Finally a Lotus on my blog!

This October at the Paris auto show, Lotus is planning a big unveiling to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the debut of the Lotus Esprit. Now Lotus can either choose this event to launch a brand new Esprit or just do something completely random. The Esprit really is an interesting car for various reasons [of which I shall list] and after this hopefully you'll get why [apart from the 7] this is the longest running model Lotus has produced.

Design

The Esprit all started with the Europa, which was Lotus' first mid-engined car. The Europa was pretty much the leftovers from a proposed design Lotus had for the GT40 project. The Europa was a success being hailed as the F1 car for the road, a lot having to do with its very low, Lotus like weight. To ensure that its replacement lived up to the hype of the Europa, Lotus thought it through properly. First thing was to hire legendary car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. Giugiaro has designed numerous wedge shaped cars that gave the 80s a futuristic look in car design, but the Esprit was the first vehicle he designed to follow this theme. For all 30 years of production, the Esprit retained its iconic wedge shape despite going through 3 different designers.

Construction

Just like other Lotus' of the era, it utilized various parts from different manufacturers. Most of the generic stuff was taken from the British Leyland parts bin. After General Motors bought Lotus the GM generic parts bin was then raided. Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, Toyota and Ford parts bins were also raided. The only thing original was the engine, which usually is the first thing Lotus borrows. This collection of mismatched parts still stayed within the typical Lotus lightweight limit. This really was a car greater than the sum of its parts.

The Result

The Esprit was a hit, even with its tiny 4 banger, its light weight and turbocharger put this in the realm of supercars [the design also played a big part in this]. It reached its peak of coolness when it appeared in 2 James Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me [where it transformed into a submarine] and For Your Eyes Only [which had 2 Esprits]. Later models soon grew in size from a turbo 4 pot to a twin turbo [still small] 3.5L V8 and still maintained its mid 70s charm all the way up to 2004 where it was laid to rest. Today the Esprit name is still reserved as their halo model and plans for a 2011/2012 model is currently in the works, we'll have to wait and see if Lotus will bring it back in Paris.

Personal favourite model: S4 V8 models between 1996 and 2002