Surprised as we were, as a member of the media corps on yesterday’s launch of the Evija Fittipaldi, the hugely knowledgeable @Guy Munday gave us a very comprehensive tour of the Emira production line. The biggest takeaway, having been visiting the factory for almost 20 years now is the huge, and I mean huge investment not only in technology but more importantly, quality. Production is now focussed on efficiency due to the volume increases but also on ensuring cars on the line are built as they are intended with a ‘no faults forward’ policy and machinery such as the optical scanners which, sat on a 3 ton granite block for consistent integrity, take hundreds of measurements of each car to ensure it’s been assembled as it should be to the hundredth of a mm before moving on. With more efficient sub-assembly now completed in the old Elise/Exige & Evora factory, components such as the front and rear subframes are assembled and completed before being attached to the chassis on the production line. It’s a very impressive move on from the more manual processes of the prior cars but with that said, while there are many machines to help with more precise tasks and heavy lifting, the process is still very much a manual one with each task getting 17 minutes to be completed before the automated AGV’s move the car on to the next stage in the process. 

Starting and finishing each day in the Alpine resort village of Mount Buller, the event is run Friday to Sunday. Teams cover just over 900km, of which roughly a third are driven at speed on those closed roads.

THC is the mid-point of the three-round Motorsport Australia Targa Championship, which commences with Targa Great Barrier Reef – held in Cairns in September – and concludes at Targa Tasmania in April.

THC isn’t just about competitive racing. An equally important component is the Targa Tour, which allows people to experience the thrill of spirited driving on closed public roads without the pressures of competition.

Lotus Cars Australia and Simply Sports Cars have been supporting customers participating in Targa events for more than a decade. What started with one competition car at Targa Tasmania in 2012 grew to 49 cars – competition and the Tour – at the THC 2022, staged in February.

After months of lockdown, it was no surprise to see a record number of Lotus cars on the start list, with 27 in the Tour plus a further 11 in competition. A further 11 non-Lotus cars were entered in the Tour, bringing the total under Lotus Cars Australia / Simply Sports Cars management to 49 cars – the most ever.

With each requiring two occupants (driver and co-driver), and Simply Sports Cars providing eight support crew for the event, a total of 106 people had to be accommodated, fed, watered and supported. It’s a huge logistical exercise for the Lotus Cars Australia team.

For many, Targa is and always will be about the competition. This year we had teams entered in two competition classes.

• GT Sports Trophy – a maximum permitted speed of 130km/h
• GT Outright – a maximum permitted speed of 200km/h

To be competitive you need a lightweight agile car that can accelerate fast, is capable of late-braking into corners and can carry its speed to power out of the curve. Sound familiar? Sounds like a Lotus.

The results sheet definitely suggests a Lotus is the car to have, with the first seven places of the GT Sports Trophy competition going to Lotus teams. This is the second year running that Lotus has completed a podium lockout. The class was won by the team of Matthew Gibbens and Tim Jurd in their Exige Sport 410. They were closely followed by Steve Sher and Fergal Murphy in their Exige S, then Rob Bryden and Ian Noble, also in an Exige Sport 410. The top three were separated by less than 90 seconds after three days of competitive driving.

The stage is now set for an exciting Targa Tasmania. Gibbens and Jurd will be out to claim their second victory, having won in 2021. If they do they will be odds-on to secure their first ever Motorsport Australia Targa Championship. They won’t have it easy though – there will be plenty of Lotus cars chasing them!

If you are wondering how much fun it is being on a Lotus Targa Tour, the following feedback from one customer sums up the experience.

“Awesome, brilliant, amazing – just some of the accolades I can think of. Lotus Cars Australia and Simply Sports Cars, thank you so much, your hard work is incredible, you brought to life an event experience that I’ll never forget. Friends made, laughs had, and the opportunity of participating has done more than tick something off my ‘bucket list’.  It’s resulted in the bucket being emptied and refilled… with just more Targa please!”

New Year is celebrated differently in Japan. Traditionally a time spent with family, most Japanese are glued to the TV on the last night of the year watching Kohaku Uta Gassen – a kind of Eurovision Song Contest but played as a team sport.

