1977 Lotus Esprit - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] it goes nicely very nice well I guess we're talking about what the weight helps the cars pounds like the VA descries they got more power but they don't have the weight so I got keep up with them well Donna episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car were featuring today 1977 Lotus Esprit the reason this car is here besides the fact that it's a lotus and it's pretty cool is the fact that it's a one family car it's a father-and-son deal and they're both here today let's meet them mister Claudius and his son Jason coming in you guys how are you how are you sir fine you sir and you bought this no yes okay and what did it cost new 177 I'd be curious I paid fourteen thousand five hundred dollars that was a lot of money oh yes and that was almost Ferrari territory in 77 one minute yes obviously you've had it all these years original color or is this a color change it's the original color always been yellow has been painted but it's always been you okay okay well you've kept it just a beautiful shade thank you and now you you pass it on to your son eventually but he can't drive it okay I'm the only one driving at the last two decades okay I see all right very good okay so tell us about the car how many miles on it what have you done to it nineteen thousand five hundred miles from new from new Wow yeah he put a body kid on it in the early 80s that's why it looks more like an 80s turbo right he put the BBS racing wheels on around the same time okay he could never make up his mind with the interior that's about his fifth interior right he does all the leather work himself upstairs oh is that right the only thing we don't do in an inn shop is paint everything else we do so he did the interior kept changing the color black at one time and and moved here and then in 1985 he got a brand new 85 turbo spree engine and he put that in the back oh okay so kind of our safari making it 300 Wow he put a charge cooler on it and that got us up to the 300 mark now you guys have a you in the automotive business it's a hobby what no he the same year I was born in 71 he started working on just lotuses yeah de Europa before this and he was part of the Lotus organization and did authorized service for them back in the day branched off to be independent in the early 80s so well I got to ask why only nineteen thousand miles that's like five hundred miles a year because I have everybody else's car to drive oh it's a throughout its life it's been a part half of its life because he's always modifying something it's it's rare for us to actually have the car together and drivable okay so it's it's part of the family it really is you never get rid of it now does this have air-conditioning yeah he did add that again in the eighties yeah okay was that they'd Lotus offer air-conditioning not on this series one only in the starting the series to series one just a heater Lotus came out with an aftermarket kit because everybody wanted air-conditioning of course so this is actually an aftermarket yeah kit that we have in here what's it from England or from America came from America oh yeah because the English like when I bought my f1 McLaren it came with air-conditioning but if you want a good air it was digital $25,000 well it doesn't really get that hot so the ecumene kind of yeah it's not too bad but here if you want a good air conditioning well same thing with the radiator you know we ended up putting a radiator three times the surface area from original because they didn't overheat in England which bring about to Southern California and you know it's funny years ago when I was a kid and when we were kids they had cars that had the tropical package I think a Land Rover you got a bigger radiator right who's going to Africa or somewhere it was really all right I think even American cars offered as well in certain marketing you know tow okay well let's talk some more about the car this is this was original to the car no on the s-1 it had glass back there okay but like I say that's more like an 80s turbo especially because once they put the turbo they wanted to let some of the heat out right so that's open to the engine compartment and it's four cylinder of four-cylinder stoked to point to point to in the turbo 2-liter originally though how many miles on the other engine when you got rid of it what about seven pal yeah I'd say there's about five or seven thousand on this engine since 85 ok did you keep the original engine as well no no it's long gone by I believe I sold it yeah okay and it's a five-speed five-speed yeah okay are these American mirrors original of these later not the s1 they're more likely in the 80s turbo okay really an electric the s-1 was just a fixed mirror oh okay that's an electric yeah okay boy you've really updated it huh and the pinstriping yeah I was never sure if I liked the pinstriping until he got it repainted once and I saw it without before he put the pinstriping back on and I didn't like it yeah add something to it helps break up the yellow yeah it really does