Video: Lotus Esprit S1: The Coolest car a Minivan could beat

The big US bumpers look pretty awful on the Esprit. Yes another car which was spoiled in the US by crazy bumper regulations.

 

One of the most beautiful Lotuses ever. (Except those bumpers.)

 

Very cool vid. Tony's car?

Your r right they aren't barn burners of the line but once u get the rolling they scoot pretty well. A few years ago at the Great Lakes lotus club track day we manage to lap nearly all the cars 993, 993 turbos, SC's 3.2's m3's, Camero's plus all the Elise's ( lotus North America brought 5 cars to film a commercial). Only 2 cars passed us all day, a track prepared Europa with an updated spider chassis and much to my surprise an old school JPS S2 esprit! To this day I always wondered what was done to the car underneath the skin. It looked stock with exception of outboard brakes and some larger 16 wheels n tires.

Gratten is a fantastic little known track. Very challenge with fast blind corners, jumps, off camber turns.... It even has a mini carrousel like the "ring". the layout reminds me a little of donnington. At gratten, a guy that knows what he's doing behind the wheel can track down the higher power cars