“A Taste of Lotus” – Lotus Driving Academy Review, and more

I think you’ll agree that it’s nearly impossible to have a bad time when you’re hotlapping a racetrack, and when the racetrack is the famed handling track at Lotus’ headquarters in Hethel, and the car is a brand new Emira…then a good time becomes a memorable one for all the right reasons.

My experience at Hethel was the “Taste of Lotus” event which is essentially two 15 minute driving sessions on track over half a day. Having stayed at the somewhat Lotus-themed Old Thorn Barn B&B :

I opted to walk the short distance to the track whilst the daughters did some shopping in Norwich, partially because I wanted the exercise, and partially because I thought it’d be cool to take my time walking along Potash Lane which would have seen so many famous figures from Lotus’ history – Chapman, Hill, Fittipaldi, Rindt, Mansell and Lenghaus.  Not just people either, the first Elise would surely have made its way down that narrow English road, so too the first Esprit and many more.  I also wonder about the fastest speed that lane has seen and who did it – an F1 champion in a one-off special, or an engineer high on adrenaline with caution drowned in ale.  Not for the first time in my life I wish for a time machine.

I turn a corner and it’s time to come back to reality for there are the gates to Lotus HQ.  I have arrived twenty minutes early, because that’s just the way I’m wired, and discover the most friendly security guard on the planet who welcomed me and offered a cup of tea whilst I waited.  The other guests, people, attendees…whatever they’re called start to arrive and when assembled we made our way over to a pre-fab hut for a briefing.

To my surprise our two instructors were actual Lotus engineers.  Normally such events are staffed by random racing drivers with no connection to the brand other than that they just happened to pull on the shirt of the day and their motivation is nothing more than money as it’s one of the few ways to earn coin from racing skills.  

There was a quick briefing covering the usual track safety points, and the instructor explained this was a handling track, not a racetrack. The difference is in purpose – a handling track has a variety of corners to explore car dynamics, and it is not expected that any car will depart the track otherwise there will  be a Meeting Without Coffee.  So on a handling track runoff is limited as space costs money, and on a racetrack there’s more runoff because otherwise it wouldn’t meet safety standards.

Another contrast is that a racing track is (should be) designed to create passing opportunities not explore car handling, so racetracks need to be wide enough for at least three cars abreast, be designed with spectators in mind, have a start/finish straight for race starts, and have safe entry and exits to the pits which can be driven at speed during a race.  Handling tracks are therefore more fun, in my view, unless you’re actually racing!

Here is a track map with numbered turns (The “CC” is the Cone Chicane) and read this if you want a little more on the history of the track plus detailed driving impressions:

Briefing over, and the day started in earnest with two cars and two instructors. Here’s the specs (of the cars, Lotus did not provide power, torque or weight figures for their instructors, and I shall not estimate):

• Emira i4 8-speed DCT automatic – 2.0L turbo, 268kW, 430Nm, 1405kg, limited-slip diff, 0-100km/h 4.2 seconds 
• Emira V6 6-speed manual – 3.5L V6, 298kW, 430Nm, 1455kg, limited-slip diff, 0-100km/h 4.6 seconds

All Emiras are mid-engined, a rarity these days as is a manual option.

First up I was in a yellow automatic i4, the AMG-powered four-cylinder version.  The first two laps were driven at slow pace by the instructor as a sighting lap, and the other car was just ahead of us which is always useful so you can see what to, and not to do. There’s cones out to help with braking, turn-in, and general car positioning.  Then it was time to swap seats, the exciting part!

As I make myself at home it’s immediately apparent the Emira feels like a proper sports car, low and with a sloping bonnet, a cockpit to match its supercar looks from the outside. Emiras do not look out of place next to the best from Maranello or Woking, although we’ll not mention the sound.  The seat is comfortable and nicely adjustable, but I wouldn’t have minded raising the forward part of the base a little.  The steering wheel is reach and tilt adjustable, so I think everyone should be able to get themselves into their ideal driving position.

With the seating sorted I’m ready to go but have to wait for the lead car, which is disappointing as it’s precious track time seconds ticking by, and as I’ve done a lot of track work I’m typically quicker than less experienced drivers so I don’t want to waste time following a slow car. I’m not overly worried, I’m sure we’ll get a pass-by in a lap or so, assuming of course that I am in fact quicker!  Anyway, eventually the lead car sets off, we follow, and I start to get a feel for Lotus’s sole sports car.  Now bear in mind the Emira was in Tour mode, which is all electronics on and set for normal road driving, not any of the sportier modes, so I would expect a different experience in a mode more appropriate for track driving. For example, throttle responsiveness.

