(70's funky music) The mid-70’s were an optimistic time for
British transport. We got the Triumph TR7 and Rover SD1, the Intercity 125 took us across
the country at 125mph, and the thunderous Concorde took us over Mach 2. Britain was
proving it could still do amazing engineering. Then there was the Lotus Esprit, turning heads
with its crisp, folded lines and supercar styling. By using a tiny engine, it would
go on to have the largest power output per litre of any car. And it would clean up so
effectively in American motor racing that it was effectively banned from competition.
It’s been a Bond car, twice in its amazing 28-year long production run, and Lotus keeps
tantalising us with glimpses of what it will be in the future. This is the Lotus Esprit
Story. (music) Lotus was founded by Colin Chapman, in fact many would argue that Lotus WAS Colin Chapman.
His first hit car was the iconic Lotus Seven, launched in 1957. Chapman realised that for
cars to be fast, they had to be light, and the Seven was stripped of all weight to produce
a car that went fast even with a small engine. It’s still sold today as the Caterham Seven.
Exploiting a tax loophole, the cars were sold as “kit cars” – that is a car you build
yourself. Lotus asked the Government what constituted a “kit car”, and the answer
was two or more pieces. So they sold you a fully built car, then they sold you an engine,
and the dealer put them together. These cars were only sold to die-hard enthusiasts
who didn’t mind getting wet when it rained. Lotus wanted to move into the mainstream car
market, so produced the Lotus Elite in 1957, following it up with the Elan in 1962. This
was the first car to use Lotus’ “backbone” chassis, with a light fiberglass body for
maximum strength and minimum weight. In 1969, Tony Rudd joined Lotus from Formula
1 racing team BRM. A year later he green-lit two new car projects – the M50 and M70.
The M50 would be launched as the Lotus Elite in 1974. The M70 was to be a successor to
the awkward-looking and cramped Lotus Europa. The project got started in 1971 when Colin
Chapman met up with car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro from the italDesign studio. He’d
designed cars such as the Maserati Ghibli, Ferrari 250 GT, and Mazda Familia, but since then
has designed such diverse things as the Seiko Speedmaster and the Beretta CX4 Storm submachine
gun! By this time Lotus had won four of its seven Formula One World Championships and
wanted to move away from their kit-car image and into Ferrari supercar territory. They’d
seen Giugiaro’s Maserati Boomerang concept and were wowed by its futuristic styling.
Work began in mid-1971 with aerodynamic testing of a ¼ scale mock-up. Colin Chapman was unimpressed
with the results and cancelled the project, but Giugiaro pressed on, building a full-size
mock-up using a modified Lotus Europa chassis. The prototype, dubbed “the Silver Car”
was shown in 1972 next to the Maserati Boomerang prototype and convinced Lotus to proceed with
the car. In private, Giugiaro was already calling the car the “Esprit”.
Reaction to the car was so good the team pressed on to build a second prototype, dubbed “the
Red Car”. This would be a full running prototype, using a modified chassis from the Lotus Elan.
That backbone chassis cut right through the car, meaning the fuel tank had to be split
into two compartments. Lotus used this as a feature, and put fuel caps on either side
of the car. As they were connected with a pipe, you could fill the car from either side.
That large backbone also meant the handbrake was placed next to the driver’s door, making
entry and exit a little awkward even though the handle could be retracted.
The Esprit was launched at the Paris Motor Show in October 1975, launched early to tie
in with the launch of the Lotus Elite, and to ensure customers knew that the Esprit was
really, truly on its way despite the delays caused by Lotus’ financial issues. The mechanical
design wasn’t yet done, and it took until June the following year until it was released.
Although it looked like an exotic mid-engined supercar, that engine was only a four-cylinder
2.0L that looked like it belonged in a family saloon. If you believed Lotus’ claims, the
car had a 0-60 time of 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 138mph, but the truth was a more
humdrum 8 seconds and 124mph. For a car making such bold claims on the outside, that wasn’t
impressive. It didn’t provide the deep, throaty V8 supercar sound, and with the lack
of soundproofing that whiny four-cylinder sound was all too apparent. But it was light,
weighing in at less than 1,000kg or just over 1 US ton.
