Forgotten Exotic of the 1990s... Lotus Espirt

[xknowonex]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1150/3172856778_e1a88a3a50.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/3172029767_ff74bd314a.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/3172866608_894eba4742.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3125/3172037677_b5a5aaff4f.jpg

http://the-perfect-exposure.blogspot.com/2009/01/forgotten-exotic-of-1990s-lotus-espirt.html

[RadAL]

not really forgotton... but i love the evolution of it.

[xknowonex]

not really forgotton... but i love the evolution of it.

Well, today whenever the brand Lotus is brought up, the tiny little Elise would immediately come to most people's mind. Sadly, nobody remembers the older underrated yet more exotic Espirit.

[FLATOUT]

I personally owned a 95 S4s for quite sometime, and I can tell you I hated it.

Great to look at but I have never driven such a fragile car.

Hence the low sales.

[Vasiukas]

This Lotus is not forgotten! This (http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/927/sniegutasdh9.jpg) and this (http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3337/sniegutas2ob2.jpg) is forgoten for sure! (found pic's in another forum, not mine!)

[izthistaken]

Love the looks of that car. I told a guy driving one "nice car". He then asked me if I knew what it was. :lol: I told him and he said people always thinks it's a Ferrari. That's too bad. I've never had the chance to be in one.

[DisrupTer911]

one of my most favorite Lotus models ever. Such a fantastic looking car and quite the sound too

[ZJChaser]

love the Esprit, I really must get back to C&C again one of these days.

[Anke]

Cool! Shame you don't see many around any more. One day they may eventually get round to releasing the new one instead of putting it back every six months :D

[endlessdream]

That's a fabolous car, I love it and I love its' sound when flooring the throttle.:)

[FLATOUT]

Well for those of you that are excited about the looks of the car let me give you an insight into my ownership experience.

My S4s was awesome to look at! Nice set of 19/20 HRE's on it.

My car had 9,000 miles on it, one day just cruising down the street it brakes a valve spring under normal driving conditions, drops the valve and wipes out the cylinder head.

Car is down for a year and a half awaiting parts for england to get the motor back together. A year and a half later and 14,000$ and I had the car back on the road.

One week after getting it out of the shop a guy runs a stop sign and hit's the passenger front quarter. Doesn't look like much just some small body work right.

Another year goes buy because Lotus will only sell the front half of the body work together to fix the small issue in the front bumper.

Another year and 18,000$ later it as done.

I parked it in the garage and sold it as soon as I could.

The gear boxes are weak, and can't be driven all that hard. It was an extremely frustrating experience for me LOL.

[izthistaken]

Ouch!!! Nevermind, I never want one :lol:

[asylumxl]

It'd been alot easier if you'd just moved to England...

[izthistaken]

^ :lol: So much easier

[asylumxl]

^ :lol: So much easier

Don't have to wait as long for parts ;)

[izthistaken]

I totally agree, you'd have to pay alot to send Christmas cards though :lol:

[Padrino]

Nice images. The Esprit has that "Ugly beauty" the F40 mastered in ´87.

[FLATOUT]

It'd been alot easier if you'd just moved to England...

HAHA You sir are Hillarious:lol:

Believe me it would have made things easier.

[PCthug]

Well, LOTUS does stand for Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.

I owned a 1983 Excel for about 16 years, and only sold it last year (and bought a track bike).
It was a 4 seater, 2.2ltr 185bhp, 0-60 in 7.2, front engined car, with fantastic handling.
I had great fun in it, and to be honest had hardly any trouble at all.
Here is the last photo I took of it, just before it was taken away (on the back of a truck), by someone wating to do it up...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/front.jpg