► The new Lotus Emira sports car ► The last new Lotus powered by gasoline ► V6 and 4cyl performance, light weight

Lotus has announced the pricing of Emira V6 First Edition, which is the top model of its latest sports car. As you would expect from the name. The first edition includes all the additional features you can get and is priced at £75,995.

There are currently four option packages to choose from, but customers can only choose Emiras with a V6 power unit-orders for the smaller inline four-cylinder power system will open later this year. 

The first edition will be made of lightweight 20-inch alloys, available in seven colors (currently), and include other small accessories such as LED lights around and titanium exhaust trims. Inside, expect fully adjustable seats, climate control, cruise control, and an infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The days of imagining how Lotus would fight Porsche without excuses are over. The new Lotus Emira sports car is the reality of these dreams; the sports car developed by the Chinese major shareholder Geely Holdings has a design similar to the reduced version of McLaren, but the price of "less than 60,000 pounds" makes it a medium-sized Porsche Cayman. S floating in the waters.

The two Emiras effectively replaced the 11-year-old Evora (now a £86,000 car), and will fill the gaps vacated by Elise and Exige, partially explaining why it is equipped with the familiar supercharged Toyota V6 and a A turbocharged four-cylinder engine provided by Mercedes-AMG. To help support the business plan, its platform will also be provided to other manufacturers.

A 3.5-liter V6 engine equipped with a manual or automatic transmission will produce 394bhp, while the AMG engine arriving later can produce 355bhp and reduce CO2 emissions to less than 180g/km. Lotus's goal is a 0-62mph time of less than 4.5 seconds and a top speed of up to 180mph-almost identical to the performance data of the Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and Alpine's A110S.

The four-cylinder option will automatically pair with the dual clutch used exclusively by AMG. Of course, there will be other variants, but there are no convertibles or hybrids.

The passive shock absorber offers two different chassis tunings, Tour and Sports (the latter "slightly stiffer" setting offers an option package that also comes with forged alloys, sticky tires and two-piece brakes) . Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tires are standard (this relationship can be traced back to the Esprit era), or you can choose the more aggressive Michelin Cup 2 rubber; both are custom compounds.

The Lotus team used Evora as their benchmark, but completely improved the formula. The basic principles are familiar, including extruded and bonded aluminum chassis, length 4412 mm, width 1985 mm, height 1225 mm (Evora size is 4394/1972/1223 mm, wheelbase is 2575 mm), horizontal mid-mounted engine, hydraulic Steering and rear-wheel drive.

But even the familiar-sounding chassis is actually new and is called a sports car architecture. When Kershaw completes other changes — new subframes, columns, wishbones, engine mounting systems, brakes, bogies and steering columns, stability controls — it’s clear that there are very few changes in practice.

Of course, there are echoes of Evora, but there are also the latest details from the Evija electric supercar. "We want the drama of a sports car-class supercar to distinguish it from others," explained design boss Russell Carr. 'The general form language is a very soft surface with clear lines that can play with light and shadows and make it look sporty. The cabin is curled up between the wheel arches like a sports prototype, but does not affect the way you get in and out. Everything is shrink-wrapped to minimize overhang-we want it to look driven.

"Some elements of Emira are not that thin or lean because we want this car to have more substance because it is competing with it-this is intentional. But there are also technical attributes. The Evija is wider and has carbon fiber. Barrel, so we can introduce porosity, but on Emira, we have a lateral engine, the extrusion needs to sit there, the radiator-everything gets water.

Emira was conceived as 2+0 from the beginning, making room for "a flight case in the suitcase and two suitcases behind the seat", which had a positive impact on the design and other parts of the cabin. There are even cup holders, door frames and storage compartments.

A full 12.3-inch TFT configurable screen is located in front of the driver, and another 10.25-inch touch screen with the usual weight, tire pressure and (optional) lap time. You can even specify driver assistance features, such as collision avoidance systems and rear intersection warnings. The shortcomings of all modules are here.

There are some switchgears elsewhere in the Geely Group. Generally speaking, they do not have the same precision and clear graphics as the Cayman Islands, but there is no doubt that the access, quality, storage and infotainment are better than those seen there. Competitiveness Evora.

V6 Emira will be launched first and delivered in early 2022. The goal here is a price tag of "less than £60,000"-there is no doubt that we will find more pricing details later in 2021.

The four-cylinder version will be launched in the summer of 2022, so it will take some time before we can tell our preferences.

Read our Lotus review here

Contributing Editor, Horizontal Merchant, Tire Breaker

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