it really does this original you know he added that to him well okay can we open the trunk yeah absolutely oh okay well this looks way too neat and efficient for Lotus he had to eat glass fuses originally no relays and that looks aftermarket that massive masked assailant to a power brake system yeah as opposed to a vacuum system okay but again one of the reasons we always modify the car so much as it's a advertising tool for us you know people can see what they can get done on their car by looking what we done yeah that's really great say I think I were in the electric headlamp motor and went to a linear actuator oh really well done gentlemen I like to make things look like they came from the factory well it certainly does it's beautifully done although this looks like a classic American hot rod piece yeah it is it looks like replacement parts for and like we put Wilwood brakes on the front of the car yeah aren't they great we use those on everything we have yeah and they just work that's just great the only thing is he has to course cuz we have a machine shop so he has to make the hats and the Brando's Wilwood doesn't make anything that'll bolt onto a Lotus right okay but yeah you're just the front all forward just the front he's done a few on the in because these had the inboard rear brake right and it makes it much more complicated to hit there's lots more machine that's go on so I actually have another spree and he did rear will was for me but it was so complicated I'm never gonna do it or he didn't even put them on this we just shut this again yeah and just laugh this from inside okay let me ask you about something now this doesn't look Lotus is that you as well that's something I machined out of a solid billet of aluminum boy that's really nicely done been plastic original plastic yeah same thing with seat belt surrounds they were plastic he machines some out of aluminum boy great work really terrific and then some of the plastic bits that are no longer available he built a vacuform machine so like these bill b-pillar pieces and everything we can make new ones you know cuz you can't get him anymore so he has molds and he'll just use a vacuform I'll talk about new plastic ones cool let's come around the back of the car here this is original is it yes yeah every British car from the 70s had those lights right right let's take a look at the engine can you back here absolutely so that's the 85 with the charge cooler and then one day my dad got bored and used more linear actuators so we have the button there it actually cuz they were always just meant to kind of just come off and set him next to the car and he always thought that was a pain so you used an electro-motive so there's no distributor anymore or anything but we still got the good old Laurel carburetors yeah I can remember back in those days saying fuel injection I only had crazy stuff give me a car break yeah it seemed easier right yeah tinker with it yourself and this is all you as well he machined out those caps out of chunks and then used the cnc to put the engraving on see this is what people did before netflix and stuff yeah all the special you know brackets to mount everything he's machined all those out he's baby boomers know what they're doing well it's just a beautiful job beautiful job and I imagine runs nice and cool probably doesn't it does yeah I it seems to always stay within operating temperatures I don't have a problem is that what the horsepower was three hundred one of those no or no this motor would have been about two and a quarter but he's been in there since then and changed compression the Pistons and the rods you know using all the CP pistons and everything else and so we've modified inside the engine and we got it up to about 260 and then when we added the charge clora we took it to the to the dyno again and we got it up to an even three Wow and you run it on pump gas yeah I usually put premium in it but you're right and then he added the air temp sensors before and after the charge course we can actually monitor how much we're changing the air temperature coming out of the turbo I can get as much as a hundred degree Fahrenheit swing yeah from coming out of the turbo but before it goes in and you have a second area here to store as well right yeah then of course the that's that's to put gear oil in the box okay because you made that as well no you just carpet the plug that's the factory plus house carbon well you carpeted the plug yeah so you didn't see the blast I thought well it made that indentation right it's not if you pop that off and that's where you fill the gear well from the top very cool now what did you shut that where's your bus tonight oh it's the same button okay but yeah just close that's great this is gonna be the greatest 77 hope so and I noticed another modification is this bigger well of course because he put the turbo tail on it right so usually even a factory car you'll see it where it's bolted on load never fibreglass the tail on so I say that's why this car had to be repainted because when we fiberglass the tail on you know