Why is the Lotus Esprit not appreciating in value??

[greenarrow]

Love a thread resurrection 7 years after the last post!

So, Esprits ARE appreciating, but remain good value compared with rival cars from the same era. My personal favourite was the one Harry Metcalfe featured in his Harry's Garage channel and sadly sold a few years back. For me just the perfect combination of being brisk enough, without being too rapid, light, but not too featherweight for it to be just a track day/summer day special, perfect for UK bumpy roads and being, thanks to the James Bond connection, quite iconic for my generation.

[WPA]

robinessex said:

Hugh Jarse said:

High hopes.

Nice car however: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311083...

[Lotobear]

I'm a die hard Lotus fan but have never really 'got' the Espirit. The interiors on the early ones in particular are frankly horrid - of their time, yes, but not in a good way IMO.

One of the few cars that, IMO, got better with later iterations

[robinessex]

II owned a 1972 Europa TC. (LYY 667 K if anyone knows where it is now). My best friend a 1972 Elan Sprint. We were, in our early twenties, complete Petrol Heads. Everything and I mean everything, either of these cars required, we did ourselves. For myself, a 5-year Mechanical engineering apprenticeship and complete workshop access meant a lot. A lot of the dodgy Europa mechanical bits got replaced with improved versions of my own design and making. Eventually, the Elan was completely stripped and rebuilt, with I might add, some/most of the Lotus quirks eliminated along the way. They were (virtually) kit cars for those who couldn't build one for themselves. Quite simple in fact, and, if you knew where all the bits came from, quite cheap to fix. The Esprit was a continuation of this theme, a steel backbone chassis with a fiberglass body stuffed on top. Lots of the components were ‘stolen’ from other car manufacturers, cheap once you’d identified the source. Thus nowadays, if today you know how to wield a spanner, fixeable by most. Even a complete rebuild isn't that difficult, and you then get the opportunity to upgrade stuff with more modern replacements (the electrics?) The only point often made is the rather plain, boring, unimaginative interior, which can be easily fixed by the owner, or pop it into your nearest car interior emporium. In many road tests, especially the ultimate incarnation of the Esprit the 1999 Sport 350, the testers were quite adamant, that in many ways, it would see off a Ferrari, a Porsche, and most others. https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-spottedykywt/l... I think all the Esprit looked a bit kit car in styling, until Peter Stevens (the McLaren F1 stylist) came along, and made it look like this:-

Edited by robinessex on Monday 13th November 14:46

[anonymous-user]

The Esprit Turbo SE (X180 I think?) will always be Cool as F*** to me due to two reasons.

In 1991 I used to clean offices as an evening job and one of the guys working there used to have one. Watching him drive away, it looked like the coolest car ever.

This game on the Amiga basically, I didn't think graphics would ever get better than this. (wait for the headlight flash)

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 13th November 14:52

[TopTrump]

Joey Deacon said:

The Esprit Turbo SE (X180 I think?) will always be Cool as F*** to me due to two reasons.

In 1991 I used to clean offices as an evening job and one of the guys working there used to have one. Watching him drive away, it looked like the coolest car ever.

This game on the Amiga basically, I didn't think graphics would ever get better than this. (wait for the headlight flash)

Edited by Joey Deacon on Monday 13th November 14:52

I agree for the same reasons- though unlike your office cleaning job, my brother worked for Lotus and picked me up in one. Also Pretty Woman and Basic Instinct appearances.

[DonkeyApple]

TopTrump said:

my brother picked me up in one.

Only in Norfolk!

[Equus]

WPA said:

robinessex said:

Hugh Jarse said:

High hopes.

Nice car however: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311083...

It's sitting too low on its suspension, and whoever retrimmed the interior must have tailored it to an owner with a 6" wide arse:

[Wacky Racer]

robinessex said:

I think all the Esprit looked a bit kit car in styling, until Peter Stevens (the McLaren F1 stylist) came along, and made it look like this:-

That looks lovely. Great colour too.

[Oilchange]

Equus said:

It's sitting too low on its suspension

True, I remember an owner quite a while back who ‘stanced’ his V8 with the rear wheels so cambered only the inner edges were in contact with the road. I told him he was an accident waiting to happen but he ignored me and headed off to his high speed spin…

[TopTrump]

DonkeyApple said:

Only in Norfolk!

