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!
I don’t know if I need 350hp in a light Lotus Esprit, but I’ve been obsessed with the idea of flogging one with the Yamaha SHO V6 engine conversion.
I love this car. Unfortuantely, I’m 6′-2″ and can’t fit into the cabin.
Does the galpin website have an error, or are we from oversea not allowed to see it?
I get a ‘403 forbidden’ message, both in Edge and Chrome.
“The first version, shown at the Turin Auto Show in 1982, carried a then-futuristic wedge shape from Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign.”
It was ’72, the Esprit was already on S3 by ’82 and, to me, was the epitome of what I know an Esprit to be.
The thinking person’s supercar? As in the one you’d think about buying, and then laugh at yourself and not do it?
I remember going to some sort of Norfolk country fair back when these were on sale, and Lotus were there trying to flog them to rich farmers and so-on. The salesman eventually talked my dad into taking one for a test drive, but when my dad went to get into it, the door handle came off in his hand. He didn’t buy one…
A few years back I was walking past a classic car dealer, and they had a really nice Frogeye Sprite, but it was £17k, and it made me realise I’ll probably never be able to afford one. They also had a bright orange Lotus Espirit Turbo. It was also £17k.
The moral of this story is to always buy the overpriced Sprite, instead of the underpriced Espirit.
I prefer the hard creases of the S1.
The later ones might be more practical, but who considers practicality or durability when choosing a Lotus.
A really nice type 83 Elite wouldn’t get kicked out of my garage.
As I’ve gotten older, I’m no longer liking the 80-90’s over-aero of everything. So I’m with you, along with the early Panteras, the Esprit looks better with less “window dressing”..
The first version of the Countach is quite nice to look at, then Lamborghini started shoveling tacky wings and wheel arches on until it looked like a Jeep ran through an ironing board store. Admittedly the Countach had terrible aerodynamics, but the cure was worse than the disease.
Agreed
Oh man, I bought a Sega Genesis and my first two games were Madden 93 and Lotus Turbo Challenge. God I feel old.
For me, it’s the turbo 4 a la pretty woman and For your eyes only. Especially with that ski rack.
“…including the Lotus Elise-style taillights.”
Once again, not their real name.
If money were no object I’d still not buy this maintenance nightmare. I’d never fit in the thing anyway.
“ The Ideal Version Of One Of The Most Underrated Supercars Ever Is For Sale”
Cool! An Esprit GT3!
Oh, it’s just the V8. Urgh.
“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.“
They aren’t Elise-style, they are the same lights. The supply of 80’s Corolla lights was gone by 2002, they had to do something cheap/stylish.
Also what year?
THIS is the best Lotus imo ever made. The S4 Esprit. It’s always been on my list of wants, dating all the way back to going to the mall and waiting for my mom to buy sandals from Esprit and wondering why the store was named after a car.
I don’t know if yellow is my color, I saw a blue S4 once and fell in love and I’ll always be on the lookout for one.
The issue is, as always, the reliability. These things are impossible to maintain.
A blue one is quite excellent, agreed. Also one of the few cars I love in red.
Yeah the red will forever be burned into my brain because of the patagonia special
I saw a red one in Dallas in a BBQ joint parking lot with smoke pouring out of the engine cover. The owner was just standing there waiting for a tow. I walked up to him and I asked is it still worth it? He said no, but you know. we almost held hands I think.
Well, what did he expect? Everyone knows the blue ones areore reliable.
As someone who is tired of the color red (No more red Ferrari’s, please!), I also think the S4 Lotus looks good in red. Seeing them in other colors is usually shockingly awesome.
The styling on this car is not groundbreaking, but it is quite attractive.
They definitely aren’t the best driving, but looking yeah probs.
The Esprit didn’t debut in 1982, but back in 1975 with first sales in 1976.
In the early ’80s I worked as a loan officer at a bank that had a Lotus dealer as a customer and I probably financed 10 Esprits (mostly Series 2). Only one of them eventually burned itself to the ground while it was being driven – the others mostly seemed to run fine.