Door handles came from the Morris Marina, gearbox from the Citroen SM, rear lights from
the Fiat X1/9, door mirrors from the Citroen CX, and front suspension from the Vauxhall
Cavalier. Though the Citroen SM production ended in 1975, the gearbox was still available
until the late 1980s. Lotus was a small company and needed to borrow parts from other cars
so they could focus on what they did best – making great handling cars that went fast.
The critics loved the handling and steering but found it underpowered. The engine had
to be mounted slightly to one side which meant the weight balance wasn’t quite equal, but
car reviewers didn’t seem to notice. Maybe the weight of the driver offset it?
The interior was cramped with that large backbone chassis intruding between the driver and passenger.
Taller drivers had a challenge fitting into the car. There was little room to store much
luggage. The lack of power and refinement cost Lotus. As they pushed to move upmarket,
they couldn’t compete with the supercar big boys.
In 1977 Lotus converted the Esprit into a submarine. Well, OK, they didn’t, but James
Bond drove a tricked out white Esprit in the film “The Spy Who Loved Me” that dives
off a pier and turns into a submarine that then shoots a missile out of the roof to shoot
down an enemy helicopter. After that who wouldn’t choose an Esprit over an Aston Martin?
Lotus attempted to address some of the criticisms with the Series 2 Esprit in 1978, but it was
only a small step. The outside got few changes, although the rear taillights were now borrowed
from the Rover SD1. The interior was tweaked with a digital clock, new instrument cluster
and reworked, wider seats. Air conditioning was now an option but was a little asthmatic
for Californian tastes. The engine was tweaked, and top speed increased slightly to 130mph,
but acceleration was unchanged. After Lotus’ seventh Formula 1 constructor’s victory
in 1978 they presented Esprit’s to their two drivers - Ronnie Peterson and new Formula
1 champion Mario Andretti. Lotus realised they needed to do something
with their underpowered aluminium 2.0L engine. They’d debuted a 2.2L variant in the 1978
Lotus Talbot Sunbeam and added it to the Esprit as a stopgap measure in 1980, but it was only
when the Series 3 Esprit Turbo launched in 1981 that it created a winning package. The
2.2L engine with turbo power moved the top speed from 130mph to over 150 and 0-60 time
was a mere 6.1 seconds. The car was now officially a supercar. The car launched with a special
“Essex” edition, promoting Lotus’s Formula 1 sponsor, but soon “regular” versions
were offered to customers. And it’s not just the engine that changed.
The brakes and clutch were uprated, the interior space for passengers got just a tad better,
and the overall quality of the vehicle was increased, partly due to making the car simpler
to manufacture. That backbone chassis was modified, not just for the new suspension
but to make more space in the engine bay. What could that be for? For now Lotus wasn’t
saying. The car got a restyling with a Giugiaro designed body kit. Instead of glass over the
engine, there was now a black louvred panel to help dissipate heat.
And the new car was truly needed. Lotus was lurching from one financial crisis to another,
selling only 383 cars in 1980 partly because of the terrible exchange rate with the US
Dollar. In fact, US sales had been good in the late 1970s and the James Bond film definitely
helped, but one bad distributor after another stymied US sales.
James Bond was back in a Lotus Esprit Turbo in 1981 with “For Your Eyes Only”, although
it did little other than blow up when some bad guy tried to get into it, and Bond seemed
to spend more of his time being chased in a Citroen 2CV! For petrolheads Bond films
seemed to be losing the plot! Lotus fans got a tantalising glimpse of the
future with the Lotus Etna concept car in at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1984. The
Etna was designed to take Lotus’ new V8 engine and was 3” longer than the Esprit.
It never made it past a concept with Lotus lurching from one financial crisis to another,
although in 2006 the current owner, Olaf Glassius, managed to turn it into a drivable car.
