station just reminding how much fun these cars are, and the size just makes them so perfect for UK roads. Think the only thing I would now swap her for would be an Elise CUP to be honest - more modern ride and build, but same size and chuckability and grinability. Damn fine, under rated, too easily dismissed (usually by those who have never driven/owned one so are like John Snow.....) cars these VX220's.... She's 21 this year and nicely matured!

You'll likely struggle more with the i4 - You would miss the noise of the V6. I'd never sell an Exige for an Emira myself - I will more likely be doing the opposite. If you are talking about your one and only car then the Emira starts to make some sense being more daily driveable and comfortable. The Emira will be dynamically excellent but the Exige is another level of engagement. In short - have both

Just a point on the Exige, having seen a couple that were near the Emira the other day they look like a toy compared to the Emira and the Emira looks much more expensive when you see them together, if that matters to anyone.

Hi all, hope you are doing well I was the proud owner of an Exige V6 Cup about 5 years ago, then sold it and bought an M2 (worst decision ever) so today I went again to B&C to test drive a beautiful 380 sport my heart is still pumping and adrenaline is still flowing throughout my body, finally again! Ok so... I might be buying that gem and I was wondering if you could suggest an induction kit? the car has 1900 miles so relatively new engine, comes with a Larini exhaust system and a lots of goodies any suggestions or idea will be welcome, thanks!!!

This is the problem with "tech". It's great when everything goes how the programmers expected it to go! But they never can programme for every eventuality.

@C8RKHno need for handcuffs , just super glue them to the side of the road

Happily I managed to fix the ignition problem last week, which I have tentatively put down to a combination of things leading to not enough spark, which in turn sooted up the plugs and caused the non-running. The rotor arm was a bit carbon-y as well, so I cleaned that up and all seems well. It's still possible that it's overfuelling as well - if I'm feeling brave I might try and work out how to lean off the carbs a little, but there's a loud voice in my head telling me not to mess with them as they seem pretty well balanced and it's running fine at the moment. I also traced the coolant leak while I had the airbox off, but actually fixing it will be a bigger job. There are two leaks, one in the short hose that goes aft from the thermostat and one at the solid pipe that runs across the top of the radiator just forward of the leading edge of the bonnet. These require removal of the inlet manifold and the bonnet respectively to replace the hoses and clean up the joins, so that job is taking its place somewhere on the to-do list that isn't the top. (I have a couple of non-Lotus cars that need more urgent pre-winter jobs first.) I made a video about fixing it and then a short trip to the seaside - link below in case anyone is interested. To be quite honest I've been rather surprised at the strongly negative reaction I've had online to these videos from some quarters. To summarise, I'm an attention-seeking idiot who should be ashamed of how badly I've neglected it, in spite of me having spent several thousand pounds getting LotusBits to make it driveable since I bought it as a barely-running project. I'm actually a lifelong enthusiast for these cars and the Lotus ethos, but the fanboy trolls have rather taken the shine off. As a result I don't currently plan to make any more videos about my Elite but I will post occasional updates on here if that's ok with people, and try to encourage others as they work on theirs.

Happy birthday, I reached that age last year, how about an upcoming lotus suv, will have plenty of room for a pack of dogs. I still have my mg zs v6 that I bought in 2004 (when I used to go to work)

Let’s hope the TT V8 is the right side of 500horses

@MJON - I know several Evora 4XX owners on here that have the V6 with the IPS box. I am sure they will be along to tell you what a wonderful car it is. I'm a 4xx manual driver but have spent some time on really fast road trips on the Isle of Man with 4xx IPS owners. I can tell you right now, that those 4XX IPS cars were quick and also the IPS cars makes the drivers sound like gods. Please do not listen to naysayers who don't have a 4XX IPS, let the owners tell you themselves, I do believe very few, if any, regret it!

One hasn't got to dig too far before one finds the usual hypocrisy. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16425034/eco-protester-81000-mile-trip-18-year-old-4x4/

That was the one top gear did..... it was being driven on public roads....

I am just about to remove my engine and gearbox.....It looks like the gearbox bolt have been pulled into the bush and I can't get a socket on them. Has anyone else had this issue?

Most OAPs seem to drive one of these: