1990 Lotus Esprit Turbo Se Coupe 2-door 2.2l, Tan Inteior, 36,000 Miles on 2040-cars
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
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Up for auction is my pride and joy, my 1990 Lotus Esprit SE Turbo. I obtained this car back in April of 2006 and have taken the utmost care of it since. I am the 4th owner of it, with two of the previous owners only having it for a year or so. It was originally spent most of its life in Las Vegas and then was sold to Chicago. My guess is that it has seen no snow, and probably only a few times in the rain.
I have a complete website that has been dedicated to the car located at http://www.shadeone.com. It has all of the maintenance records as well as more pictures than you could ever want to see of the car. The car has 36,000 miles on it and probably the most detailed and well maintained records of maintenance of any Esprit you will ever find. I have every single receipt for anything that was done to this car since the day it rolled off of the assembly line. Lotus themselves have even stated that this car was used as the showcar at the L.A. Auto Show in 1990. The maintenance records are all online and viewable at http://www.shadeone.com/maintenance.html The car is painted in Calypso Red with a tan leather interior. The dash fascia has been replaced with a carbon fiber one by one of the previous owners. The only other modifications to this car are some tinted lenses for a more custom look, which you can find pictures of on my website in the modifications section. I have never added any sort of performance modifications of any sort, nor have I tracked or raced this car at any point. The most recent work done to the car in late 2012 was pretty much the equivelant of a C-service, and if you know anything about the different maintenance schedules Lotus has, this is the big one that involves taking the engine half apart. This particular time the work done was as follows: Shimmed valve clearances, replaced cracked tappet, installed 104 intake pulley, replaced timing belt and set tension, installed 3 new V-belts, adjusted throttle cable, drained and refreshed coolant/antifreeze, replaced 2 exhaust manifold studs, installed 1 exhaust lock plate. Im gonna name drop here and mention that this work was done by nationwide renowned Lotus experts Tim Engel and Dave Cammack. If you go on any of the Lotus message boards or groups around the internet, you will quickly find out how great they are with these cars. This car is insanely quick and insanely responsive. This car is rust free. I have always stored it in a garage with a tarp covering teh cement floor because Lye can come up through cement and start to rust things, especially in the climate changes that Minnesota goes through here. I will post some pictures below of the underside area so you can see how good of condition it is in. (kind of dirty but a pressure wash should clean all that up). The car is started every single month to keep the fluids flowing and the gaskets nice and fresh. I havent had much time to drive it these past two years but the times I did, I made sure to get it out on the open highway for a good clean out of the gunk! I will also provide the winning bidder with both the complete Lotus Esprit SE technical manual as well as the parts manual, printed versions in very very thick three ring binder. The reason I am selling is that I need to pay off a bunch of debt, get married and get out of this tiny apartment I am living in! Life is taking over and I wish I could keep this car, but like they always say, my loss is your gain! In terms of stuff that needs to be done still: - Needs new brake pads. The current ones make the brakes vibrate under heavy braking. - Needs new shocks. The ride on this car is bumpy as heck in the first place being that its a Lotus but I dont think the shocks have ever been touched on this car. I never addressed it because I had a custom set that I was going to install that was going to be part of a much larger custom suspension and wheel.tire project. - The gas gauge is a little jumpy and cant really be trusted while driving but I guess this is normal for these cars. Just keep it full! - The turbo boost gauge stoppe dworking last year for some reason, but rest assured it gets PLENTY of boost! - The shifter is probably going to need a rebuild kit at some point. Going from 2nd to1st in a downshift while the car is moving has to be very precise or else it sometimes grinds the gears. You have to be very deliberate when shifting. The rebuild kits are about $100. - The rear side marker lens on the passenger side is slightly loose. It wont fall out or anything and I came up with a genius method of securing it but you perfectionists might want this to be correct. - Needs new wiper blade. I never drove this car in the rain so I never addressed this at all. - The dash binnacle with the gauges needs one more bolt to be rattle free. I will provide details on this to the buyer, its nothing major. - The material lining the removable roof panel is sagging and has separated from the panel except for the stitching around the edge holding it on. It doesnt touch your head while driving and should be a quick/cheap fix. - Air conditioning needs a charge. I just drove this with the