we had to repaint the car and when he made the mold for the tail my father said well why do I need a area they're big enough for a European place so he just made the little box for an American yeah yeah it's kind of a way you can tell ours is you know not an original turbo and how about the Lotus Factory guys if they said they'd seen this car probably not when rolls-royce owned Lotus in the eighties is when he started having a falling-out with them they didn't like him modifying the cars he was even back in the early eighties putting 215 aluminum Buicks into the back of oh they weren't yeah but he figured he was you know making doing better business without the the business Lotus themselves sent him so we haven't actually had a relationship with Lotus so yeah and you've got to a fuel thing yep and there's a crossover - there's a crossover of course Lotus only put a quarter inch so when we did the tanks and put a 5/8 inch yeah yeah so they expect a quarter inch for the gas you would never be able to fill it from just one side yeah I still take the other cap off to let the air out but I can't fill it from one side now push it down I can't yeah but certainly the visibility is not great if I want to pass I find it better to accelerate around something and past that yeah try to kind of merge in the other way how big s thank these have about 14 gallon seven and a half aside so you have 15 Galaxie 15 count okay notice you know everything was just well that's enough you know they never thought about trying to make it better I'm surprised it just in four lugs on the wheel back in the seventies they did yeah once they went to the turbo and the eighties it was five okay that's another way you can tell it's not an original turbo yeah it still has the four lug wheels did you add the third brake light he did nice and that's nicely integrated as well boy you do beautiful work it's really impressive car you don't really see a lot of these around anymore you know I mean I do every day yeah you don't see a lot of them driving around but the guys that have them are real enthusiasts I imagine you must have enough customer base to keep going on thankfully that a lot of customers are willing to put more money in than they're worth right right that's good for us yeah yeah bad for them but good for us yeah no it's great I mean Lotus people are you know I've got my Elan I mean it's the greatest car yeah cuz you know it's funny when I talk to young people they think a light car is 3,000 pounds we tell them something weighs 1,600 pounds and it's a revelation when you drive them everything is so light and brakes last longer and everything else oh yeah can we take this one for a ride absolutely won't make you guys feel motors guy it is yeah he was first buff that your oppa traded an XKE for it and then he got to Europa and he was working as actually an architect designing mobile homes but before that he had worked for a company called fiber fab does that mean I'm on fire but they made the fiber fam yes yes my dad worked for fiber fab that's what got him con him into the car realm and from fiber fab you got a job working for a race team in Venezuela Wow I did he go to that yeah he was there for a little while and then he came back and you decided he wanted a nine-to-five job so he started doing mobile homes but on his Europa he did so much work to it himself turbocharged it without there were no engine the series team Europa that other people the car club owner they started bugging him he just started working on them like on the side and then I remember those earlier opens a window they even go down yeah the s1 g s2 that goes nicely very nice well I guess we're talking about with the weight kinda helps the car about 2,300 pounds like the Venus freeze they got more power but they don't have the weight I got keep up with them that floated the don't be hatin it is yeah it's a little weak though yeah that's why they only had 300 to the horsepower net three and a half litre twin-turbocharged three and half liter and they only develop 350 horsepower yeah but if the real 350 horsepower that's not so no it's they're not so bad like I'm Steve's we did twin charge wars is one power it is for Belarus order for camp and it must be tricky a new point a leader we don't ever hear that I would imagine the tires and wheels up front are bigger than original yeah that's so without the power steering help it's all it's all of you and you know it you've been named but wonderful handling thanks to power boy it really makes it that's funny I thought when the VA came out it would just be the be-all end-all Oh that'd be back now Lotus is finally in there with you know Ferrari for men and right high powered cars I love the fact that they built the rugby Asian ones there yeah it's a neat car trick or anything no and they were never really over $100,000 car they never have the sales and service back up back yeah that's that 70 wedge shape so hot back of the day we got you got it well six years old Wow better you take this be a prom when you're in high school no I actually didn't just did the