Lotus Cut A Hole In The Emira's Roof, In Case You Want That, And There's A More Powerful 420 Sport Model Too

Lotus has never been a car company to shy away from the weird, but the Emira has largely stood as the brand's classic recipe: Lightweight, small but relatively powerful engine in the back, lots of fun. Clearly that was too normal for the Lotus of today, though, because the company just added two kinda-weird new things to the Emira lineup. First, the addition of a range-topping four-cylinder trim that sits above the formerly-range-topping V6. Second, an optional hole in the roof. 

The new top-tier Emira is called the 420 Sport, which I assume is what hair-ruffling dads call their stoner sons. It eschews the Emira V6 SE's titular supercharged V6, instead returning to what appears to be the same AMG-derived turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 as the base Emira, now boosted even further. Its name comes from its power rating in metric horsepower, which converts to 414 American horses. That's a full 14 hp more than both the V6 and turbo-four normally produce, which makes me wonder why Lotus needs three separate trim levels and two engine options to span such a small difference in power. 

The 420 Sport is no ultra-lightweight either, with its 3,208-pound curb weight sitting just below the 3,212 pounds of the four-cylinder Turbo SE. The Sport does offer a Lightweight Handling package that cuts the curb weight to 3,125 pounds, but there's no reason other trims can't get the same combination of lightweight dampers, exhaust, battery, and "carbon fibre components." Its 0 to 60 time of 3.9 seconds is just a tenth faster than the Turbo SE.

Lotus did bless the 420 Sport with some extra downforce and cooling, all thanks to new airflow from reshaped body panels, but it's certainly weird to see Lotus charge $122,900 for what could be made with a $106,900 Emira Turbo SE, a boost controller, and a rotary tool. I'm no engineer, but I am a former Subaru owner — I know all about taking a four-cylinder and cranking the boost until something breaks. 

If the Emira 420 Sport is weird in how slight its differentiation is from the lower trims, though, Lotus' other announcement is truly baffling: A hole in the roof, available on all Emira trims. Not a glass roof pane (although it is effectively that with the removable roof piece in place), not a sliding sunroof, but a small piece of the roof that can be unlatched and removed. Not a Targa, since it doesn't reach the door glass, but a sort of single, central T-top. The unibrow to the IROC Z's mullet. 

Lotus doesn't yet have the roof hole on its configurator yet, so we can't judge how much it costs, but Lotus does say the option includes a "protective bag" in which to store the roof when it's not doing roof things. The company also calls it an "open-top configuration," which is generous — the removable panel doesn't look much bigger than a standard sunroof, and you have to remove it with your hands at a stop and put it away somewhere. Let no one tell you Lotus has gotten too boring and safe in recent years, because the 420 Sport and its roof hole are anything but.