The Lotus Emira Turbo SE Is An Intriguing Porsche Alternative: Review
With 400 horsepower and classic Lotus charm, the Emira Turbo SE makes a strong case for itself
From the get-go, Lotus had a winner in the Emira. The concept was simple but effective: buyers wanted that iconic Lotus driving feel with a cup holder. They wanted heated seats, but also to feel a bit like Jim Clark on their morning commute. They wanted supercar looks without the price tag.
Photo by: Alex Goy | Motor1
The plan was a serious shot at global sports car dominance. Lotus even had a hardcore “R” variant in the works to further take the fight to Porsche, according to former Lotus Cars Europe CEO Matt Windle.
After years of updating Elises, Exiges, and Evoras, Lotus finally had its golden goose. At least, that was the idea. Now, a few years after that initial launch, the picture looks a bit different.
| Quick Specs | 2025 Lotus Emira Turbo SE |
| Engine | Turbo 2.0-Liter Four-Cylinder |
| Outpu | 400 Horsepower / 354 Pound-Feet |
| Transmission | Eight-Speed Dual-Clutch |
| 0-62 MPH | 4.0 Seconds |
| Base Price | $121,478 |
Lotus recently spruced up the Emira lineup to keep people keen for 2026. There are now three versions to choose from: The Turbo, the Turbo SE, and the V-6 SE. The first and last cars have been around for a while… sort of.
The base Turbo gets an AMG-sourced 2.0-liter inline turbo four with 360 horsepower (just like the first inline-four cars), and the V-6 SE uses the same 400-horse, Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter supercharged six that Lotus has been dancing with for years. It ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The Turbo SE is where things get interesting. The AMG motor’s wick is turned up to match the V-6’s 400 hp, while besting its torque with 354 pound-feet. It’s quicker to 62 miles per hour, too, getting there in 4.0 seconds dead, and it’ll still tickle the fun side of 181 mph.
Pros: Divine Handling, Chuffing Quick, Still Looks Fresh
The SE trim is new, though. It essentially throws a bunch of kit at the V-6 and Turbo—stiffer sport suspension, a track drive mode, various driver-assistance things. Lots of stuff. At its core, it’s all about choice. With that, the newest member of the lineup is arguably the most fascinating option of the bunch.
You see, the Emira’s always been a little spendier than, perhaps, it should be. Its initial promised entry fee never quite materialized for reasons best known to Lotus, which means the new lineup can be a tough square to circle.
In the UK, the base Turbo kicks off at £79,500 ($107,901), the Turbo SE is £89,500 ($121,478), and the V-6 SE costs £96,500 ($130,974). Not small money. However, the car in the middle comes with lots of toys, and it’s the quickest of the lot—for less than the cost of the V-6.
Ok, you can’t have a purist’s special stick shift with the AMG motor, admittedly, but that seems to be the only ‘big’ downside. No, it’s not cheap, but Lotus isn’t about that sort of thing these days.
The Emira’s look hasn’t changed much since its launch either. You can get it in new hues (green and purple), but the only telltale that you’re in a newer car is the dinky badge on its B-pillar, which tells you what’s in the middle.
Its interior remains on the tight side, but everything you could possibly need is within easy reach. The infotainment is well thought out, and you won’t end up screaming at menus as you leap from thing to thing. Apple CarPlay works well in it, too, and your podcasts will sound suitably tuneful thanks to the car’s KEF stereo.
The switchgear is pleasing, and, as with most things, easy to reach. Since the beginning of its run, the Emira’s start/stop button has been hidden under a bright red cage that needs lifting to get to the good stuff. It’s a neat bit of drama that kicks each journey off with some fun. There’s a decent noise on startup, but as it’s a four-pot, it’s not the most dramatic thing in the world. The V-6 certainly bests it there, but that’s before you give it some welly.