If you’re looking for the last word in power-induced gut rearrangement then Lotus is not, and will never be the brand for you, but there’s sufficient power to be interesting.  The sports modes would add a little extra aural sensation – in sports cars it’s not about how fast you go, it’s how fast you feel, and the soundtrack is a big part of that which is why EVs aren’t as exciting as their sheer speed might suggest. 

We’re going around line-astern quite sedately but even at that speed I can feel the steering is superb – incredibly responsive, precise, accurate and sharp, almost thought-controlled. It is about the best sports-steering car I’ve driven, and I include my own Elise in that list.  You need to calibrate your brain a little for Emira-spec steering, and perhaps Lotus’ decision to use hydraulic rather than the now-common electric steering was the right one.

Lap one done, it’s easy to keep up with the car in front and I’m wondering why we haven’t been given a pass-by.  We continue, and the other car puts wheels off the track, throwing up dust at least three times, and completely misses the chicane by braking too late, I take it and am back on his tail shortly thereafter.  It is important to let quicker cars by not only for the sake of the faster car, but also to reduce pressure on the slower driver.  One of the biggest concerns new drivers have is a worry about getting in the way, and with another car behind you there’s pressure you don’t need.  My instructor did say to drop back, further than the 4 or so car lengths I was maintaining expecting to be waved through. I need to recalibrate my definition of ‘too close’ !

We spend a frustrating three laps or so behind the lead car before it finally indicates and pulls to one side so I can pick up my pace and with the extra speed comes a new Emira delight – corner grip, specifically at the southernmost 180 turn 13, Rindt Corner, named after the Lotus F1 driver. 

Every lap I carry a little more speed in, and the Emira just deals with it beautifully. The apex cone is set very late and we were asked to exit mid-track-ish due to the proximity of the wall on the left – remember it’s a handling track – but that doesn’t matter, I’m here to have fun. I try a little mid-corner on/off throttle and the car does respond precisely, but can’t help feeling what it might be like in a mode other than Tour without the unseen but discernible influence of proactive stability control.  It’s at this point I also find the seats are superbly supportive, visibility is exceptional, almost like the car is made For The Drivers.  The automatic is perhaps a mite slow to figure out what we’re doing, and could be a bit earlier on the downshifts, but again…Tour mode.

After a few laps the brakes started to give off a distinct and familiar odour which I shall refer to as Chanel Du Fresh Pads.  They felt okay though, and my instructor said that as they use that track to develop the brakes, I felt I couldn’t possibly have braked too hard. He put it down to my left foot braking and throttle/brake overlap. I’m not convinced as if there was an overlap it’s be very small, I’ve never had any overlap problem before, even last week with 2.2 tonnes of high-speed AMG C63, and I wouldn’t have been working the brakes as hard as a pro who knows the track, or for as long.

I am enjoying this session – the car is responsive, the track is a challenge, and every lap I see room for improvement.  A couple of times I run a little wide and disappoint myself, but conversely I feel I could sometimes be carrying more speed in to some corners.  That’s what I enjoy about track driving, the constant cycle of identifying improvements, making changes and seeing the results.  I will need much more seat time to be entirely happy with my laps, but all too soon it’s time to pull into the pits.

There’s not a lot to do while you wait, but there is a viewing platform so you can see the cars go through the twisty infield I shall call Clarildretti, and there is tea, coffee, water and for when you’ve had too much of the former, a toilet. 

Personally, I think the wait time is a bit of a missed marketing opportunity.  I would put up a series of posters of Lotus cars through the ages – just ask William Taylor for permission to frame a few photos of his excellent The Lotus File book, and leave a few copies to read (and sell).  I would also make a proper in-car tuition video of the track, which is even done for go-kart venues so why not the hallowed Hethel, as the only real in-car I could find was from Driving Bex who does drive a nice smooth lap but doesn’t explain how she does it.  Could even put the racing line on the map in the shed. And some technical information about the cars, and why they are so wonderful such as the electric-hydraulic steering decision. You’ve literally got a captive audience, so captivate them, feed them some interesting factoids about Lotus and the Emira! 

I would also have liked an EV to look inside, and around as there’s a lot of cool tech in Lotus EVs which takes a while to learn, but I never even saw one in the distance.  Even doing the sighter laps five-up in an EV would be an idea, and maybe just one lap in the EV for the spectators.  We got a lanyard at the end, but a I Drove Hethel fridge magnet would be seen by more people.  And maybe a printout of the track map, signed by the team, because we all like to go home and say oh this happened here, that happened there. And a printout of the specs of the cars we drove that day. I guess there’s a reason I’m not in marketing, so what I do know, I’m just a car enthusiast.

