The classic Lotus Esprit is just one of those cars that stops me in my tracks whenever I see one. It’s so much lower and wedge-ier than you expect, even knowing full well that you have to be a contortionist to enjoy driving one. You look over the Lotus, and they clearly missed the market on selling to professional athletes as 90 percent of them won’t fit inside. The Esprit shown here is the later turbocharged variety with the sharp BBS wheels and sweet ground effects; sadly, despite looking like the bargain of the decade with a reasonable $28,500 asking price here on Facebook Marketplace, it’s because cylinder three has low compression. Is it still worth it?
Seeing the lovely lines of the Esprit covered in pollen dust doesn’t necessarily indicate it’s been parked for a decade; that pollen dust is covering any car that sits still for more than 10 minutes these days. The Esprit wears a very pretty shade of blue with the BBS wheel centers painted to match. Overall, the cosmetics appear to be in excellent shape, with even the black plastic trim on the bumpers and window louvers showing no signs of fading. Given we see plenty of project-grade Esprits come up for sale in far worse shape than this, buying this car for the clean cosmetics alone seems mildly appealing.
TIt’s hard to get a full shot of the leather interior, but it is in outstanding condition. The seating surfaces present like new, which suggests the entire cockpit was redone at some point with gorgeous blue hides that also covered the armrest and door panels. When you spot details like this, you can almost see the entire timeline laid out in front of you: owner cherishes car; lavishes it with time / money / attention; thinks he’s rounding home plate by having the interior finally restored; compression test reveals it’s time for an engine rebuild. Shortly thereafter, the car is parked in front of his buddy’s shop who will consign for an agreed-upon price for the car that says, “I don’t like this Lotus very much right now, but I don’t hate it enough to give it away.”
If you scan through a few forums, you’ll see more than a few posts about low compression in the turbocharged Esprit engine. Given a previous engine rebuild isn’t out of the question for such a clean specimen, it’s entirely possible the engine wasn’t broken in correctly or the timing is off; alternatively, plenty of armchair quarterbacks have speculated that Esprits with low compression in a 910-series engine may have issues with valve seating. No matter what, any interested parties will need to lay hands on the Esprit themselves and speak with the owner to determine just how much the clean cosmetics are worth in a car that will potentially need a pricey engine rebuild.
I always wanted a white one, Like Roger Moore’s exploding Bazooka Lotus in the 007 movie “For your eyes only” :P
See, I always dig the burgundy and gold with the ski racks later on in that movie
I don’t think that one came with the “C4 infused windows” option lol :P
I will wager that a bunch of UK footballers drove these back in the day.
My ony comment since I bought one for the Wife is, there was a notice with instructions that driver and or passenger must follow 2 special specifications.
It was a Black n Gold S1 Edition.
One, not weigh over 180 pounds.
Two, be 5 foot 10 inches or less in height.
It upset the cars balance.
Bought new in Cincinnati.
Drove to California.
Lotus said I was blessed because I drove it out of the city limits.
Otherwise, loved the car.
I had an S3 Turbo and had no real trouble fitting inside it and I’m 6ft 1″ and about 75kg in weight. The only thing I didn’t like with the car being RHD was that the turbo waste gate was just behind my right ear and the noise between gears was very obnoxious. Other than that, it went like stink and handlled like it was a painted stripe
Listed a week ago, no great interior photos, just some close ups, too high on price.
yeah price is just to high. Problem is that rebuilding that motor can be very expensive. Frankly I would do a Honda K20 swap to it before I’d try to fix the motor in it.
I have heard of doing a K20 swap with an Elise? Didn’t know that was possible with one of these.