The Lotus Esprit Story

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
(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 access to new videos, or appear in the credits like these fine people, consider supporting me using the Patreon link below, and hit the subscribe button to get notified of new videos. Thanks for watching and see you in the next video!
Info
Channel: Big Car
Views: 234,589
Rating: 4.9007883 out of 5
Keywords: lotus esprit
Id: FwkCLYlrwt4
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)
Published: Sat Jun 15 2019
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.