Matt Prior
TESTER’S NOTES
There’s some chatter among my colleagues about the weight of the new Lotus Emira. At 1405kg, it isn’t heavy for a sports car, nor is itheavy for a car that replaces the Evora, which was just 5kg lighter.
It is, though, heavier than the cars it also kinda replaces: the Elise and Exige, the two-seaters that have underpinned Lotus’s income for the past quarter of a century.
Lotus is, as you know, famous for loving lightness, andsothe Elise and Exige were sufficiently spry that they could cope without power-assisted steering. The Emira, which uses a development of the Evora’s platform, retains hydraulic assistance. It’s lighter than the Porsche 718 Cayman.