Lotus Emira driven at Laguna Seca ahead of US debut

The Lotus Emira has made its way to the US, where it will be officially launched at The Quail: A Motorsport Gathering later today. The Emira will be displayed alongside the Evija hypercar and the Radford 62-2, the latter a joint project between Lotus and Radford (co-owned by former Formula One world champion Jenson Button).

But before making its official debut in The Land of the Free, the midship sports car made a brief stop at the famous Laguna Seca Raceway in California for a quick spin. Button, who once again found himself in the driver’s seat of a manual variant, said the Raceway is “such a great circuit, most road cars on tracks don’t work, but this does.”

Button also previously said the Emira was an “exceptional” car that will give many supercars a run for their money. You’re probably not wrong to think that he’s paid to say that, but the fact that Button’s upcoming Radford 62-2 sports car project is built on the Emira’s platform speaks volumes of Lotus’ lightweight bonded aluminium chassis.

Just to recap, the Emira’s projected starting price is just under £60,000 (circa RM350k) in the UK, and customers have two engine options to choose from. The first is the familiar Toyota 2GR-FE 3.5 litre V6 that’s supercharged to produce up to 400 hp and 430 Nm of torque, and it will be available with either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission.

By mid-2022, a 2.0 litre four-cylinder engine supplied by Mercedes-AMG will be available. The four-pot is said to be specially tuned to deliver that characteristic Lotus trait, and it will be paired with AMG’s dual-clutch transmission as standard. Both engines are transversely mounted, sending drive exclusively to the rear wheels. Lots of hype for this one, it seems.