Lotus Emira V6 Rental in Orange County
This green Lotus Emira V6, black interior, is based in Orange County, the supercharged version of Lotus's last combustion sports car. Heritage green photographs as understated next to louder exotics, and strangers who stop at Fashion Island almost always guess Italian rather than British. The supercharger gives instant power with no lag, and the whine climbing with revs is the reason to book this one.
How It Drives
A supercharger is driven directly off the engine rather than by exhaust gas, so there is no lag at all in this Emira, and the 400 horsepower arrives in exact proportion to how far your foot has traveled. The whine climbing with the revs is part of the sensation, not a side effect. Sixty comes up in 4.2 seconds, slightly behind the turbocharged four we also run, and considerably more theatrical getting there. Full hydraulic steering means the front tires talk back through the wheel with more texture than almost anything else in the fleet, which shows up hardest on the tighter bends of Santiago Canyon Road, where the car turns in on your first small input rather than your second.
How It Photographs
Green is the color most associated with Lotus, and on the Emira it reads as a heritage choice rather than a trend, deep enough to go almost black in the shade of the Laguna Beach hills and bright with metallic flake once it clears into direct sun on the Pacific Coast Highway. The shape is compact and heavily sculpted, with the largest side intakes at this price point, and a low three quarter angle is where they read best. Against the eucalyptus and sandstone above Laguna, the green settles into the landscape in a way a louder paint would not.
Why This One
We run two Emiras, and this is the supercharged six, where the other is a turbocharged four. Supercharging is driven off the engine rather than the exhaust, so there is no lag at all, and the whine climbing with the revs is a sensation nothing else in our fleet offers. It makes forty more horsepower than the four cylinder car and takes slightly longer to sixty because of the extra weight up front. Green over black is also the heritage Lotus look, next to the show car paint on the turbocharged car. Book this one for the noise and the throttle, not for the numbers.
What's On This One
This is the Lotus Emira V6, built around a 3.5 liter supercharged V6 making 400 horsepower and 310 lb-ft, sent to the rear wheels only. It seats two, has two doors, and pairs a heritage green exterior with a black interior, the exposed gear linkage visible under mesh in the console. The engine sits behind the seats under a glass hatch you can watch move. This is the supercharged version of the Emira, the last combustion engine Lotus will build, and the specification here is the six cylinder rather than the turbocharged four we also keep. Sixty comes up in 4.2 seconds and top speed is 180 mph.
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