Lotus Esprit V8 | Spotted
Nearly 20 years since the last one was made, nothing draws a crowd like the original Lotus supercar
PH has been getting very excited about Lotus of late, what with the S1 Elise being named our best sports car of the last 25 years, the first Emiras reaching customers and the electric future shaping up nicely. We’ve even found time to put together a Europa buying guide.
All of which has inevitably had us thinking about other Lotuses, and it’s impossible to consider Lotus for anything more than five seconds without remembering its longest-lived model of all: the Esprit. It probably isn’t the most famous Lotus of all anymore (not least with the most recent honour bestowed on the Elise), but that incredible production will never be beaten. The Esprit went through more changes in its 28 years than the Elise did in its 25 - it began life with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine and ended with a twin-turbo V8, for starters - but almost 30 years in production suggests something went right. Stunning looks (most famously from the pen of Giugiaro to being with, but also Peter Stevens and Julian Thomson later) allied to stonking performance and beautiful Lotus handling made the Esprit plenty of fans over the decades. It was a Hethel icon long before production ended in 2004.
Given the spotlight has been on the other models of late, it only seems right to reflect back on the Esprit for a minute. Which one to talk about, however, was a far trickier decision, because the really special ones are there all the way from the late 70s (think of 007’s S1) to the dawn of the 21st century and the awesome Sport 350. Which is to say nothing of the GT3, Essex Turbo and Turbo HCs that are also in the classifieds. Don’t forget the S4, either, or Sport 300, or Turbo SE, or…
This V8 Esprit is notable for both its spec - Ruby Red with magnolia was a special order very much worth the effort - as well as its low mileage tally of just 7,200. For a car now over 25 years old, that’s an incredible figure. It’s supported by the MOT certificates, moreover, all the way back to 2000. Even more amazingly, both owners of this Lotus lived in Frome; the first, having bought it from Haydon Cars Lotus new, owned it until 2008, and the second had the car until last year. Now there’s an opportunity to be just the third owner, and maybe even take the Esprit through the heady heights of 10,000 miles.
Predictably, such a low mileage Lotus looks utterly superb, a real time warp example if you’ll excuse the cliché. Nothing seems to show any wear at all, pointing to more than a quarter of a century of very considerate use. Presumably, this wasn’t so much a high days and holidays car as the occasional high day and every other holiday at best, very slowly (but very stylishly) accruing the miles since the late 1990s.
The as-new condition makes this Esprit the most expensive V8 currently available, at £69,995. Yet Esprits always look undervalued against its contemporaries, an affliction that’s lasted years now and probably has some roots in the engine’s reliability woes. Consider this for some context: a Ferrari F355 of a similar age and mileage might cost £100,000 more than the Lotus, while a Honda NSX of this money has another 100,000 miles on it. We won’t even talk about air-cooled 911s. Those cars have soared in value of late and the Esprit has appreciated on a much shallower trajectory, a fate that seems a little unfair. Quite what Esprit values will do as Lotus embarks on its EV journey is anyone’s guess. This one will most certainly remain a very special example, though, whether the next owner wants to get behind the wheel - or just stand and stare.
SPECIFICATION | LOTUS ESPRIT V8
Engine: 3,498cc, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 354@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 296@4,250rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1997
Recorded mileage: 7,200
Price new: £58,750 (1996)
Yours for: £69,995
My pal bought one and ended up having to have the body off /engine out to repair the rusted chassis, and the wiring was a disaster as was the interior and headlining.
He sold it on once repaired, the 2.2 turbo didn't live upto his dreams/expectations. Perhaps a V8 would be a better drive, I don't know personally not having driven one, but the looks of the later cars were stunning back in the day and have aged well.
They've always been cheap cars for a reason however, and I can't see why you'd want to throw proper money at one.
He used to let me take them out and my favourite was a yellow S4S which seemed to strike the right balance for me
The only thing I didn’t like was the seats which I found fairly uncomfortable (although I do have a degenerative lower spine condition), but I seem to remember he had one with fixed buckets which ‘seemed’ comfier
Can’t say I like the colour of this example, I’d prefer it to be red or blue rather than the result of both mixing together, although my personal choice would be yellow (sorry!)
If I had a pound for everyone, "who had a mate, which had one and .................", i'd be a rich man.
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He used to let me take them out and my favourite was a yellow S4S which seemed to strike the right balance for me
Predictably I had a mate who had a white Esprit...and I felt sorry for him when I saw him broken down at the side of the road in it. However the British just can't make reliable cars for toffee though, and you only have to look at TVR/Lotus/Jaguar/Land Rover/Range Rover/McLaren to see that sadly.
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