Occasionally a new owner would park their Esprit in front of our bank to deal with some final paperwork and I’ve seldom seen a car that could generate a crowd of bystanders quicker, even when painted plain white. The earlier cars, with less aero adornment, look fantastic in person.
A coworker at another job was restoring an Esprit and showed me photos of the inside of the headlight enclosure. Beneath the fiberglass, much of the enclosure is actually made of wood. Coworker’s comment: “Not surprising. *Shrugs* That’s just Lotus.”
It was originally meant to be the replacement/upmarket move from the Europa. In 72, you could buy a mid engine Europa (Twin cam or John Player Special), a front engine Seven, or a front engine Elan/Elan +2.
In 73, they ended the 16 years of in-house production of the Seven. In 75, they ended the Europa and Elans.
In 75, the Elans were replaced by the front engine, grand tourer Elite and Eclat. And in 76 the Europa by the Esprit. The Elan really wasn’t replaced until the Elise.
Yesterday it was the NSX, today the Esprit…I’ll take cars I don’t fit in for $500, Matt.
Hah.. hmm… what’s for sale that Mr. Canoehead fits in… There’s a C7! Everyone fits in a C7. I’ll do that one next week.
That’s hilarious – I’ve been looking for a C7 although some (XXL sized people) suggest that there is more helmet room in a C6.
Size-wise, they keep getting smaller from C5 on. On the Esprit front, there was a guy in my hometown in the 90s that had a sketchy little foreign lot/shop. He was like 6-6 and drove an S3.
How can you leave it the scene in Pretty Woman?
Hell yeah. I’m interested in buying it! (The money part is the one wee difficulty….)
Easy on a 256 month note well throw in free nitrogen for the tires.
Those sorts of loans do seem to be quite the rage these days. Hmmm….
Love the Esprit but I’d take that 900 in a heartbeat.
Attaboy!
wonderful motorcar
Those round taillights just dont do it for me, they just don’t work with the rest of the styling (you can tell it’s not an integrated design). The old Corolla units work so well with the car. FWIW the Esprit S3 or S4 is my attainable dream car. Soon….
I like the Lotus reference in them, but I agree the Corolla units are also excellent.
The closest I have been to one was in the Spectrum version of Turbo Esprit spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/0005461 , there videos at the bottom.
I think that’s one of the sexiest cars ever made. Would love to have one.
Beautiful.
Anyone here digging into Forza Horizon 6 yet? I plan on devoting a lot of this long weekend to it.
All week. Early access here because I’m an idiot and spend too much money on bleeps and bloops. It’s fun — follows the formula and it works.
Didn’t all these V8 engines go splode?
Clearly not all of them!
…yet! haha
Were they equipped with Q-branch alarm systems by chance?
I thought it was the gearbox that was the weakest link of the driveline for some reason.
I semi-seriously considered buying a V8 Esprit for $25,000 about 15 years ago, but it had both electrical issues and a bad engine, and was parked for the past 10 years… Main thing that turned me off was that I could comfortably spend about $7-10K / year on fixing it up, and 2K would go straight to parking / storage space for it. Maybe I’d be done by now?
So, a pristine example of the Lotus brand.
That has the same steering wheel as my old Saturn did. Wild.
Those units were shared with a ton of manufacturers. I think my Dodge stealth had that same horn/airbag too.
this sounds like an opportunity for a deep dive article
For a second I thought you were talking about the Bond Lotus submarine car, and I was really impressed. “Deep dive,” ah ha ha!
Then I realized you meant shared steering wheels. Turned me off.
If the Esprit is the thinking person’s supercar, does that make Grieco the thinking person’s undercover teenage cop?
The thinking person’s undercover secret agent. And, yes.
I think I’ve finally found the breakover in our ages.
You got it! I also didn’t watch it in reruns, but I watched a ton of CHiPs reruns for some reason.
Whatever happened to ole Richard? I think of him whenever I see the new tan hairproduct-abundant Italian cool brooding tough guy actor from Peacemaker. Rick seemed to get more tan and noir over time.