The Lotus Emira 420 Sport with the Lightweight Handling Pack delivers enhanced performance for buyers who are eager to explore the limits of the Emira on a track day. The ride is a little harsher on the road, although it’s not enough to ruin the car’s everyday usability, while the tractable powertrain delivers great performance. The open-top option adds another dimension to the driving experience, too.
Adding a Sport moniker to a hatchback or SUV is usually a marketing exercise that frequently doesn’t get you much more than a racier look and bigger wheels. But at Lotus, the Sport badge is something a bit special. It was first used on the Esprit Sport 300, a car that had direct links to Lotus’s motorsports activities, and subsequent Sport versions of the Elise and Exige have also offered a more track-focused driving experience.
The latest model to wear the badge is the Emira 420 Sport. It expands the Lotus Emira line-up to five variants (alongside the Turbo, Turbo SE, V6 and V6 auto) and incorporates a raft of enhancements to boost the car’s track performance. As with the Emira Turbo, the 420 Sport features a 2.0-liter turbo petrol four-cylinder engine and an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox that’s sourced from the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S.
The transmission has been recalibrated to help deliver faster shifts, but the bigger change is an increase in power. As the car’s name reveals, the turbo four has been uprated to 416 horsepower (it’s actually 421 horsepower). That’s an increase of 56 horsepower over the standard Emira Turbo and 16 horsepower up on the Turbo SE, while torque increases from 317 lb-ft (or 354 lb-ft in the SE) at 3,000 rpm to 369 lb-ft at 5,000 rpm.
While that output is the same as that of the A 45 S, the Emira is lighter by 551 pounds, and the 420 Sport can lay claim to being the world’s fastest four-cylinder production car, with a 0-60 mph time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 186 mph.
But there’s a lot more to the Emira 420 Sport than simply a more powerful motor. As with previous Sport models, Lotus has gone over the car with a fine-tooth comb to boost its potential. The ride height has been reduced by 0.2 inches for starters, and at the front there’s a new splitter that’s part of a revised aerodynamic package, with enlarged air intakes to improve airflow to the brakes.
At the back, a lip spoiler on the edge of the engine cover completes an aerodynamic package that adds an extra 55 pounds of downforce when compared with the standard Emira. Amazingly, this has all been achieved without affecting the car’s emissions figures, which remain unchanged, at 209 g/mi.
Source: autoexpress.co.uk
