Which lotus esprit

Less obvious, though, is that the body was much tougher, giving a 22 per cent increase in torsional rigidity thanks to a new production process and strategic use of Kevlar. Underneath, the same engine continued now with a Renault gearbox that could only be accommodated by outboard rear brakes, not the inboards of past.

An SE model was added in , featuring the well-known Chargecooler, a water-to-air intercooler system that helped up power to bhp, or bhp using an overboost function. After a brief run of Esprit S models with bhp, the SE became the standard model in except for the homologation special Sport It also featured power steering for the first time.

In this was updated to the S4 Sport, which benefitted from some engine work that upped power to bhp. You can spot one from the Sport rear spoiler. That was meant to be the last Lotus Esprit, but in the mids a cancelled project meant that Lotus had an all-aluminium, twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank V8 to do something with.

Why not put it in an Esprit? And so in the Esprit V8 was introduced, putting a relatively low-tune bhp through a strengthened Renault gearbox that could just about cope. In there was a return of the four-cylinder as a special GT3 model with bhp, no rear wing, and weight down to kg. Nearly were made. Meanwhile, only 50 were made of its V8-powered sibling the Sport , with wing and the familiar bhp.

Finally, in the Esprit got a distinctive rear taillight update switching to a Ferrari-like set of four circles of LEDs before production ended in with just over 10, cars made. An early car will require a more careful eye on the chassis because they were only galvanised from Later cars are more solid, but one place to look are the suspension mount tops where corrosion can build up. Glassfibre is a great lightweight material for the body but can be difficult to repair and in the past many Esprits have suffered damage and been badly repaired.

If a car has been left outside for a considerable period then its paint finish will have likely deteriorated too, so inspect it carefully for cracks or uneven fading. A full respray is highly labour intensive, and not just for the painting of the glassfibre itself.

A full strip down of an Esprit can take hours owing to the complexities of trim and fittings. Take the doors, for example, which require adjustments at multiple points to sit right when putting them back together. Apparently this is the first time a Sport has come up for auction.

Relatively reasonably priced too, relative to the other cars in the collection. The S4S was meant to fill the gap between the hardcore Sport and the normal Esprit S4, so it had elements of both. Not hard, admittedly. Like the Sport , only with a bhp V8. Lighter and pointier than the standard V8, this could well be the most extreme road-going Esprit there ever was.

Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Changes to the body included air intake ducts being fitted behind the rear quarter windows and the front spoiler was redesigned by Guigiaro to be a more integrated wrap around unit.

The other major upgrade to the appearance of the Series 2 was the replacement of the stock Wolfrace alloy wheels with custom wheels made for Lotus by Italian company Speedline. The Series 2 was given a power upgrade to the 2. The Lotus Turbo Esprit was made at the same time as the Essex and was for people who did not want their car painted in the Essex colours — pretty though they were.

The turbocharged cars were treated to some chassis upgrades. The Vauxhall Cavalier derived front suspension was done away with and changed to a new Lotus design which comprised an upper wishbone combined with a lower transverse link, the assembly being attached to the new front box section of the chassis.

The rear suspension redesign incorporated upper links to take over the support role previously filled by the drive shafts. So during production of the Series 2 all three of the Lotus Esprit series engines were in production: the 2 litre Type , the 2. The chassis upgrades done for the Series 2 Turbo Esprit were fitted as standard to all models from April onwards, so the new Series 3 boasted unique and purpose built Lotus suspension.

The Series 3 cars exhibited the best quality build and were a genuine competitor to the likes of Porsche and even Ferrari. For the Series 3 the dry sump previously used for the turbocharged cars was replaced with a conventional wet sump. In a departure from the boringly British Series numbers the next group of models were labelled the X and were made between to The bodywork was given a best of British restyling courtesy Peter Stevens who would go on to work for McLaren and design their F1.

Despite its very new look the X was very much the child of the Series 3 Esprit although a number of high performance engine versions were made for it, but they were all based on the same three engines the car was already being fitted with. In this process vacuum is used to assist the resin flow into the mold. The Series 4 cars would get power steering and increasingly more sophisticated versions of the DOHC Lotus engines.

It would also be the Series 4 that would be the vehicle into which the V8 version of the Lotus engine would be installed. Not only was the new engine to be used as a four cylinder however as Colin Chapman had the vision that it would also be built as a four litre V8 that could be used for Indianapolis racing.

That future V8 would later be installed in the Series 4 Lotus Esprit. Lotus engineers Steve Sanville and Ron Burr had the cylinder head design done by , when providence stepped in and British car maker GM Vauxhall introduced a new 1, cc So the new Lotus engine was made production ready in using that Vauxhall block under the leadership of Engineering Director for Road Cars Tony Rudd, who had previously worked for racing car maker BRM.

For the Lotus Esprit there were three versions of this engine used; The Type , 1, cc The second is the Type engine which has an increased capacity of 2. The third of the four cylinder engines is the 2. Type which is fitted with a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbocharger set to provide a boost of 8 psi 0.

This engine was originally installed in the Esprit Essex and was fitted with a dry sump but this was changed to a wet sump in The Type engine was fitted with new camshafts to increase both valve lift and duration, sodium filled exhaust valves, and enlarged coolant passages in the cylinder head to compensate for the increase in the combustion heat generated. It was also provided with a strengthened lower main-bearing girdle to cope with the substantially increased forces the engine was generating, and the clutch diameter was increased by an inch for the same reason.

These Lotus Esprit engines are high performance units and by definition require more, and more expert mechanical attention than the pedestrian car engines found in lesser vehicles.

So, when buying a used Esprit checking just how conscientiously the car has been maintained will be a key indicator of problems that might not be obvious at the time of purchase but that will likely rear their ugly head once you become the proud owner. Work done by a Lotus trained person is always preferred. Better still, if its possible, get a Lotus professional who is not involved in the sale to do a detailed assessment of the car rather than trying to do it yourself. In any event, watch that servicing has been done every 6, miles or every six months for a low mileage car.

The timing belt needs to have been changed every 24, miles. Ensure that the oil filter is a genuine Lotus one and not just the Ford stock part. The Lotus oil filter is more expensive but has an anti-drain valve. This is important because the oil pump is located high in the engine and the anti-drain valve ensures that oil is kept high in the system to minimize big-end knock on start-up.