I have to give this seller a hand of applause! You see they live in Eagle River, Alaska and once made the 300 mile trip from Anchorage to Valdez and got caught in a snow storm in this turbo charged Lotus. Rather than waiting out the storm, they put this British sports car to the test and pushed their way through the ice and snow. They’ve had this Lotus for a while and have already gone through everything to make it a good driver. With 113k miles, it’s likely the highest mileage Esprit still on the road. You can find this Lotus here on eBay and if you win it, you could fly to Alaska and take it on the journey of a life time down the ALCAN highway!
The seller claims the engine, transmission and turbo have all been rebuilt, so hopefully this car has lots of life left in it! With 100k miles, someone definitely got a lot of use out of it.
Amazingly, the interior looks to be in good shape still. Of course it’s a late ’80s Lotus, so don’t expect the kind of fit and finish of a new car. That’s alright with me though, it’s just part of the experience!
I can’t imagine how incredible it would be to drive this thing down from Alaska. I’ve driven turbo charged cars on the ice and know it can get a bit hairy, so I would want to make the drive while the weather is still good. So would you want to make the drive yourself or would you rather have it shipped home?
Dig this guys style.
Does it say 4WD somewhere in there I didn’t notice ?
Isn’t a good part of that highway gravel? And watch out for planes. Locals along the way use the highway as a runway. Store their planes in hangars on their farms.
It hasn’t been gravel since the early 90’s.
I drove it in the early 80’s on a motorcycle. From Vancouver to the Alaskan border was 3 lanes each side of gravel road. Glad I had my helmet on.
I wonder if that is Satch Carlson’s old car? He used to have a couple up in Alaska around that time.
Wow, haven’t heard that name for a long time. But you’re right, Alaska and always an interesting odd-ball ride, so it just might be him
Was on one of the ALCAN ralley’s in a 4WD Rolls. Where is Satch these days? Great ralley, thank you Jerry Hines!
Charlie
That would be awesome.
I would definitely fly and drive.
James May drove a lotus in the South American outback. The lotus did better than the 928s. The mustang was a joke.
If I was on the fence about buying a lotus, this would push me over the edge.
An Esprit wouldn’t be the best car for sightseeing, but the drive would be bucket list awesome.
Off topic, but wow!, Satch Carlsen!!! Enjoyed his writing even more than Peter Egan. Huge talent. I miss his humor and wit. There.
They must have wanted an adventure. You have other, much easier ways to get to Valdez. You can even drive the train tunnel now. Otherwise you can use the car train. It’s a long beautiful drive up to Glennallen and down, but that’s the very long way around. I’ve thrashed through there in a rental car in a snow storm and it’s no worse than the Fairbanks road and much better than the Klondike Highway from Skagway to the Alcan, for example.
Satch has a column in Hemming’s Sports and Exotic car mag every month.
I drove the Al-Can (Alaska-Canada) Highway twice. Once in each direction, almost exactly 4 years apart, and my return trip was about 30 years ago. There were several of the sections that had not been improved since the 1940’s. It was built as part of the War Effort to link Alaska to the lower 48 for the movement of military supplies. So even when they could have built the road straight, they purposely chose to make it twisty, narrow and leave as many trees as possible so that if an enemy plane ever attempted a strafing run, the convoy would not be in a straight line. There had been a lot of improvements made on the road but there was still a lot of gravel and a lot of mud, that didn’t even seem to dry out in the heat of summer!
I drove the Alaska Highway last year and there is no gravel left, if you stay on the highway. There are excursions, Denali Hwy, Top of the World hwy that are gravel, but they are not on the Alcan hwy itself. I wouldn’t recommend either of those roads in a Lotus Esprit.
Wasn’t Satch Carlson the Saab guy !
No you must have ment rally driver Erik Carlsson
Satch and his driving team rolled a brand new Volvo in front of our 4WD Rolls on the Alcan 500. Lifted out by helicopter, the three lived to race again. Great stories from and about Satch, and thanks to Jerry Hines for the Alcan 500!
Charlie Martin
Finaly the Esprit have find his new home in Europe in my collection.
No Highwaydrives or stuff like that, easyly by ship… :)
A new upholstered instrument housing some new upholstered seats and the Esprit is like new…