The Lotus Esprit, in every generation, is already the thinking person’s supercar. From its initial Giugiaro-designed wedge to its final iteration as a V8-powered ’90s poster car, the Esprit was always a devilishly handsome alternative to whatever Maranello was making at the time.
If you want one of the earliest ones, the best version is the one that can go underwater. You’re probably never going to get the chance to buy James Bond’s Lotus sub. That’s fine. I’m a ’90s kid, and so the later generation cars have always been my favorite. If you want one of those, essentially the best version of that car is for sale right now from Galpin. Did I mention it’s yellow?
Welcome to FOR SALE FRIDAY, a new series we’re testing out where we feature an interesting car for sale in the Galpin Motors universe. We figure we’ve been writing about interesting Cars & Bids cars and Bring a Trailer cars; why not write about our cofounder Beau’s interesting machines?
A Quick Lotus Esprit History
The most cliché quote about Lotus is the “simplify and add lightness” directive from company founder Colin Chapman. While this concept has historically been applied to the engineering of the car, basically every other decision made by the company has been enormously complex, right down to who actually owns Lotus.
In that sense, the Esprit is both one of the last vestiges of the original Chapman-run company, and also the one vehicle that bridges a lot of Lotus history. The first version, shown at the Turin Auto Show in 1982, carried a then-futuristic wedge shape from Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign. This is the S1 Esprit, and it created the formula that every other Esprit would follow. Powered by a Lotus-developed inline-four, the car was a hit by Lotus standards. A revised model would carry the car into the ’80s, although the S2 Esprit looks quite similar to the original Giugiaro design, as does the S3.
In 1987, Peter Stevens–yes, the guy who designed the McLaren F1–used his skilled pen to modernize the now 15-year-old vehicle. While similar in overall shape and proportions to the S1, the refreshed Esprit previews what much of the ’90s would look like. As with the early models, this generation (called X180) borrows its taillights from a more common vehicle. In this case, the early 1980s Toyota Corolla AE86. Most importantly, though, the Esprit keeps its pop-up headlights.
Up to this point, every Esprit made do with some variation of the company’s 900-series inline-four, including various turbocharged models. With the introduction of the last and final iteration of the Esprit (S4), Lotus managed to shove its own V8 behind the passenger cabin.
Lotus has a long history of helping other automakers get power out of their motors, including the V8 C4 ZR1, so a Lotus-created engine is a work of art. The new V8 gave the Esprit a competitive 350 horsepower thanks to twin turbos, as well as a unique engine note on account of its flat-plane crank design.
The Video Game And Movie That Got Me Obsessed
Again, I’m a kid of the 1990s, so I fell in love with the Lotus Esprit because of a mixture of car magazines, films, and video games. In particular, Lotus Turbo Challenge put the 11-year-old me behind the seat of both a Lotus Elan and an Esprit. My friends and I spent hours trying to put in the fastest run, so the Esprit’s taillights are burned into my memory.
I’m not sure when I first saw one in person, but I’ll never forget the first moving non-digitized version I experienced. The film If Looks Could Kill is not exactly great cinema, but no eight-year-old requires great cinema. All I wanted at that age was car chases and explosions, and the film provided a lot of both.
The plot of the film is basically that a high school kid, played by Richard Grieco, gets mistaken for a CIA agent and goes on a Bond-like adventure through France. Quite early in the film viewers are rewarded with a car chase between Grieco in an Esprit, a bad guy in a Saab 900 Turbo, and Grieco’s love interest (played by the wonderful Gabrielle Anwar, whom you might remember from Burn Notice) in a 300ZX.
That chase is still one of my favorites to this day, and a reason why I alway stop to gawk at an Esprit when I manage to find one at a car show.
What Makes This Car Special
The car currently for sale at Galpin Lotus is one of a small number of Final Edition Esprit V8s produced between 2002 and 2004. This gets the final small body tweaks that were applied in 2021, including the Lotus Elise-style taillights.
Like all of the Esprit V8s, this car gets a five-speed manual connected to the 3.5-liter DOHC twin-turbo V8, here producing 350 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque.
The Mustard Yellow paint and V8 badge are the giveaway that this is an extremely special car.
I’ve seen this car in person, and it’s super clean, befitting its incredibly low 15,985 miles. The interior barely looks like anyone has driven it, but there are enough miles on the odometer that it shouldn’t scare you away from driving it.
In addition to being a rare, low-mileage special version of the longest running production Lotus, this Esprit has the added novelty of being one of the last cars ever sold in America with factory pop up lights.
Man, I love pop-up headlights.
Because only 79-82 of these were ever built (depending on who you ask), it’s likely this is the nicest one currently available. For this kind of money, you can get into a mid-tier Ferrari 360 Modena, which isn’t as unique or as interesting. You might run into another Ferrari 360 at a Cars & Coffee. I doubt that you’d run into another one of these.
Lotus is also planning to bring back a new V8-powered supercar in 2028, making it the spiritual successor to the Esprit. While the Evora and Emira are great, these vehicles have carried either a Toyota-derived V6 or AMG-derived inline-four. The return of the V8 could renew interest in these later Esprits.
If you’re interested in buying this car, reach out to Ivan Merino at Imerino@galpin.com. Because Galpin Motors is run by Autopian co-founder Beau Boeckmann, you should let Ivan know you heard about the car on The Autopian. If you buy the car it’ll include a Velour Membership, and if you’re already a member it’ll come with an automatic upgrade. If you want anything else sold by Galpin (new or used) you can use the email concierge@theautopian.com and we’ll get you to the right person!
Holy Throwback Batman! I loved that movie when I was a kid.