Stunning Lotus Esprit Turbo Essex for sale
A dud of a title sponsor - but it made for one heck of a special edition
Lotus has been dining out on its Formula 1 heritage from the moment it began to accrue serious silverware, which didn’t take that long at all. And rightly so, because for all the hugely successful F1 racers its produced over the years, it’s had some cracking liveries to go along with them. The black and gold JPS scheme is probably the greatest F1 livery there’s ever been, and the old Gold Leaf and classic British racing green liveries aren’t far behind. Even the short-lived Camel scheme outclasses half the liveries on this year’s grid.
Granted, just because a livery looks good on single-seater rocketing passed at 200mph doesn’t always mean it’ll work on a road car roaming the streets of Knightsbridge. Just look at the many Vodafone chrome schemes that appeared on McLaren 12Cs when they were new. Lotus, however, has been nailing it for years. This 1972 Elan looks magnificent in Gold Leaf colours, as does this Exige LF1 finished in the same black, gold and red colours as the most recent Lotus F1 cars. And then there’s the car we have here, the Essex Turbo Esprit, sporting another cracker of a racing livery that hasn’t been seen on another Lotus special since.
Or another racing car, for that matter. See, Essex fuels filled the boots of departing title sponsor Martini for the 1980 F1 season. The petroleum firm already had some credibility in the racing world, having appeared on the two factory-entered Porsche 936-78s a year prior, and seemed like a golden ticket for Chapman, who was in desperate need an enduring, lucrative partnership. To cut a long story short, Essex founder David Thieme, who made many millions trading oil, allegedly blew most of the budget for 1980 season on lavish car launches and events - money that would have been far better suited to developing the lacklustre Lotus 81. He’d then be arrested four races into the following season on apparent fraud charges, with the Essex corporation dissolving soon after.
Not a particularly smooth patch in Lotus’ history (and there’d be plenty more to come), but on the plus side we did get the Essex Turbo Esprit. While most will remember the limited-run sports car for its striking blue, red and chrome colour scheme, Essex Esprits were drastically different from their predecessors. Namely, the F1 special was the first factory-produced turbocharged Esprit, upping power from the 2.20-litre four-pot engine from 162hp to a rapid 213hp, which could get you to 60mph in 6.1 seconds in the right conditions.
Meanwhile, the chassis was reworked with upgraded rear suspension and bigger brakes to handle all that extra grunt. Then there’s the bodywork, redesigned by Giugiaro to improve airflow and provide real, tangible downforce. Part of the redesign included a prominent spoiler sticking up at the back of the car, which apparently produced - not reduced - lift at the back, so Lotus had to install another, much smaller spoiler where the roof meets the engine cover to direct as much airflow away from the rear as possible. But it looked great, and still does, so Lotus stuck with design until the end of the decade.
The Essex Turbo may have moved the game on the Esprit, but it was always intended to be sold in limited numbers. Lotus earmarked 100 for production, but only 34 were ended up being made and just 24 of those were for the UK. Chassis number five here has been with its current owner for the last nine years and in that time it’s had a ‘full mechanical overhaul’, including an engine rebuild and gearbox refresh. It should therefore come as no surprise the seller’s asking £135,000 for it, which is the sort of money a well-specced Eletre commands today. Bet I know which one you’d rather.
No thanks - I'll give that an extremely hard pass.
No thanks - I'll give that an extremely hard pass.
No thanks - I'll give that an extremely hard pass.
No thanks - I'll give that an extremely hard pass.
Aesthetically you either love it or hate it. I love it, but not £135k love.
It's not a Countach (was never meant to be) and no amount of tarting up will ever make it one.
The price also seems as crazy as the interior to me, but what do I know?
It's when the gearbox is opened. The cogs, splines, seals etc are checked for wear, cracks, chips, splits etc. Everything is cleaned, checked for tolerance and where necessary replaced then it's all put back together again.
Not hard to work out.
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