An '89 with '03 looks...

[AvantiEsprit]

What do you guys think of this? I'm not looking to buy it or anything, but am just wondering what the general concensus is on a conversion like this. It seems like it would be fairly costly to change out all the parts, and would be a better investment just to buy an S4 or S4s. At least that way, you'd get a better drivetrain setup. Am I wrong?

How much do you think this person had to spend for the conversion?

http://adcache.collectorcartraderonline.com/10/1/4/73829914.htm

[jk1]

If I'm not mistaken that's the same car that was on ebay a while back with a salvage title. It was wrecked and put back together so since they were buying new body parts anyway the cost difference was probably negligible to do the upgraded parts.

Jim

[Dr.Hess]

Yeah, that's the one that was on eBay. The close up shots that were on eBay showed some rather questional quality body work as well, if I recall. Someone emailed the "owner" which is a repair shop, and the story is that the guy buys wrecked exotics and "fixes" them then resells, he hated Lotus cars and "did that" to all of the wrecked Esprits he bought.

Run away.

Dr.Hess

[paul c]

If only those door handles were easy to change...

Always the tell-tale

[mikelr]

I was wondering what ever happened to that "Frankensprit", it must have been running on Ebay for about six months straight!. I thought the seller had finally just given up. At the 20K+ he wanted for it he was never going to sell it.

[eyefly]

i spoke with the guy who had this up on ebay and had him down to $15k but i decided to buy a toyota supra instead.

[cnh1990]

The original re-builder of the car is supected of ripping off Guy Theriens V8 parts to make molds for V8 parts they are not good quality parts.

People have long memories of botched up Esprit's. With the internet it is harder to conceal such things.

[princecharming]

Hi All,

Just had to reply on this one. Although I have nothing to do with this car, please keep in mind that there is more than one yellow update conversion out there. Not sure if this is the same car that everyone thinks it is. A few months ago, I was corresponding with a nice guy named Grant that bought a nearly identical yellow V8 conversion. His car was an '88 though with Citroen trans, but still had the same wing and chrome S4 wheels/spacers.

I was under the impression that his car was the one that came from that "questionable" seller. Could it be that the seller is converting a bunch of these for profit?

Roy

[dr.hess]

Hey Roy,

Linda says Hi.

Here is a thread most likely on that very car:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=59149

with copies of correspondance with Dr. Frankenstein.

Dr.Hess

[princecharming]

Thanks Dr. Hess!

By the way, I just looked at your link and guess what?...the car back then was an '88, so it's not the same car since this one is an '89.

I've been e-mailing with a friend in Colorado whom I believe to be the one that bought that original '88 and he's quite happy with it. He even added the newer tail to complete the look. Not certain if it's the same car though.

I've given him this link, so hopefully he'll respond.

Roy