2024 Lotus Emira - Now Taking Orders on 2040-cars

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Lotus renames Russell Carr its head of design

There's been a changing of the guard at Lotus recently. The legendary British sports car manufacturer fired its controversial chief executive Dany Bahar and replaced him recently with Jean-Marc Gales. And now it's named a new chief designer. Or rather, renamed its old one to the post.
That designer is the appropriately named Russell Carr, who had previously held the post until Bahar brought in his former compatriot Donato Coco (with whom he had previously served at Ferrari) and charged him with designing a series of ambitious but ill-fated concept cars that debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show and were subsequently axed on Bahar's way out. Now Coco has been shown the door as well, effective at the end of this month. In his place, Carr - who has been with Lotus since 1990 - has been given back his old job after having been demoted to playing second fiddle to Coco for five years.
Although both Gales and Coco both served in senior positions at PSA Peugeot Citroën, Gales didn't join the French automaker until 2009 - the same year that Coco joined Lotus, five years after having left PSA to work at Ferrari.

Lotus Evija's wild aero setup is detailed by chief aerodynamicist

The Lotus Evija is a car of firsts for Lotus. To that end, the company has spent a lot of time talking over the details. Today, we get to learn about the wild shape’s aerodynamics and what Lotus engineers were trying to accomplish. Richard Hill, chief aerodynamicist for Lotus takes a dive into all the details, and the video at the top of this post offers a great visual. “Most cars have to punch a hole in the air, to get through using brute force, but the Evija is unique because of its porosity,” Hill says. “The car literally ‘breathesÂ’ the air. The front acts like a mouth; it ingests the air, sucks every kilogram of value from it – in this case, the downforce – then exhales it through that dramatic rear end.” We can see what Hill means as we look at the Evija in photos. Instead of a regular front bumper, this one has pass-throughs that direct the air back into the side of the car. Lotus hasnÂ’t released the all-important coefficient of drag figure yet, but we have to imagine itÂ’s very low. The front splitter (below, left) is responsible for a few different things. The opening in the center takes in air to cool the battery pack that is mounted behind the seats. Then, the outer section of the splitter channels the air to the “e-axle” for cooling of the electrical components. And finally, it also produces downforce.  There are a couple more tunnels for air to pass through in the rear. These “holes” are likely the most distinctive design feature, especially when accentuated with the LED taillights. Hill says that these are also fully functional and help to reduce drag. “They feed the wake rearward to help cut drag,” Hill says. “Think of it this way; without them the Evija would be like a parachute but with them itÂ’s a butterfly net, and they make the car unique in the hypercar world.” On top of all these porous body structures, there are pieces that move. The rear wing can elevate upward from its flush body position and deploy into clean air above, creating more downforce. And then thereÂ’s an F1-style drag reduction system. This uses a horizontal plane that deploys from the car to make it slipperier through air. The final big piece of this puzzle is the underbody sculpting that directs air into the massive rear diffuser. This causes an upwash of air, in turn creating a massive amount of downforce. Hill sums it up quite nicely.

Lotus Emira V6 First Edition starts at $93,900 in the U.S.

A Lotus Talk forum thread revealed the letter Lotus sent to U.S. buyers who put in reservations for the coming Emira. The automaker revealed U.S. pricing; the V6 First Edition arriving in early 2022 starts at $93,900, and in late 2022 as a 2023-model-year-offering there will be a base four-cylinder Emira that starts at $74,900. Before the base I4 comes, the four-pot will also get a First Edition that we expect will elevate that $74,900 figure. Those prices don't include destination.   That V6 isn't cheap, of course, but it's less than the $100,000 price tag we guessed at based on the Emira's European pricing. That launch car also comes just about fully loaded, graced with the Driver's Pack, Lower Black Pack (more on that in a moment), Design Pack, and Convenience Pack, plus optional 20-inch wheels with diamond-cut two-tone finish and two-piece brake discs with branded calipers. It won't cost anything to swap the wheels for silver or black versions. The only other big-time options we know about so far are the $1,400 Extended Black Pack, which adds more black accents in places like the roof, mirror caps, and exhaust finishers, and the $2,150 six-speed automatic to replace the six-speed manual. But why would you get an automatic? The engine in the initial Emira is the same Toyota-sourced supercharged 3.5-liter V6 found in the Evora, producing 400 horsepower and 310 or 317 pound-feet of torque depending on transmission — the automatic gets the greater torque. The go-to competition for the V6 version is the Porsche Cayman GT4, the German doling out 14 more horsepower than the Englander for the same claimed 0-60 time, while being about $8,000 more expensive.  Next year's base model will run with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder procured from AMG, producing 360 hp and shifting through a dual-clutch transmission. The four-cylinder starts at about $2,400 more than the 350-hp Cayman S, but both cars will weigh and accelerate just about the same.   The six colors available now for the Lotus are Seneca Blue, Magma Red, Hethel Yellow, Dark Verdant, Shadow Grey and Nimbus Grey, but Lotus says more colors are coming. Word is Lotus plans to update its configurator on October 18, too, which should provide a better idea of what's going to be possible.  The Emira will replace every current model in Lotus' range, the Evora, Exige, and Elise, and be the last new internal combustion sports car from the Hethel maker.