Jenson Button Drives The New Emira On Lotus’ Hethel Track

Former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button was invited to the premiere of the Lotus Emira and drove it flat-out around the Hethel track for more than 30 laps.

While not being an independent review, by all means, Button is a legit long-time fan of Lotus and his comments as an experienced F1 driver always count. After driving the Emira, he said: “You always expect a Lotus to have good mechanical grip through the low-speed corners but there was plenty of downforce in the high-speed corners too. That means the feeling of great balance is the same no matter how you’re driving it. It’s exceptional and I’m a big fan.”

See Also: New Lotus Emira With AMG A35 And Toyota V6 Engines Is Brand’s Farewell To Combustion Cars

Button praised the driving position, the infotainment, the everyday useability of the car, and the – new to Lotus – premium quality of the interior. He also found the new seats comfortable as they offer “a lot of lower back support”. As a final note, he admitted that he was stunned about the pricing – starting from £60,000 ($84,500) – as it will make it accessible to a wider audience: “It’s being called a junior supercar but it would give a lot of supercars a run for their money… and it’s more comfortable than most of them,” he added.

The all-new Lotus Emira is based on Evora’s mid-engined platform using either an AMG-sourced turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four or a Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter supercharged V6. The Emira will be the last Lotus offered with an internal combustion engine, signaling the end of an era. It comes with an Evija-inspired exterior styling and will rival the Porsche 718 Cayman when it arrives in spring 2022.

Besides buying the limited-production Lotus’ all-electric flagship hypercar, the Evija, Button has a greater connection with the British firm. Lotus Engineering is a technical partner to his JBXE race team participating in the Extreme E championship. Button is also involved with Radford, a British company offering an homage to the Lotus 62 sportscar using Lotus technology.