Lotus Emira gets lighter, more vocal exhaust courtesy of Milltek
Milltek aims to unleash the Lotus Emira’s voice with a new stainless steel sports exhaust
The Lotus Emira hasn’t been on the market for long, but tuners are already developing aftermarket solutions to make the new-age coupe harder, faster, and in Milltek’s case, noisier. The UK-based firm has released a stainless steel exhaust system to allow the Emira’s 3.5-litre V6 to breathe more freely for improved response and sound, it claims.
The new Milltek Sport solution has been designed using an Emira demonstrator owned by Litchfield, which will be subject to a raft of upgrades in a similar vein to the company’s Alpine A110 and Porsche 911 projects. Built from aircraft-grade T304L stainless steel, the kit comprises a new silencer, 3-inch pipework and twin 2.5-inch tailpipes to save 1kg over the factory setup.
The system works with the Emira’s standard exhaust valve controller, but customers can specify a gas particulate filter bypass pipe for more noise, and to save a further 1.7kg. This works in tandem with Milltek’s Sport valve control system - at the touch of a button, the rear silencer is effectively locked out to allow the V6 to sing to its fullest. Milltek claims that the car still falls within UK track day noise limits with the silencer enabled, although the loudest setting could fall foul at certain circuits.
There are improvements beyond the sound, though - the new pipework provides an 18 per cent drop in back pressure over the standard setup, which should improve the engine’s throttle response, and a titanium version is on the way to provide a weight saving of over 6kg. A lightweight solution for the four-cylinder AMG-powered Emira is in the works, too.
The stainless steel setup for the V6 uses the factory exhaust mounting points, and is priced at £1706. Upgrading to the aforementioned bypass pipe costs an extra £210.