Lotus Emira: the last of her kind

Some cars need a red carpet before they'll even unlock. The Emira just turned up at an independent exotics place in Sydney in racing blue, parked herself next to stuff costing three times as much, and became the main event anyway. That's confidence you can't buy off an options list. I circled her twice, got the camera out, and the pricier neighbours quietly became the supporting cast.

The last of her line

This is the final petrol Lotus, and she carries that lightly, which is the whole Lotus trick. Mid-engined, the way balance intends, with the engine just behind your shoulders where it can talk straight to your spine. There's a supercharged V6 for the traditionalists and a turbo four for everyone else, and both preach the same thing: the car's the star, not the spec sheet. The driving position fits like a good suit, the steering tells you everything, and the whole thing was tuned by a company that's treated lightness as a religion for seventy years. She's properly beautiful too, bedroom-poster beautiful, a supercar shape with sports-car manners.

Four crowns, one postdated

Four crowns, and the fourth is for something the modern world has nearly engineered out: honesty. Everything's augmented now, engine notes piped through speakers, every sensation checked by a committee of processors before it reaches your fingers. The Emira just hands you the truth and trusts you to handle it. It treats you as a driver, not an audience, and I love it for that. The fifth crown isn't withheld, it's postdated, to about ten years from now, when the last petrol Lotus becomes what I suspect it will: a collectible, every one of them, and we all look very clever for curtsying early.

The last of her line. Long may she run.