Probably similar to many people, I first met Lotus in the 2002 racing game Need for Speed 6. I was very impressed with the blue elise, 1The 8-liter self-aspirated engine and the weight of the car less than a ton were out of place in the era of the common popularity of steel behemoths.
But there's no denying that this alternative sports car from the UK always delivers impressive lap times on the track. And the primitive, crazy and dancing on the tip of a knife that it brings can't be given by "civilized sports cars" such as Porsche and Lamborghini.
Time has passed, and in 2021, Lotus has discontinued the production of the Elise, Exige and Evora. At the same time, it also unveiled its last gasoline sports car, the EMIRA. It will be powered by a Mercedes-Benz 20t engine + 8-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, or 3A combination of 5-liter supercharged + 6-speed Aisin manual transmission.
Friends who are familiar with Lotus must know that this six-cylinder powertrain is a legacy from the previous generation, and although the supercharged forced intake form is far better than the NA engine, it is really worthy of the best 2 in the world0T M139 engine, its advantages are actually not obvious. If you really want to talk about the data, the maximum torque of this six-cylinder engine is actually 60N·m greater than that of the four-cylinder turbo engine, and the horsepower data is even the same.
But looking back, in this era, users who still want to buy a pure MR sports car do not want the acceleration results that must be compared, but the "freshness" that Lotus has.
With such mental preparation, 3The 5T version of the Emira feels extremely smooth when it opens. This engine is quite comfortable in terms of both low torque and high revving power output. With the blessing of supercharging, this car drives like a car with a 4Naturally aspirated cars with a displacement of 0L or more. When I locked the gear in 2nd gear and ramped up to 4000rpm, the exhaust sound poured out from behind me. When the revs reached the limit, the speed of the car also reached 115km h, and the second gear broke 100.
But then again, being able to pull up to 115km h in 2nd gear sounds great, but it's not a good thing for a real hand-to-hand fight on the track. Such a sparse gear ratio can easily drop out of the maximum torque range after upshifting, and the coherent acceleration feeling is naturally interrupted. It's a bit harsh to say that, but for a track-focused brand like Lotus, it's really not a problem with details like gear ratios.
Of course, if you say that you bought this manual transmission EMIRA to travel around the city, then this car can be used as an automatic transmission car with 3rd gear. However, with such a flower, it is estimated that there will be a lot of righteous keyboard warriors in the background to criticize me for being violent.
After talking about the power feeling, let's hurry up and talk about the feeling of shifting!After all, it's a subject that's about to disappear.
Seriously, it's not for nothing that Emira can become the white moonlight of countless fans. If I was full of doubts before, I understood the moment I held the gear lever. The Aisin six-speed manual gearbox is driven by a round metal gear knob with a metal lever directly into the gearbox underneath. No one will say no to the mechanical, hard-pierced, sporty shifting feel.
Here, Lotus still has an eye for it, it has placed two transparent acrylic plates on both sides of the dashboard, and you can intuitively feel the aesthetics of the machinery. Although this approach is not useful for improving performance, it can be said that it is just right for toys that pursue sensation and passion.
When I got out of the car, savor this 3When I used the 5T version of emira, I was reminded of the imperial food that had been lost several times in the capital. With the blessing of traditional craftsmanship, 3The 5T model uses the assembly with the most keyboard value, in order to have the most original umami.
In comparison, the 2The 0t version is like a Peking dish that has been improved by the folk. Although the "base material" such as the engine is not hardcore, with the addition of "monosodium glutamate", its deliciousness is almost the same as 3The 5T version is on par with, or even better. However, the taste of the industrial age can never be compared to the "one-trick freshness" of the innocent age.
All in all, in the current era of electrification where 500 horses run all over the ground and accelerate to 100 kilometers in 3 seconds, like 3There are fewer and fewer pure "toys" like the 5T manual transmission EMIRA. Do it and cherish these words, which is the highest evaluation I give it.