FIRST DRIVE: Lotus Emira With AMG Power! | Top Gear

Say hello to Lotus’ entry-level Emira. It uses the same turbocharged ‘M139’ four-cylinder lunatic of an engine that powers AMG’s hottest hatch. Except, whereas it makes 415bhp in the A45 S, here it’s reined in to a sensible 360bhp. But, despite being entry-level, it is not a cheap and cheerful door to Lotus ownership. Right now Lotus will only sell you a kitted out ‘First Edition’ model, and it’s priced from a chunky £81,495. That’s £4,500 less than the adjusted pricing for the V6 ‘First Edition’. It’s gone from dicing with the basic, brilliant Alpine A110 to asking well-seasoned Porsche Cayman GTS 4.0 money. You could buy a BMW M2 manual – or the car that the Emira owes its engine to – and save £10,000. So, is this the Emira to have? Top Gear Magazine’s Ollie Kew finds out. Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: WATCH MORE TOP GEAR: First Looks:   First Drives: American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: Chapters 00:00 Emira Intro 00:45 Emira i4 01:36 Engine 03:45 A45 S Drive 06:22 Emira Drive 07:24 Numbers 10:50 Gearbox 11:20 Controls 13:10 Rivals MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR: Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you’ll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You’ll also find the latest performance car reviews from the crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig. This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios. Service & Feedback