By this time Lotus had been sold. Owners or part-owners since then have been wide and
varied: British Car Auctions, Toyota, General Motors, A.C.B.N. Holdings who also owned Bugatti,
Proton, JCB – the people who make diggers, and present owners Geely. Lotus had been passed
around more than a collection plate on Sunday. In 1986 the engine got a further small boost
with the help of fuel injection and an increase in the compression ratio. This helped in particular
with the US market where Lotus had been selling a lower powered version of the engine due
to emission restrictions. The air conditioning system got a boost to help with Californian
summers, and those seats again got a little wider and finally reclined! Lotus continued
their fashion of putting decals on the car shouting about its latest features, but it
cheapened the car somewhat by making this supercar look like an Escort XR3i hot hatch.
Car journalists loved the classic looks, but despite the performance boost it was being
beaten by less expensive cars. But thanks to new General Motors ownership, Lotus was
beavering away on another Esprit upgrade – the X180 project.
This was the first restyle of the 1975 design. That angular, folded paper shape was softened
by Peter Stevens, a designer who would go on to make the McLaren F1. It was a subtle
change, but a necessary one as the sharp lines of the original were out of fashion by the
late 80’s. The roof section could be removed and stowed, giving the car a targa top. The
fibreglass body was strengthened with a new resin injection process, and with Kevlar in
places. The underside was redesigned to allow air to cool the engine and brakes. Inside
the cockpit the heating and ventilation was improved, something sorely needed. Production
of the Citroen gearbox was likely ending, so Lotus sourced a replacement from the Renault
25. With General Motors helping to distribute
the car in the USA, sales at last bloomed, selling over 1,000 in 1988. GM’s involvement
also brought access to their suppliers, and the Bosch fuel injection was swapped out for
a superior Delco part. That, combined with intercooling on the turbo brought the output
up to 264bhp, a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds and a top speed of 160mph. This was the largest
power output per litre of any engine at that time. Who needed a V8 when this 2.2L four-cylinder
powerhouse could produce this level of performance? Italy had a high tax on engines over 2.0L,
so Lotus brought out a special 2.0L Italian variant to entice customers away from their
Ferraris. This version would eventually be extended to other countries.
1990 brought ABS for the first time, a rear spoiler, and a three-year unlimited mileage
warranty. The cynical might think that the sudden price increase around that time was
done to pay for all the warranty repairs Lotus knew they’d be making!
Although sales were healthy in the late 80’s, by the early 90’s they’d dropped again
with the onslaught of new cars like the Honda/Acura NSX. By now the Esprit was the only Lotus
being made. Lotus took it racing in the US Supercar Championship where it cleaned up,
before effectively being banned in 1993 by applying a 300lb weight penalty to the car.
A roadgoing version was sold first as the X180R, then as the Sport 300, producing enough
power to get the car to 168mph. 1993 brought another small body refresh as
the Series 4. With the addition of power steering, owners didn’t get an upper body workout
every time they drove the car. The taillights now came from the Toyota AE86, and in 1994
the engine was uprated yet again. The Lotus engineers kept finding innovative ways of
wringing more power out of their amazing tiny engine.
It took until 1996 to answer why the backbone chassis was modified sixteen years before.
Lotus finally released their Type 918 V8 engine with two turbos but no intercooler. The engine
was capable of 500bhp, but was detuned to 350bhp to prevent obliterating the gearbox!
The car now got to 60 in 4.4 seconds, with top speed of 175mph.
The car got another small restyle in 2002, using the round rear lights from the Lotus
Elise. But despite the V8 engine, the car was looking long in the tooth and sales never
took off. In the end the low supply of Renault gearboxes ended production in 2004 after 28
years and over 10,000 cars. Lotus launched an Esprit concept at the Paris
Motor show in 2010 with a 5.0L V8 engine. The car had been in the works since 2006 and
was slated for a 2014 production date. However, in 2014 Lotus cancelled the project, due to
a lack of finances. If you like these videos and want to get early
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