Great Lotus Esprit video, road trip! I love old cars!

I loved this video that Hagerty put out a few months ago. Makes me want to go on a road trip! Makes me want to buy an old Lotus! It also reminds me how much I love old cars. Its a great video in my opinion. What are your thoughts? Anyone have experiences with Esprits?

http://www.hagerty.com/classic-car-articles-resources/Magazine/Video

 

Great video. Other than the Ferrari 308GTS, one of my favorite cars in the world. I've always loved the Esprit and would love to have one someday to keep the 308 company.

 

Yes I have owned various Esprits including a fabulous Essex Turbo. One thing I will say is the 328 is a breeze to work on compared to the Esprit!

This is in the wrong forum section though surely...

 

my 89 SE Esprit hated me. I sorted it out, did the gas tanks, and sold it. When the CEL was not on , it was a great, fun car. It was also red, not a fave of mine.

So a British Racing Green one came up for sale a month or so ago, i bought it, and am slowly gathering parts to repair it and get the maintenance done.

If this one is a turd, i wont ever buy another .

I think the S4S is a better version to compare to a 328, the pre s4s cars are more like QV's, and the Lotus is MUCH harder to actually work on than any of the 308's and 911's i have had.

Since my 328 was wrecked by an idiot on the phone back In October, i have purchased a euro 308 QV., a G50 88 911 Carrera, and the SE Esprit. That way 1 of the 3 should be running at any given time.

I still want a Maserati.

 

Great video, great production on a small budget and nicely edited. Whoever did this piece needs to do more! Charming & engaging presenter. I wish there was a 308 video like that. I watched it all the way through; rare for YouTube material.

I love the original Giugiaro styling, though Lotus compromised it (more than an Italian maker would) with their part bin approach from the very beginning.

And it's a shame that it came with just a 4-pot, even with a turbo it falls a little short for a mid-engined supercar. By the time of the V8, it had evolved into a truly ugly car.

 

How young do you have to be to think of an Esprit as an "old car"?

Dang whippersnappers.

 

+1

Also, Lotus bought themselves a vacuum forming machine which they used to make all kinds of really crappy thin plastic trim pieces, bumpers etc which they covered the car with. That really let down the quality of what was actually a superb piece of fibreglass bodywork.
Fond memories (not really) of lying on a mattress on top of the engine, changing the cam belt entirely by feel, down the 2 inch gap between the engine and bulkhead!
Lotus never gave one thought to maintainability. They were happy as long as the car got past the warranty period. Many of the early Esprits which were sold in the USA market had known faults when they were shipped, which they left to the dealers to fix, especially overheating issues.
But in spite of all that, the Turbo Esprit felt rock solid and far out-handled the 328.

 

I'm faster than an SE or S4S now Don't need one, but I have driven a couple. They are indeed a PIA to work on though.

 

Cool, thanks for sharing.

 

Dear Hagerty Insurance,
Thank you for making this super instructional video on why I should never own one of these cars and should continue to admire them from afar.

Sincerely,

Me

 

Did you actually watch the video all the way? I don't think there was anything in it that would put off a potential Esprit buyer. Nothing went wrong except for a minor starting issue. And you'd just as likely get that sort of thing on a 308 or any 30 year old vehicle. I wouldn't want an Esprit for reasons stated above, but none of these were mentioned in the video.

 

I did. Twice. The trouble with closing the rear lid and the starting issue, along with the comments from the mechanic and the apparent frailty of the car all turn me off from owning it. And a quart and a half of oil in 900 miles?? You didn't see that? Maybe I just have unrealistic expectations. Maybe I have just been blessed with incredible cars.

FWIW, I would drive my 22 or 23 year old Ferrari across the country tomorrow if I wanted. Granted, it is probably not a fair comparison because the build qualities of these cars from 1978 to 1989 is leaps and bounds but still. Anyway, I would do the drive with no qualms at all. Hell, the F40 had not been driven in a year and I changed the battery and took it on a 500 mile road trip the next day. No problems, no issues, no anything. After a tank of gas it just got better and better.

 

Neat video.

 

It's incredible how you can buy and sell so often. I would look at every transaction as having a chance to screw up and loose a lot of money. More power to you......you have been able to enjoy a slew of interesting cars!

 

You are right. I find this cheap video to be epic in its simplicity. It is inspiring in the way I feel when I read Peter Egan stories. If you don't know Egan and love cars, do yourself a favor and buy his books which contain short stories. They are priceless!

 

Sorry, I just reread my post and sound like a complaining ninny. Regardless of how I feel about owning the car, I do love the video.

 

Never driven but I have liked the styling through to the V8 period. Was sad to see it retired. Hope the new one charms as well as the old ones did.

 

Great video & story in a beautiful car!
Probably should be in the "British" section, no?

 

This video was special (IMO) and I wanted you guys to see it. I have a 308 that I love and it is a better and more beautiful car than the Esprit in my opinion! That said, the Esprit is still beautiful and interesting. They are more facinating than 99% of all cars ever built. I wanted to have this discussion with my 3x8 brothers to see their point of view.

 

Great video and car. Thanks for sharing it.

 

On the whole, I agree with your points though. I think the driver fared well considering the Chapmanesque fragility of the Esprit. They ended up having to overplay it on the video; they probably expected more to go wrong and have a couple of garage emergencies to film.

As it was, a tailgate that doesn't shut properly is so not a big deal. Most glass-heavy tailgates have a tendency do that because the steel/ally/glass doesn't expand & contract evenly.

 

Cool video. What a surprise it was to see Bill and Gary from Possum Hollow Motorsports in it. They're working on my 328 right now. Great shop.

 

looks a lot like my car.... these early non-turbo cars are magnificent to drive, easy to maintain, inexpensive parts, and define sublime handling.... Chapman's "added lightness" of the Esprit makes for a true enthusiast car.

And i think my car still looks great even amongst the high priced stuff in the pics below.


beev
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Awesome!!

Does that rear lid close?

 

thats what crazy glue is for...jokes


Actually when I bought it, she had been off the road for many years and that rear hatch was just like the one in the film.... but 2 minutes of patience and a washer as a shim and she was fixed...

Loti get a bad rep as a "frail" car... a term derived from the lightness of the car and the earlier Lotus Europas were in fact more flimsy in design ( I had owned one)...the Esprit was a quantum leap forward in quality and durability....

My car took very little to get sorted....the biggest issue was defective replacement engine mount bushes but a retrofit kit made in England fixed that niggling issue.....an early Espirt just needs regular maintenance to be a reliable runner... far less expensive that Italian machinery as I have experience in that world too.

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