In recent years a new tradition has evolved, centred on an anonymous commercial parking area near Yokohama Bay. Daikoku is an artificial island built primarily as a dock, the commercial hub from which vehicles built by Nissan, Subaru and others are exported around the world. In the centre of the island is a parking area, accessed by a helter-skelter of roads from the highway bridges suspended high above the docks and surrounding sea. And it is in this artificial amphitheatre, miles from the nearest residential district, that hundreds of car and bike enthusiasts congregate each weekend. The biggest gatherings are regularly around New Year, always peaking on the morning of 3 January.

Lotus has a hugely loyal following in Japan, and is always well-represented at Daikoku. This year was no exception, with countless examples of the Elise, Exige, Evora on display, as well many heritage models. And there was only topic of conversation… “Who’s got tickets to see the Emira?”

LCI is Japan’s Lotus importer, and we had announced in December that the Emira would make its Asian debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon from 14 January. But there was a problem: Covid rules meant that ticket sales were restricted to just 125,000, far less than half of the 330,000 attendees in a normal year. Clearly some enthusiasts were going to be disappointed. However, for those who could get in, the Emira was undoubtedly a star of the show. There was huge interest in the car and the Lotus stand generally every single day of the show. The great news is that many orders were taken.

All was not lost for those who didn’t get show tickets. A carefully planned calendar of events throughout January meant there were other opportunities to see the Emira. A week after the big show debut the car was booked in to yet another of the city’s renowned centres of car culture – Daikanyama T-Site. Ostensibly a book shop just a kilometre from downtown Shibuya, T-Site has become a beacon for petrolheads for two simple reasons: it has a big car park and it stocks auto magazines and books from around the world. Needless to say, on the weekend the Emira was there, the car park and the road out front were jammed with one particular brand of vehicle – Lotus.

Throughout January, the LCI team has worked tirelessly to give Japan’s Lotus fans what they really wanted for Christmas – the chance to get up close and personal with the Emira. We’ve taken the car to numerous iconic spots around the Tokyo area, from Fuji Speedway to Ginza, from Tokyo Tower to Akihabara’s famed ‘electric town’. And at every location Lotus fans just materialised out of nowhere. At one site I met three of them, and they’d all already put deposits down. They were thrilled to see the car appear in front of them completely by chance, and within minutes were delighted all over again with their decision to buy one.

The Emira’s tour of Asia is just getting started. February is Hong Kong, then Thailand in March, and Malaysia and Singapore in April. May sees the car arrive in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. You can follow the Emira’s progress on the Lotus social media channels:

facebook.com/lotuscars

twitter.com/lotuscars

instagram.com/lotuscars

youtube.com/grouplotus

linkedin.com/company/group-lotus/

The Duke of Richmond took the chance to drive an Emira up the famous Goodwood Hill for himself along with Lotus MD Matt Windle in the passenger seat. Please visit the Goodwood website to view the footage here.

There were a good number of Lotus cars in the supercar parking and as ever, Classic Team Lotus had an amazing display of some of their wonderful collection of race cars.

It’s great to be back at the Festival of Speed and to see Lotus dominate the event. The Emira on display had a huge and constant amount of attention and I’m sure we’ll see many, many new customers placing their deposits for the car over the course of the event. Please be sure to check out our very busy Emira chat sections on the forum here.

Supercar Parking

Classic Team Lotus

The Lotus Stand

Valet Pro owner Greg Spink (also an Elise S2 owner and TLF member!) was on hand to offer a guided tour of their factory and chemistry labs and explain the care and detail with which a number of products are formulated, tested, enhanced and eventually made, bottles filled and sent out across the world.

Greg said “Just to say I really enjoyed the event myself. Pretty much all my favourite things in one day. Lotus Cars, Driving, Car detailing Products and Burgers.”

After some time in Newhaven it was a short drive to the B Road Hunting Club where Valet Pro’s in-house detailer gave demonstrations of a number of products and we enjoyed the excellent coffee and burgers, compliments of Valet Pro. While the food and drink was on Greg, donations were made to Kent, Surrey, Sussex Air Ambulance and I’m pleased to report that £180 is heading their way.

Thanks to Greg and his team and the B Road Hunting Club for their time and hospitality.