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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Lotus Esprit all but ready to go, but held back by management issues
Mon, 26 Nov 2012Brief and disappointing is this report from Autocar on the status of the Lotus Esprit: it is finally ready and sitting at the light, but the light might not go green for a long time. The good news is that from being a concept two years ago at the Paris Motor Show, the aluminum and carbon fiber revival coupe is "purportedly almost finished." It is powered by a twin-turbo, 5.0-liter V8 with something like 650 horsepower, boosted by a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and shifting through a seven-speed paddleshift transmission. Even with all that, the UK price is said to be around that of a Porsche 911 4S Cabriolet, and the car only needs "signing off and minor tweaking."
The bad news is that former company owner Proton couldn't stay independent long enough to see through the company's ambitious five-concept-car assault - led by then-CEO Dany Bahar who was hired explicitly to lead such a campaign - and was swallowed up by Malaysian auto supplier DRB-Hicom. For a brief spell Lotus had to shut down production for lack of funds. Then the new owner cleaned house, sweeping out Bahar and, according to the Financial Times just one month ago, the Esprit and every other concept with it. Just after the FT piece came out, Lotus denied the Esprit had been canceled. Still, according to Autocar, the management whirlpool is keeping the Esprit "far from becoming a production reality."
If we're honest with ourselves, we'll keep in mind that the Esprit has been slipping into and out of a terminal ether for what seems like decades. None of us knows what is going on inside Hethel HQ, but the fact that there really is a lightweight, twin-turbo, 650-hp Lotus Esprit finally ready to be produced has to be, in spite of all else, very good news.
Lotus to produce new crossover in China
Fri, May 1 2015Lotus and its parent company recently signed a joint-venture agreement with Chinese automaker Goldstar to build vehicles in China for local consumption, and according to the latest report from Autocar, it'll all come down to a new sport-ute. That's because the market for C-segment compact crossovers in China is huge. So big that it's impossible for Lotus to ignore. Porsche is reportedly selling 30,000 Macans in China alone each year, and is expected to reach 50,000 per annum there in the near future. "Six million SUVs will be sold in China this year, and more than half of those are C-segment models," Lotus chief Jean-Marc Gales told Autocar. "That figure is forecast to rise to eight million in four years. C-segment SUV sales alone will be bigger than the entire German market." Little wonder, then, that Lotus and Proton are keen to dive in. Technical details for the new Lotus crossover are still being worked out, but we'll likely be looking at a steel monocoque chassis clad in composite and aluminum body panels, riding lower than a Macan and weighing a good 400-500 pounds less. Power will likely come (at least initially) from the same 1.8-liter four and 3.5-liter V6 that power Lotus' sports cars, but driving all four wheels. A hybrid system could follow, and the finished product is likely to adopt a nameplate starting with the letter E – in the grand tradition of the Elise, Exige, Evora, Esprit, Europa, Elan, et al. According to Gales, "Our car will drive beautifully. It will be supple and comfortable but the emphasis will be on handling. It will be the lightest and fastest of its class on the track." This would be the first crossover Lotus would design, engineer and actually bring to market, but not, strictly speaking, the first time it has toyed with the idea. There was the APX concept (pictured here) it showcased in 2006 and the T5 that Proton essentially licensed Chinese automaker Youngman to build with Lotus' name on it. But the former was never put into production and the latter wasn't a proper Lotus. The design is currently being worked out before a prototype can be put together so that the joint venture can get the manufacturing license it needs from the Chinese government. So we're likely looking at another year or two before we see something solid. "Let's get the design right, then make a prototype," said Gales. "Let's make it beautiful and very light.
Lotus pumps Exige up to 430 horsepower
Thu, Nov 9 2017It seems that every few months or so Lotus has yet another lighter, faster version of one of its cars, usually with an emphasis on the lighter part. This time, the latest, fastest Lotus gets a big bump in power. It's the Lotus Exige Cup 430, and it shares its supercharged V6 with the recently launched Evora GT430. That means it makes 430 horsepower, an impressive 55 more than the 375-horsepower Exige Cup 380. It also produces 325 pound-feet of torque. That engine is impressive enough in the Evora GT430, but it becomes pretty breathtaking in the Exige, which weighs about 2,410 pounds. Though that's slightly heavier than the Cup 380, the overall power-to-weight ratio has improved, and Lotus says the 430 can fly to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds from a standstill. It also boasts a higher top speed than the 380, at 180 mph, which is 5 mph more than the 380. Perhaps more impressive is the fact the Exige Cup 430 is the fastest road car Lotus has tested at its Hethel race track, beating the track-oriented 3-Eleven road car by 1.2 seconds. Among the other interesting features of the Exige Cup 430 are the three-way adjustable shocks as well as adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars. More of the car's total downforce, 45 percent to be precise, acts on the front now, compared with 36 percent on the Cup 380. Four-piston brake calipers are used at each corner. It also comes with a number of weight-saving features as standard, including the lithium-ion battery and titanium exhaust. It can also be optioned to be a legitimate race car with an FIA-legal roll bar and airbag delete. But just the stock car isn't cheap. It has three different price tags depending on whether you purchase it in the U.K., Germany, or France. But the cheapest price in dollars comes from the U.K. where it retails for GBP99,800, or just shy of $131,000 at current exchange rates. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus Exige Cup 430 View 9 Photos Image Credit: Lotus Lotus Coupe Lightweight Vehicles Performance