windows down all the time. The sound of the engine and turbo is way better than a silent cabin. - The door lock linkage on the driver side is off somehow and wont lock. - The little panels that fit inside the rear quarter windows need a new set of screws to secure them in place. - The passenger side tailgate strut doesnt do the "lock" thing when you lift it, so its going to need to be replaced if you dont like the idea of all the tailgate weight resting on just one strut side. - There are a couple panels on the driver side that have faded more to pink than the rest of the car. Lotus had problems with panels painted at different times evidently and this particular Calypso Red was known to be prone to sun fading. It isnt directly noticable on this car unless you are looking for it, but once again, the perfectionist might want to have this either resprayed in the faded areas or else I was told that a proper wetsand might be able to take the faded paint down enough to get to the levels of the darker red. I will attach a picture to this auction so you can see the slight color difference. It is really only noticeable in garage lighting and not outside. - There are some REALLY tiny areas of imperfection in the leather near the shifter. See pic below. - There is a small area behind the passenger seat where the carpet is coming up from the weatherstripping area. Once again, see pic below. The fine print: - Dont bid unless you have every intention of purchasing this car. There is no reserve so if you put a bid in, it will be a bid to purchase. I dont screw around with tire kickers and joyriders. - Winning bidder to provide a NON-REFUNDABLE $500 deposit within 48 hours of auction end. Read that again, NON REFUNDABLE... If you dont have $500 to put down towards the car, you probably shouldnt be bidding on it in the first place. - I have been on ebay since the late 90s and have seen every single scam out there so dont email me about how you want to buy this car for your friend in Afghanistan and he will send the money to me next week. I will report all scammers and pray to god that you get caught and Bubba has fun with you in prison. - NO TRADES. I am not looking for another car and I sure as heck dont want your 80s Oldsmobile Cutlass as down payment. Unless you have a Lamborghini Diablo you just dont seem to need any more or something, dont even waste my time. - NO NEGOTIATIONS. The starting price on here is the lowest I am willing to go, period. I need to get this car sold and I am already taking a HUGE hit by listing it this low. Dont lowball me and try to get some deal out of this. This is already the deal of the century! ;) - Winning bidder to arrange all shipping. I will not do the legwork and get shipping quotes for you or anything. I can provide you with the dimensions and weight of the car but in terms of getting the car to you, that is about as far as I go and it is your job to figure out how to get it. Thanks and good luck! And now, for some pictures. These were taken a while back but the car still looks exactly like this with the exception of the lens tinting I mentioned earlier. TONS more can be seen on my site. As I mentioned before, this pic shows the color differences in the faded panels, It was hard to even photograph: Also note that ebay wont recognize the VIN number for some stupid reason so here it is. I guarantee that this is a problem free title, feel free to run a carfax: |
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Auto blog
In hindsight, Musk wouldn't use Lotus for Tesla Roadster
Thu, May 15 2014The world will be a different place after Elon Musk builds a time traveling device (don't ask us how we know that will happen). For one thing, the Tesla Roadster of the rewritten future will not have been built using the chassis of the Lotus Elise. Also, verb tenses will be becoming even more confusing and, possibly, awkward. "We ended up changing most of the damn car" – Elon Musk We know about the not-using-the-Lotus thing because the Tesla Motors CEO said as much yesterday at the World Energy Innovation Forum at the Tesla Factory in Fremont. The two-day event, which also offers Model S test rides and a factory tour for attendees, featured a fireside chat with the electric automaker's CEO and Ira Ehrenpreis. During the discussion, Musk revealed that if he had to do it over again, he would have built the Roadster from the ground up instead of using the Lotus Elise chassis. "We ended up changing most of the damn car, so we thought later, why did we do that," he said. Another problem with the original idea for the car was the drivetrain. At first, Tesla had meant to use the motor and other propulsive bits from AC Propulsion, only to find that powertrain didn't work well in a commercial application. Instead Tesla only licensed the reductive charging patent, which allowed some integration of the inverter and charger. Besides knocking Tesla's own early efforts, the outspoken entrepreneur took a couple swings at other technologies with quotable quotes such as: "The internal combustion engine is a ridiculous thing!" and "Current lithium ion technology is better than theoretical fuel cell limits. So, game over. Why bother with fuel cells?" Looks like there are some things Musk is not interested in going back in time and changing.