Oh I nearly forgot – you can talk to the other people too, and of course, two of them just had to ask The Track Question. I addressed this in detail on my FB page, of course I did not have an answer but resolved to come back next time with the necessary information.

Emira accelerating, then braking into Cone Chicane. Hard to tell, but under braking you get a load shift (not weight shift) forwards and seems the front compresses as you’d expect, but the rear does not appreciably rise. There is little body roll, certainly compared to my own Elise S which has quite road-oriented suspension.

An hour later I’m back out again in the manual V6 this time, again in Tour mode, and eager to see what sort of a difference the gearbox will make.  My instructor says we’ll only use third and fourth, which doesn’t really surprise me as in my own Elise second is largely redundant on track given its ability to carry speed through a corner, low redline and lack of limited-slip diff which means its supercharged torque can easily spin the inside wheel when exiting a corner under power in second – I find it better to use third, get the power on early and save a gearchange, plus my theory that if you’re unsure about which gear to use for a corner, use the higher one as you’ll then drive to that gear’s higher speed.

Back to the manual Emira. I very quickly find a difference to the automatic as I try and shift from third to fourth and make a hash of it…honestly, this is the worst gearbox I’ve ever seen in a sports car.  It’s not the lever position, which is perfect, or the throw, which is ideal, it’s the action.  My Defender TD5 was a quicker, smoother shift. The Unimog I tested earlier this year took less effort.  I learn to shift the Emira like a truck, clutch down, deliberate but firm motion backwards that requires more force than a sports car should, and then into fourth.  Other drivers have noted the same, one ascribing the action to his lack of familiarity with manuals, but it’s not him. Reading some reviews of the Emira later the manual does come in for some…stick…but it doesn’t seem to be as bad as my car, so my guess this one is a poor example having been thrashed by many a Taste of Lotus entrant and maybe was a test mule before that.

Out of the western-most Turn 10, Andretti, I’m in third gear and the car doesn’t pull like the automatic which can bang down another cog and has eight ratios not six.  I think second might be too low, so I leave it in third and just focus perfecting the corner, if I was chasing a tenth I’d maybe look at second.

Down the Mansell straight and I need to change into 5th as otherwise the revlimiter will activate, and I’m not going to answer The Track Question exactly but I do note the speedo going nicely past 120mph (193kmh/) before I need to look up and readjust my vision so I can hit my braking point, so I don’t know the actual top speed other than ‘well over 120’ which I hope is sufficiently accurate. I would imagine the autos are quicker as their gearchanges wouldn’t be measured in eons, and I well know how much time you can save with a quick change 3rd to 4th.

I’m going quicker than I did first session, and start to discover this car is somewhat squiggly-unstable under braking.  My instructor says something about an electronics recalibration and this car not having it.  What’s happening is a high-frequency wiggling of the rear, but not enough to trigger my corrective-steering instinct. But why?  Here’s my theory.

For decades now cars have had electronic stability control programs which used to simply wait for oversteer or understeer to develop, the beginnings of a skid, then wake up to brake individual wheels and maybe chop throttle to bring the car back in line before going back to sleep again – a reactive system. 

Today, those same systems are also tuned to proactively help keep the car going where the driver has indicated with the steering wheel – gently helping the car turn, subtly massaging the power delivery, and stabilising the car under braking.  It is this latter program which seems to be a little awry.  My instructor suggests I try and straighten my braking even further into Turn 1 where it’s worst, so I do and it’s better, but even in a straight line the wiggling is there.  I think the car is fractionally varying the left-right brake pressure when it doesn’t need to, and then when that induces a little yaw, it corrects but a fraction too much, or maybe it corrects enough and difference in brake pressure induces another tiny yaw.  Anyway, this cannot be a widespread problem as otherwise every review would be all over it, and the i4 didn’t behave the same, so I just put it down to a quirk and press on.  It would have been interesting to see if this car did it in a mode other than Tour as the calibration would be different for each mode.

The 17-18-19 chicane presents a much more difficult challenge in the manual.  It’s really slow, and I decide third gear just isn’t delivering sufficient oopmh so second is required and that means a double heel’n’toe – 3rd then 2nd, I decide the syncho can handle 5-3 as three is a bit much for me – slowing from around 200km/h to probably 50-ish, who knows, I wasn’t paying attention to the speedo.

