The Lotus Emira, released July 2021, has been meticulously “refined and tuned with RML to create a highly competitive and performance-oriented race car.”
The Emira has already proven its worth in GT racing at Macau’s 2023 Grand Prix GT Cup event, as TORO Racing drivers Luo Kailuo and Adam Christodoulou took first and second positions by an impressive 12-second lead.
Lotus has a rich history in designing some of the most intricate and powerful GT race cars such as the Evora GT Race car which won prestigious races and championships, for example, the British GT, Dubai 24hrs, Barcelona 24hrs, European GT, Sepang 12hrs and the Pirelli World Challenge, and was stated by Phil Popham to “continue that [racing] legacy while opening a new chapter in our racing experience.”
The achingly beautiful Emira GT4 is certainly a worthy successor of the Evora, reaching 460BHP, featuring a 3.5-litre V6 and weighing 1340kg dry, and now with arguably one of the most exciting entries in GT racing to date, could the Emira surpass the achievements of its predecessor? Given the results of their first and only high-brow race in Macau, it would not be a surprise.
The Emira GT4, in Raspberry Blue, is officially the chosen car of a new entry in the 2024 GT British and European Championships, Mahiki Racing. The British team based in Stoke-on-Trent will debut in March this year in both the European GT Championship and the British GT Championship. They will be backed by partners such as their namesake, luxury lifestyle/nightclub brand Mahiki, Aim Technologies, a leading supplier of motorsport data acquisition and performance electronics, and crypto-trading and investment platform, Phemex (amongst others).
Mahiki Racing will run two new Emira GT4s in both the Silver Cup and Pro-Am classes of the European series, with team founders Jordan Kerridge and Steven Lake set to race themselves. Jordan’s teammate, Porsche Carrera Cup Pro-Am Champion 2023 and Dubai 24h Champion, Max Bird, is crewing the Silver Cup car, while Dexter Patterson, British and World Karting Champion, is confirmed to share the Pro-Am entry with Lake.
Two Emira GT4s will also run in the British series, driven by co-owner Steven Lake, who is partnered with Nathan Harrison. In Nathan’s early years karting, he raced with the Aim Technologies Motorsport Academy team, with Lake playing a large role in his junior career, bringing their journey full circle.
Nathan Harrison is the only driver to ever win both the John Cooper Works Championship, as well as the Mini Cooper Championship – his other notable wins are as Renault Clio Cup Rookie Champion and Porsche Carrera Cup GB Vice Pro-Am Champion.
Driving to victory in their second British GT car is Gordie Mutch and Ian Duggan.
Gordie Mutch, is a 21-year-old racing driver from Turriff, Aberdeenshire Scotland. Gordie has won both the Scottish and British Karting Championships, and has competed in the Ginetta GT5 series in which he secured wins and a top three in the championship two years running. In endurance racing, he became pro and overall champion of the Praga Cup in 2022, and he has also won the Spa 6 Hour Classic in a Jaguar E-Type lightweight, and competed in the McLaren Young Driver shootout at the end of 2021.
Ian Duggan, multi-AM winning Ginetta champion and current BGT AM champion, started racing only 5 years ago with Ginetta. Following his first year, Ian came 3rd in the Ginetta G40 Chairman Cup, the Ginetta GT5 Am Champion, and the Ginetta SuperCup Am Champion.
He secured multiple Podiums in the GT Cup, BGT, and the AM champion team.
This year promises to be perhaps the most exciting one in GT Racing to date, as this new team boasts their unique approach to the season, not only with driver/founder Jordan Kerridge having only six months of racing experience, but after an 8-year hiatus in British GT racing, Lotus cars will once again be seen in the British GT Championship.
Jordan Kerridge, Mahiki Racing co-founder racing for the Silver Cup, began racing in mid-2023, finishing sixth in the Rookie Cup of the UK Mini Challenge and has since been receiving training from driver-coach and teammate Max Bird.
Kerridge, more widely known as That Martini Guy, is a YouTube and social media personality, growing his online platforms through his educational content surrounding crypto trading.
Bird, on the other hand, is a well-versed racing driver having started karting at 6 years old. He went on to become vice-champion of his club in 2011, competing in S1 and Formula Kart Stars in the following years.
After winning the prestigious TVKC karting championship for Junior Rotax in 2015, Max entered car racing in 2016 competing in the highly competitive Ginetta Junior championship before moving on in 2017 to the Ginetta GT5 championship and finishing 4th overall.
Similarly, Dexter Patterson, aged 20, made his first foray into car racing during regional F4 outings in 2020.
Patterson is a multi-time champion in karting, before deciding to venture through single-seaters in Italian F4, British F3 and the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. He spent two years competing in the British Touring Car Championship before his decision to switch to GT racing in 2024.
Patterson’s partner, Steven Lake, co-founder of Mahiki Racing, is a renowned entrepreneur, founding Aim Technologies – leading supplier of motorsport data acquisition and performance electronics that you will find inside their Emira this season. Lake has notable race experience, particularly in Lotus Cup Europe, Radical Challenge, FunCup and Mini Challenge. He also has an extensive history with Lotus, having overseen the design and manufacture of bespoke OEM digital dashboards for the Final Edition Elise and Exige built by Lotus, which are also sold as standalone ‘MX2E’ plug-and-play dash loggers for 2004-2020 Elise and Exige models.
He commented, following the unveiling of the car at Autosport International 2024: “We are excited to be debuting Mahiki Racing and to be joining the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club this year. Mahiki Racing has been exceptionally well received within the motorsport community, and our 2024 team is complete. We have already undertaken rigorous testing in the Lotus Emira GT4s. With our engineering expertise, along with decades of experience in motorsport, we are confident that we will have a strong entry when debuting in Europe with the Emira GT4. We’re looking forward to the season ahead”.
Mahiki Racing said – on their decision to race with the Emira: “When the seed was first planted that we wanted to create our own racing team, there was no doubt in our minds that we wanted to race a Lotus car because we not only have a long and loyal history with them, but we also share the same values.
The Lotus Emira GT4 is poised to make a significant impact as the race car of choice for the upcoming season. It has exceptional performance capabilities and has garnered immense anticipation among motorsport enthusiasts and competitors alike. The culmination of Lotus’ decades-long expertise in road and track innovation has led to the immensely anticipated Emira GT4, and it sets a new benchmark in performance GT racing: as Lotus say, ‘[we] stand as the performance brand of choice for those who dare to look beyond the conventional and ordinary.’
Well, we dare.”
Mahiki Racing will be one to watch this season, not only gaining significant attention across social media since their announcement but also attracting quite an audience at the Autosport International convention at Birmingham NEC this year.
It will be a treat to see a Lotus back on track in GT Racing this year, and with not only one but two Emira GT4s, Mahiki Racing are bound to make a splash amongst Lotus enthusiasts.
Gavan Kershaw – Director, Attributes and Product Integrity, Group Lotus, and a former British GT champion – said: “Lotus is delighted Mahiki Racing has selected the Emira GT4 for its two entries in the GT4 European Series. Following the success of the car at Macau Grand Prix in November, where it finished first and second, everyone at Lotus is wishing Mahiki Racing the best of luck in the season ahead.”
Testing continues across a few notable British tracks until March, when the first official races will be held at Oulton Park, then in early April just a week later at Circuit Paul Ricard in La Castellet, France.
We’re anticipating a feisty season with a stack of competitive, fresh-faced drivers ready to tear up the tracks, and we can’t wait to see the long-awaited Emira GT4 leaving the competition in the dust.