The all-new Lotus Emira is a big car for Lotus. For one, it's the end of something: the last petrol-powered sports car Lotus says it will make. And for two it's the start of something, as the first all-new model to be introduced since Geely took over Lotus five years ago.
Like the Evora before it it's a mid-engined sports car with a 3.5-litre supercharged V6 engine; here it makes 400bhp and drives through a six-speed manual gearbox. It'll do 0-62mph in 4.3sec and has a 180mph top speed.
But just how good is it? We've put it up against the benchmark mid-engined sports car to find out: a Porsche 718 Cayman GTS. This has a 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six cylinder engine making 394bhp. It will do 0-62mph in 4.5sec and has a 182mph top speed.
Which is better? Join our editor-at-large Matt Prior on some great British roads as he finds out.
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At the end of the day it's down to personal taste. Personally I want to own a Lotus and I am not really interested in owning a Porsche. The Lotus is by far the better sports car.
All I could hear in Matt's voice was 'christ, British jobs depend on what I'm about to say. How do I get out of this one? And who the juddering fk thought that steering wheel was a good idea....?'
Although, see the Harry's Garage review on YouTube and this thing gets a rave review.
Must say, apart from that steering wheel, it looks and sounds the dogs.
Matt tried really hard to justify choosing the Emira over the Cayman, but even his bias could not hide the truth. An older Porsche, costing 15k large less at base price, utterly spanked the Lotus. And yes, utterly spanked, and that's before we talk ownership proposition. Like Alpine, Lotus plays in the Championship, Porsche plays in the Premiership!
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At the end of the day it's down to personal taste. Personally I want to own a Lotus and I am not really interested in owning a Porsche. The Lotus is by far the better sports car.
Must say, apart from that steering wheel, it looks and sounds the dogs.
Matt tried really hard to justify choosing the Emira over the Cayman, but even his bias could not hide the truth. An older Porsche, costing 15k large less at base price, utterly spanked the Lotus. And yes, utterly spanked, and that's before we talk ownership proposition. Like Alpine, Lotus plays in the Championship, Porsche plays in the Premiership!