limo thing like everybody else oh really would that be cool wouldn't would your dad and I let you borrow it probably not now I very first I have not told you how to Lotus Elan right then I got when I was 14 spent two years restoring it right on my 16th birthday when I got a driver's license I took my dad's Chevy truck and put a telephone pole halfway through the engine block at 80 miles an hour oh I need a dad Stephanie truck yes so my dad sold the Elan he said you would have killed yourself in the lawn no more alone Wow I never drove it Wow the tickers are storing in every row through all of it so I think I had to earn my place before you I got us again after that incident so why did you finally get to drive this one kind of in my early 20s oh yeah this guy really calling Egyptian 2 7 7 when he designed it you know all the other Italian models we design yeah sorry I really do a thing or two about this yeah which was one of the person well McCune captures really refers to a wet yeah although there was some show card I don't know there's so many in that period I have no idea how aerodynamic it is of it actually yard am attack didn't work it's just visual but you know kind of I like Cadillac with their new sharper edges on some yeah yeah because cars got still kind of round and plain when the spy loving came out in 77 no say here's this car the guy who owned the local movie theater knew my dad had one of these and asked him to bring it down for opening night oh I think so my dad drove me that was my first James Bond movie despite Olivia this parked it up in front of the front doors of the theater then we went in and saw the movie okay so when you come out but it was there crowd oh yeah people taking pictures and everything and that's funny so you know I know I'm not Roger Moore's and everybody's favor King's pawn but he throws in mind I'm Barbara shot yeah gotta go hobo star buddy was yeah but Roger go the lotuses you know I'm trying your job so I drove up threw up with ya Roger and drive the Lotus yeah back in the 70s and into the mostly in the 70s but a little bit of the early 80s when Chapman would still come out for long whose Grand Prix er and Mario Andretti was driving for Lotus and everything might my father was part of the Lotus team on the west coast hang out in the paddock and meet them and Mario actually would come over to our house for dinner sometime but I did get to meet Chapman when I was a little kid yeah Colin Chaplin was the guy who said and lightnin and the alloyed velma cruther be lightweight car just keep taking parts out of the chassis and close collapses and then put that part back in yeah yeah I take that come on buy that he had the good way to put it yeah he was an interesting guy yes he certainly was yeah did the man of his time yeah it was always on the what he was brilliant the lowness of mine is well it's one very famous sorry but they are just wonderful handling con there's so light spindling how they similarly danced down the road yeah like you know there's nothing wrong with any car that if you are and that is the classic Asian they were never quite [Music] right you know there's no intent forth I really felt with the v8 and then okay now they're in the big boy in the four-cylinder that started the spray out there was always this this idea that they were going to everything make it sound the two bolted together on Korea really happen turbo really come [Music] yeah 3,000 starts to come in by the time I hit 35 under that's the fun zone Jason thank you and your dad for a keep a motorist alive here keeping all these old ones going it's gray I mean these upgrades are fantastic and the way when he's done with the electrical system and that all gets performance stuff which is the liability yeah if loners have one faulty reliability great guard so this one is pretty bulletproof it's a hot day here in California we never went over hundreds 90 degrees really so thanks thanks a lot thanks for having forests oh yeah there was a lot of fun very cool so what you got [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 651,979

Rating: 4.916853 out of 5

Keywords: Lotus, Esprit, The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore, Claudius, restomod, wedge car, Colin Chapman, V8, S1, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: VlMI9m-sn7I

Length: 22min 46sec (1366 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/gogojack]

I remember reading a review of the Lotus Esprit - can't recall the magazine or year - but I remember the line..."if you ever find yourself in unwanted proximity to law enforcement, find some corners. Nothing the police department has except a helicopter can keep up."

[u/TODO_getLife]

Love the Esprit, not too expensive either. I think they look fantastic and any shortcomings of engineering could be a fun project to improve.

[u/dragoncockles]

ive loved the esprit ever since i saw james may drive one in argentina. granted, he seemed to have found the worlds only reliable lotus, but it was still an awesome car.

[u/ShoogyBee]

Gorgeous car. Big fan of the Esprit S3 in particular.