James Bond Lotus Esprit submarine car headed to auction [w/video]
Fri, 28 Jun 2013We've covered many cars from the movies and TV that have made their way to auction (the original Batmobile, good old General Lee and even Bond's iconic Aston Martin DB5), but this one ranks up there among the rarest and coolest. RM Auctions has just announced that the Lotus Esprit submarine car used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me has been added to the docket for its upcoming auction in London, September 8-9.
Of course, there are dozens of Bond cars floating around out there in collections, but none as unique as this Lotus, which ended a chase scene in the movie by taking a long walk off a short pier and transforming itself into a submersible. Since CGI was a meaningless collection of letters back then, the producers of the film actually built a fully functional Lotus Esprit submarine for the shoot. They hired Perry Oceangraphic in Florida to turn one of their six Esprit body shells into a fully functioning submarine, and former US Navy Seal Don Griffin was tapped for piloting duties. RM Auctions claims the Esprit submarine cost over $100,000 to build at the time, which is about $400,000 in today's dollars.
The submarine car comes with a incredible story, too. After filming in the '70s, it was shipped to Long Island, NY where it was kept in a storage unit that was paid in advance for ten years. When the storage contract ended in 1989 and no one claimed the contents, they were sold off in a blind auction to an area couple who had no idea what they were getting. The car has been shown occasionally in the years since, but its value remained purely speculative, until now. To date, the most valuable Bond car we know of is the original Aston Martin DB5 used in Goldfinger and Thunderball that sold for $4.6 million in 2010, but when the gavel falls at RM Auctions' London sale in September, we'll find out if the car nicknamed "Wet Nellie" on set can beat it.
Lotus won't launch a 3-Eleven successor until it overhauls its range
Tue, Apr 7 2020Lotus has received an enthusiastic response to limited-edition models like the 3-Eleven. It's open to the idea of making similar cars, but Autoblog learned fans shouldn't expect to see one until it has overhauled its range. "There is room for it, but we have so many things to do that we're already committed to. Getting a new product range out there is the priority," Matt Windle, the firm's engineering boss, told us during an interview. The decision to wait is a wise one, because Lotus has a lot on its plate for a small company. It's putting the final touches on the electric, 2,000-horsepower Evija, it's allegedly working on a new Esprit with hybrid power, and unverified rumors sketch the outline of an SUV pegged in the same segment as the Porsche Macan. On the other hand, the global market's appetite for few-off models is healthy. Bentley had no trouble selling 12 examples of the Bacalar, for example, and even Aston Martin wants a piece of the pie. This trend isn't lost on Lotus; it knows it's in a unique position to capitalize on it. It competes at a lower price point than most other companies making limited-edition cars, and its "light is right" motto is still revered in enthusiast circles. While its car-building division is busier than ever, its engineering arm has the bandwidth to work on special projects. "Lotus Engineering, the consultancy side of the business, is going strong as well. We've been talking about bespoke programs with other companies. That's one way we could deal with that, and it would take it away from the main product development teams. Nothing is confirmed yet, but there are a lot of discussions going on," Windle revealed without giving too much away. Lotus has been there before. It notably helped John Z. DeLorean bring the DMC-12 to the market, and it transformed the Opel Omega into the fastest sedan in the world. Some of our geekier readers will remember the "handling by Lotus" emblems on the Isuzu Impulse. It has worked on several General Motors engines, too, including the EcoTec unit that once powered several Saab, Saturn, Chevrolet, and Pontiac models. The next limited-edition Lotus will have big shoes to fill whenever it arrives. The aforementioned 3-Eleven stood proud as the fastest street-legal Lotus when it made its debut in 2015, and the 430 variant (pictured) launched in 2018 put an even greater focus on performance.