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