A January, 1976 preview of the new line of Lotus sports and GT cars in Road & Track is largely concerned with the long-awaited Esprit, but drops in on the new 2+2 Éclat long enough to mention that the “name means, modestly, ‘flash of genius.'” By the time the magazine got a car to road test for the November issue later that year, however, the name had been changed for the American market to Sprint. The seller of this rolling project calls it an Éclat, so we’ll follow suit; check it out here on eBay, where it’s on offer for $3,500 out of San Tan Valley, Arizona.

The name change was prompted by Americans’ inability to pronounce Éclat (it’s eh-clah, incidentally); Sprints, like this one featured late last year, usually have a neat little decal badge on this rear corner. This was the “budget” Lotus of the late ’70s, a fastback version of the funky Elite shooting brake GT that had been decontented with smaller wheels and a four-speed transmission instead of the pricier model’s five-speed. Nevertheless, Road & Track enjoyed the Sprint much more than they had the Elite, finding it better built and adding, “Lopping off 200 lb. gives the Sprint even more nimble response than the already fabulous-handling Elite.” Their conclusion: “For the money [$13,620 as tested] there are few cars that offer the personality and driving pleasure the Sprint provides.”

Despite its tidy outer appearance, this Éclat isn’t quite ready to provide any driving pleasure. It’s unclear how long it’s been sitting in the Arizona desert (keeping interesting company, as seen in the photos, with a Honda Z600, a first-gen Mazda RX-7, and another Éclat), but we’re only told that the 1973-cubic centimeter Lotus 907 inline four “turns free” and that the car “rolls and steers.” The 907 was also used in the Esprit and Elite, as well as in the ill-fated Jensen-Healey, and in this application was good for 140 horsepower, although R&T noted of the engine affectionately nicknamed the “torqueless wonder,” “There’s not a lot of power below 4000 RPM but above that there’s smooth, rapid acceleration right up to the redline.”

There’s also quite a bit of work to be done in the cabin, and this might be a little trickier to source parts for. There’s a seam separation visible on the driver’s seat cushion, but otherwise the fabric upholstery seems quite intact; maybe it could be cleaned up, or used as a pattern for replacements. The door panels are missing their cloth trim, however, and the the center console covering is nearly gone, as are many of the audio and HVAC components from the center stack.

The entry price on this Lotus project car is fairly low, but restoration costs might well exceed the car’s value when finished, which is likely to still only be in the high four-digit to low five-digit range. It’s a pretty neat-looking coupe if you’re into the ’70s wedgy look—certainly more conventional than the Elite, but no less practical—and clearly contemporary reviewers found it a worthy continuation of the Lotus pedigree. Would that be enough to inspire you to take on this passion project?