Somerset actually so... Oh

[sparkyhx]

I always preferred the Eclat and Excel, probably no where near as good to drive hard, but I like the look. Late Elans are growing on me recently. All of these are still relatively cheap

[Mr Tidy]

sparkyhx said:

I always preferred the Eclat and Excel, probably no where near as good to drive hard, but I like the look. Late Elans are growing on me recently. All of these are still relatively cheap

Until the engine needs a rebuild!

None of them does anything for me - maybe not just me.

[Oilchange]

The engines are strong actually. The bits bolted on perhaps less so but that’s likely the same on all cars.
I’ve ragged an esprit over the years and am amazed how my little 910 four pot pulls as the oil temp gets well over 100 degrees, water stabilises at about 95 with the fans going berzerk. It does love cold ambient air, I mean really love it. You have to be awake on a cold frosty morning but my reminder is wheelspinning out of my avenue when the engine hasn’t warmed up properly
Good maintenance from someone who knows the lump and has all the parts either oem or made to rectify poor quality and you’ll be ok. Also use Mobil 1 motorsport oil, never fails.
Most times a dnf was down to a fuel pump or a sensor failure but did have a oil pick up fall off or something (can’t remember) which i thought was a big bill incoming! The car now has over 150,000 miles, has had a bottom and top end rebuild but not because of a major failure, just wear and tear.
In my ownership, from 1999, I’ve driven round Europe, raced and tracked most of Britains circuits and generally had a blast in it.
Its a bit of a novelty when you pop the headlights and people don’t expect it too

Edited by Oilchange on Wednesday 15th November 00:41

[Equus]

Oilchange said:

...The car now has over 150,000 miles, has had a bottom and top end rebuild but not because of a major failure, just wear and tear.

I think we need to recognise that the 900-series engine comes from an older generation where you expect that by ~100K miles, the engine will be generally shagged and in need of a rebuild. The same was true of engines from the mainstream manufacturers.

Of course, the early turbos were running twin 40 (Dellorto) carburettors, which can be fickle gadgets at the best of times, and it doesn't take much of a fuelling problem to end up with a hole melted in a piston. Again, that's a limitation of the technology of the era and relates to the bits bolted on to the engine, rather than to any fundamental flaw with Lotus' design or manufacturing.

[sideways man]

I love an S3 Esprit, the purity of that shape. Only reason I didn’t get one years ago ( when they were cheap….) is that I’m a shortarse; reaching the mid engine would be quite an ask for me.
I did have a Sunbeam Lotus, and yes that’s a great engine!

[Oilchange]

Equus said:

Oilchange said:

...The car now has over 150,000 miles, has had a bottom and top end rebuild but not because of a major failure, just wear and tear.

I think we need to recognise that the 900-series engine comes from an older generation where you expect that by ~100K miles, the engine will be generally shagged and in need of a rebuild. The same was true of engines from the mainstream manufacturers.

Of course, the early turbos were running twin 40 (Dellorto) carburettors, which can be fickle gadgets at the best of times, and it doesn't take much of a fuelling problem to end up with a hole melted in a piston. Again, that's a limitation of the technology of the era and relates to the bits bolted on to the engine, rather than to any fundamental flaw with Lotus' design or manufacturing.

Agreed and when an engine is tuned for performance its going to wear faster than a runabout id imagine. Mine was, once warmed up, used enthusiastically for a large part of its life, so far. Its still going strong happily.

[Yuxi]

greenarrow said:

Love a thread resurrection 7 years after the last post!

So, Esprits ARE appreciating, but remain good value compared with rival cars from the same era. My personal favourite was the one Harry Metcalfe featured in his Harry's Garage channel and sadly sold a few years back. For me just the perfect combination of being brisk enough, without being too rapid, light, but not too featherweight for it to be just a track day/summer day special, perfect for UK bumpy roads and being, thanks to the James Bond connection, quite iconic for my generation.

Can't agree more! Here is one the same as Harry's with some Lotus Cars/Lotus Engineering heritage, and nearly half the price of the Harry car -

https://www.lotusforsale.com/ads/1987-lotus-esprit...