I continue working on my laps, adjusting my lines, entry speed, and trying to exploit the car’s grip yet further.  That goes a little too far when I take a bit too much speed into the cone-chicane and clip a cone.  I could blame it on the aforementioned braking instability, but that would be a lie, it was simply me trying to go too fast and misjudge the exit, a rookie mistake I should not have made.  The instructor, laconic that he is, suggests that maybe a little less speed is in order.  That’s pretty much the first time he’s spoken all session other than the discussion about braking. 

Again all too soon it’s over and we’re on a cool-down lap. It’s been fantastic.  Everything has been.  Simply beautiful, beautifully simple in true Lotus fashion.  The car, the track, the hallowed ground, the friendly, genuinely low-key laidback atmosphere, my kind of car, my kind of place, my kind of event.

Now what of the Emira?  I don’t feel able to deliver a proper verdict as two quarter-hour drives in cars with questionable tunes are not the best way to test, and I didn’t evaluate any in-car systems or do any road driving.  But my impression is that the Emira is a quirky driver’s car, a feeling I don’t get from the arguably more perfect but certainly more antiseptic Porsches which somehow lack that Lotus character, one might even say imperfection, but is a flaw you adore an imperfection, or does its imperfectness make it perfect?  I’ll illustrate my point with the gearshift.

Yes, I’ve slammed the gearshift, in words if not in reality.  But, would I want it to be absolutely snick-snack perfect?  I don’t think so, I think I’d want to have to work for a good gearshift, but importantly, work for it in a rewarding way, not a frustrating way.  I think Lotus does indeed offer that character, whereas Porsche engineer it out.  Same for power, do I want to beat everyone based on kilowatts? I do not, I see people who top the timesheets due to straight-line handling and that holds no interest for me. The Emira’s power is sufficient, in my view.

So based on that rather flimsy experience, the Emira is for you if you want something interesting, slightly odd, beautiful and rewarding, an old-fashioned pub with a low roof, thick wooden rafters, stone walls and an odd location of the bar rather than a purpose-built, architect-designed restaurant with skillfully chosen mood lighting, smooth white walls and carefully positioned furniture. There is no ‘best’, only a preference.

I’m sorry there’s no in-car video, but Lotus doesn’t offer that service and nor does it allow fitment of your own cameras – again how hard would it be to fit a GoPro mount to a car, BYO on GoPro which is now pretty much a universal mount for all action cameras.  Photography itself is limited as Hethel is an active car development site, with Lotus always working on a number of secret consultancy projects for various organisations.  However, we were allowed to take photos of the cars on track.

Someone asked me whether I thought the Mercedes-Benz World AMG Experience or Lotus Taste was better value.  The answer has to be the AMG as both have around the same seat time, the AMG is cheaper and you get to try drifting.  The Emira is by far the better sports car though, and to be fair the AMG is more of a grand tourer cum cruise missile, and Hethel is Hethel, it’s special. If you are of the view the AMG C63 is sporty, then please try Taste of Lotus and you will understand the difference in the same way you might think you’ve tasted good pizza, then you visit Rome.

What I will say is that the Taste of Lotus isn’t just about the driving, you actually get a taste of the Lotus ethos as well as the car, whether Lotus intended that or not.  How so?  Well, go to a Porsche event and it’s all glossily professional and sterile, filled with people wearing clothes that cost more than your own wardrobe, choregraphed like a F1 team (Ferrari excepted).  And Lotus is completely different vibe.  You don’t find Lotus owners striding up and down barking aggression into mobile phones, they’d be quietly sending nerdy WhatsApp messages about car trivia as talking is just too much like hard work, or maybe writing multi-thousand-word blog posts.  And so I’m going to try and identify the unidentifiable and figure out what made the Taste so Lotus-y.

First off, I think the friendly security guard.  Then, being on foot, I was allowed to walk from the gate to the shed, not bundled into a car just in case I wandered off and did something verboten. The pre-fab shed – clean, tidy, but still a shed.  And most of all, I think the genuinely friendly three Lotus staffers who cared for the brand, and us…Porsche would have had fifteen people there including several who were only last week working for a toothpaste company, and a token engineer too mentally scarred by his media training to do much more than smile.  The basic tea and coffee, not a barista.  And so on.  Personally, I absolutely love it and the Lotus Ethos was actually part of my decision to buy an Elise and not a Boxster.  It’s really interesting how different cars, and car companies have such different cultures.  And I completely fail to comprehend how Lotus’ culture that is going to translate to high-end electric vehicles and more importantly the half dozen people that buy such cars.  Oh wait, it hasn’t, quelle surprise. Leave that market to the sorry remnants of JaGuAr is my advice.

So, should you go?  I’ve just spend the last zillion words giving you the information I hope will enable you to make your own decision. But I’m glad I went, and I’d go again.