The 420 Sport is the lightest, most powerful and most overtly purist Emira yet — with an AMG-sourced four-cylinder, a removable glass roof panel and an optional handling package aimed squarely at those who know their Elise from their Esprit.
Lotus may be navigating considerable change as a business, but the Emira has always been the still point at the centre of it all: a mid-engined, two-door sports car with an internal combustion engine and no apologies to offer. The 420 Sport, unveiled last week, is the most concentrated expression of everything the Emira stands for.
Power comes from Lotus’s AMG-sourced 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, here producing 420 PS (414 hp) and 500 Nm of torque — gains of 14 hp and 19 Nm over the standard car. The result is a 0–60 mph time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 186 mph. The name, for once, means exactly what it says.
The Lightweight Handling Package
The optional Lightweight Handling package is where the 420 Sport finds its sharpest edge. It strips more than 25 kg from the car’s kerb weight while adding an aerodynamic package — new front splitter, revised vents and intakes, extended side sills, a lip spoiler and a louvred lift gate — engineered to generate equivalent downforce to whatever it removes in mass. The net effect, Lotus says, is a car of markedly greater agility without any penalty to high-speed stability.
The 420 Sport is also the first Emira available with a removable tinted glass roof panel — a detail carrying unmistakable echoes of the Esprit and lending the car an open-air dimension its predecessors never offered. Orders are open now, with first deliveries expected in August.
In a world increasingly populated by electrified grand tourers masquerading as sports cars, the Emira 420 Sport is a welcome reminder of what Lotus has always done best: less weight, more feeling, no compromise.
