FINISHING SCHOOL

One validation prototype, two days on road and track, many questions that need answers... including: is the Lotus Emira as special as we all suspect?

- JACK RIX, ROWAN HORNCASTLE, OLLIE MARRIAGE, OLLIE KEW

1 HOW DOES IT HANDLE ON ROAD?

Seeking shelter during a particularly stubborn Welsh deluge? 'In A Lotus' has to be right up there with 'Huddled Under A Sieve' on the list of places you don't want to find yourself. But I'm sitting in The New Lotus, while the team valiantly splashes about outside getting cameras set up, and all is well with the world. My bottom is cradled by an electrically operated leather seat, there's warm air keeping the window fog at bay and barely any water penetrating the door sills. This is startling progress, and it's still a prototype.

And yet, the new Lotus Emira isn't a huge technological achievement. It's not made from strange and exotic materials, it doesn't rethink aerodynamics or debut some whizz-bang e-assisted powertrain capable of running on bin juice, it's just a petrol powered mid-engine sports car with a manual gearbox and Hollywood good looks. It's the car company with the best gene pool in the business summoning up the full force of its experience and presenting it in a way that's palatable to a wider audience. These days we demand bandwidth, a car that can frazzle our minds on an empty back road, but is also comfortable, reliable and usable the rest of the time. The Emira is that, the Porsche Cayman thwarter that brings Lotus kicking and screaming into the 21st century.