The tweaked turbo four is a chatty thing, happily tweeting and whooshing, letting you know that it’s got ol’ big turbo that likes to have fun. When you’re making progress, it’s a joyful thing. But on the highway, it can be a bit much. A simple flick of your ankle makes lots of induction noises happen, fine for blasting around, less so when you want to overtake a slow-moving Honda Civic.
Lotus tried to keep the Emira’s weight down, but the days of featherweight Elises and Exiges are long gone. It weighs 3,212 pounds; all the carpets, airbags, and screens do take their toll.
But that doesn’t mean the good ‘ol Lotus sparkle is gone. Far, far from it.
Find the right road and the Emira Turbo SE is magical. Lotus’ steering remains some of the best in the game. The way it communicates through your fingers, how it tells you everything that’s going on under the front, while being perfectly weighted and progressive, is a treat every time.
You sit low, close to the front wheels, something that gives the pleasing impression of extra speed. But it’s unnecessary; this thing is already plenty rapid. It’s the quickest Emira you can buy, and it feels it.
The way its chunky torque mingles with the low weight, the Emira glides over the road most delightfully. Where older Lotus sports cars needed their necks wrung to get to pace, the AMG motor just gets you there. There are a handful of drive modes: Tour, for the day-to-day, keeps things quiet (ish); Sport ups the noise and the drivetrain aggression; and Track makes everything angry, bar the traction control, which it gives the day off. None of them changes the damping, though.
With plenty of grip, silly torque, and helpfully large brakes, the Emira SE is A Very Good Thing. Sadly, it’s not perfect, though.
The big one is the gearbox. Not the shifting through forward gears, that’s as quick and easy as a dual-clutch will ever be. No, it’s two other things. The first is paddle feel. When you choose to swap your own gears, each tug on a paddle isn’t rewarded with a click or anything meaningful. It’s a sort of heavy squish, which isn’t very satisfying at all.
The second issue is the amount of time it takes to shift from forward to reverse. If you need to do a three-point turn in the wild, you need to set the car up, apply the brakes, shift the lever in the direction you want to go, and wait. And wait more. Eventually, the ‘box will remember what its primary purpose in life is and engage.
If your foot isn’t hard enough on the brake, though, the gearbox will refuse to shift entirely and you’ll end up impotently revving your shiny sports car at an angle in the middle of a busy road. People will stare. Well, they’ll glare. The people you’re blocking might honk. It’s not a gearbox for people in a hurry.
The ride on the turbo SE’s Sport setup (a softer ‘Touring’ spring set is available) doesn’t get on brilliantly with the UK’s roads. It’s a UK problem more than a Lotus problem, but if you’re not a fan of harder-riding cars, consider the softer alternative.
The price may be tricky for some to overcome; after all, for a car that isn’t a Porsche, it’s a lot of money. That’ll make some people cross, and it’ll confuse others. The people who take the plunge, though, will love it, and even enjoy the occasional honk.
The 2025 Audi S5 Isn’t Better Than Its Predecessor: Review
While the new S5 is fine to drive, it’s more annoying to live with than older Audis.
Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1
The last generation Audi A4 and A5 were underrated. They never seemed to win the comparison tests or the hearts and minds of enthusiasts at large, but they represented everything Audi did well—handsome design, superb build quality, excellent ergonomics, and strong driving dynamics to boot. The new S5 isn’t necessarily a bad car, but it is a frustrating, disappointing thing.
Audi killed the A4 nameplate entirely, with plans to use even numbers for EVs and odd numbers for gas-powered cars. The company has since abandoned that idea, but not before releasing the new A5 and S5—essentially a replacement for both the old S4 sedan and S5 Sportback.
The A5/S5 ride on the new Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) architecture that’s really just an evolution of the longitudinal-engine, front-transaxle platform Audi’s used for years now. For the S5, the engine is familiar, too, a turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 making 362 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. This five-door hatch is also the only body style available in the US, as the S5 coupe and convertible are dead, and the Avant wagon is not for our shores.
