Currently reading: Lotus Emira Clark Edition celebrates legendary Scottish driver

New £115k variant of V6 sports car commemorates 60 years since Jim Clark’s final Formula 1 world title

The Lotus Emira Clark Edition has been revealed as a celebration of legendary racing driver Jim Clark.

Based on the range-topping Emira V6, it features the ‘Clark Racing Green’ and yellow-striped livery used by the Scotsman’s race cars in his famed 1965 season, when he won the Formula 1 World Championship and the Indy 500, as well as other global series. 

The exhaust pipes are painted in the same yellow, referencing the design that was applied to the Lotus 38 in which he won at Indianapolis.

Inside, the Clark Edition Emira gets two-tone black and bright-red upholstery, with the latter shade applied only to the driver’s side of the cabin, in reference to the interiors of Lotus’s historic race cars.

A piece of the Clark family tartan (from Lochcarron of Scotland) can be found in a commemorative plaque in the seat’s headrest.

The metal gearknob found in the regular Emira has also been replaced by a wooden item. 

Meanwhile, the sill treadplates are now carbonfibre items that reference the car’s position in the production run of 60 Clark Editions – a number chosen to reflect how many years have passed since that 1965 season.

Lotus Emira Clark Edition interior

The Clark Edition is mechanically unchanged from a regular Emira V6, so its 3.5-litre supercharged powerplant sends 399bhp to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip differential. The special edition is also fitted with the Lotus Driver’s Pack, which is optional on the regular Emira and brings firmer sports suspension, switchable exhaust and a Track driving mode.

Prices start at £115,000.

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Clark’s 1965 season is considered among the greatest ever individual seasons for a driver, having also won titles in the Tasman Series and British and French Formula 2 championships, and overall wins at Brands Hatch and Oulton park in the British Saloon Car Championship (forerunner to today’s BTCC). The Scotsman was killed three years later in a crash at Germany's Hockenheimring and is remembered as a sporting legend.

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Charlie Martin

Charlie Martin Autocar
Title: Staff Writer

As part of Autocar’s news desk, Charlie plays a key role in the title’s coverage of new car launches and industry events. He’s also a regular contributor to its social media channels, providing videos for Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and Twitter.

Charlie joined Autocar in July 2022 after a nine-month stint as an apprentice with sister publication What Car?, during which he acquired his gold-standard NCTJ diploma with the Press Association.

Charlie is the proud owner of a Fiat Panda 100HP, which he swears to be the best car in the world. Until it breaks.

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ianp55 2 May 2025

Cynical I may be but I sense that is a wheeze by the Lotus marketing department than a tribute to one of the UK's greatest racing drivers, since the unimely deaths of Jim Clark  and Colin Chapman Lotus has had various owners such as General Motors, Proton and the current owner  the Chinese giant Geely. I think that most of Lotus's glorious heritage has been diluted by the successive owners and the Lotus name is merely a brand in the Geely poretfolio  

Peter Cavellini 2 May 2025

It's a Lotus with a very famous racing drivers with a copy of a famous racing driver on it along with a bit of Tartan in it and a red drivers cockpit,that's it, any other mods are from the options list and the paint job has been reproduced on other Lotus cars to, there's going to be 60 of them and for what it can do the £115K asking price isn't unreasonable and it does look quite nice.

xxxx 2 May 2025

If Maserati can sell a V6 for 240k then at 115k this manual Lotus seems a bargain, looks great too.