Carryover components aren’t bad news here, because the fundamentals of the previous “B9” generation S4/S5 were sound. And this is a pretty nice car to drive. Even without the mild-hybrid system it gets in Europe, this V-6 has excellent throttle response and smooth power delivery across the rev band. It even sounds pleasing, too, if somewhat muted.
Audi ditched the eight-speed automatic here, too, and instead went for a seven-speed dual-clutch. Seems curious on its face, but the move comes because the S5 also eschews the traditional center-Torsen-differential Quattro all-wheel drive system for the lighter, more efficient Quattro Ultra setup. This means, in theory, that the S5 should behave more like a front-wheel drive car, but in practice, you wouldn’t know anything meaningful’s changed. It still sends power rearwards often, and a sport differential across the back helps the car rotate.
I wouldn’t say the S5 is fun so much as it is very competent, but that was the case with the previous generation, too. The steering is decent, but the car doesn’t feel terribly agile, and indeed, Audi quotes a 4,288-pound curb weight. That seems like an awful lot for a non-hybrid luxury sport sedan of this size. The BMW 3 Series is no lightweight either, but even the current M340i xDrive weighs in at just over 4,000 pounds.
That weight manifests in the S5 not feeling agile. It’s noticeable in the ride quality, too. No matter what mode the adaptive dampers are in—which are only available as an option on the mid-tier Premium Plus and standard on the top-trim Prestige—the ride never quite settles down. The car just fidgets, and some of that is surely down to the optional 20-inch wheels.
So, to drive, the S5 is good, if not great, in some ways. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s much better than its predecessor, or a patch on the excellent BMW M340i or the left-field Cadillac CT5-V. That’s not the big problem, though.
Audis used to feel expensive; you paid a premium, but didn’t feel shortchanged by what you got. Now, though, the interior looks nice enough at first, and the seats are lovely, but then you notice there isn’t a single piece of metal trim anywhere. The dashboard is covered in Alcantara, the center console is everyone’s least favorite material, Piano Black, and even the door handles are just plastic.
Then there’s the strange haptic touchpads—one on the door controls mirrors, exterior lighting, locking, and seat memory. It works fine, but it looks and feels cheap. And the steering wheel has haptic touch pads, too, which respond to both swipes and clicks, and you will accidentally swipe on them, changing some setting you didn’t want to.
Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital gauge cluster used to set the standard for these sorts of displays, with excellent graphics and a super-easy-to-understand interface. But now, the menu structure on the 14.5-inch screen is bizarre and confusing, and the graphics are strange, with the speedometer (or tachometer in Dynamic mode) rendered vertically for some reason.
Audi also has one of those silly Tesla-style displays that shows you where cars are around you, and it doesn’t actually work that well. Cars and lane lines suddenly appear and disappear without warning.
The infotainment system is now Android-based, and while it’s super quick—the days of car infotainment feeling markedly slower than your iPhone are over—it’s not as easy to use as Audi’s old system. There are just so many menus and things to wade through.
Complaining about ergonomic quirks is a tricky one in car reviewing because, ultimately, buyers get used to things. I only get to spend a week with a car before I hand it back. But, while I’m sure I’d get used to this S5 too, it also annoyed me in so many ways that previous Audi models didn’t. Getting into an Audi used to feel like a breath of fresh air. Hell, the facelifted S3 I drove a couple of months ago felt that way. This car just irritated me, and it didn’t have enough redeeming qualities to make up for it. Especially not at $73,345, for this Edition One version.
In Audi’s defense, the company knows it needs to step up in quality. The new Q3 looks like it’s moving in the right direction, too, and we’ve had good things to say about the electric Q6 E-Tron.
Fundamentally, the new Audi S5 is not a flawed car; it’s just a step sideways, if not a step backwards, from its predecessor. For now, I’d look at gently used S4 and S5 models over this.
M1009019 This Story will break your heart part2
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