432 Hp - 3.5l Twin Turbo V8 5-speed Manual Alloy Wheels Alpine Premium Stereo on 2040-cars
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No Reserve Lot's of people describe their car as "The One", but I'll let you read the description of this particular car, and you be the judge. One of the most disappointing features of the Esprit was the stock, ugly GM steering wheel that was basically the same as the Saturn cars, but with the Lotus emblem. Many people switch the wheel out to a Momo wheel, but give up the safety of the airbag. I, instead, had a RAID race steering wheel installed with integrated airbag. This required a custom adapter, but the satin aluminum wheel perfectly matches the aluminum accents on the dash panel and shifter knob. This is the wheel that should have been in the car from the beginning. Another disappointment was the meager 350 horsepower of a car that was supposed to compete with exotics like Ferrari and Lamborghini. Taking into account the standard 15% loss from the crank horsepower to the rear wheel horsepower, the typical V8 Esprit puts out 297.5 horses to the pavement. To remedy this, we did the following: 1: Switch to high flow K&N air filters 2. Switch to high flow catalytic converters 3. Install the high performance computer chip. This resulted in rear wheel HP of 367.8 which translates to 432 Horsepower at the crank. This is a vast improvement over the stock performance, and truly brings the car closer to "supercar" performance. Please see the attached Dyno run done in 2008. Since then, we have installed 9 lb. waste-gate valves and changed to forged pistons. The Esprit ships from the factory with weaker cast pistons, and is prone to melting form high turbo boost. This is one of the reasons the car is sadly de-tuned to lower horsepower. My goal was to restore the power the car was capable of, while making it a completely reliable daily driver. The forged pistons are a must-do upgrade to these motors. Another design flaw of these cars is the inadequate radiator which causes them to over heat in warm climates. I live in Las vegas where the temperature regularly gets up to 115 degrees. I installed a 4 core aluminum radiator, and have never had an overheating issue. In addition to the upgrades to improve the car and make it a reliable daily driver, i made these maintenance and repairs: Replaced oil cooler lines Replace gear box mounts Replace clutch assembly Replace pinion and release bearings Replace oil temp sensor Re-weld exhaust Replace motor mounts Replace shifter knob Service and evacuate Air Conditioning Replace stock horn with Italian air horn Replace carpet mats Replace timing belts and adjust Replace rear crank seal Replace low press oil switch Replace both exhaust valves I also replaced most of the light bulbs with low-current LEDs. The dash gauges were replaced with a brilliant white LED set which looks very contemporary. The headlights were switched to european CBIE lights which are brighter and shine farther. I also had the alloy wheels re-powdercoated so they look like new. The tires have good tread on them. Includes the removable body color sunroof panel. Now in the full disclosure department, the drivers seat shows some wear on the left bolster. There is a scratch on the left rear fender which was there when I bought it, and didn't bother me. The edges of the doors could use some touch up paint, and there are the standard small rock chips on the front bumper. Standing 6 feet from the car, you don't see any of this, the pearl yellow paint is simply stunning in the sunlight. You will probably want to replace the front rotors with the next brake job. The AC blows ice cold, the CD stereo sounds real good, and as far as engine sound, everyone always remarks this is the best sounding Esprit they have heard. The high flow cats and straight pipes sound amazing! I have taken great care of this car and hate to sell it, but I have just too many cars and this is the next one that has to go. I am offering the car for sale locally and reserve the right to end the auction early if it sells locally. Buyer must Paypal a $1000 deposit within 24 hours of auction close, and the balance within 5 days by cash or cashiers check. Private message me here if you would like to arrange an inspection here in Las Vegas. Buyer is responsible for shipping and transportation. Note: So I see once I listed this, the ebay carfax is putting up an exclamation point regarding the mileage. Apparently the company who auctioned it in 2006, said that the actual miles were not known, probably an error since there is nothing to indicate that the mileage is incorrect. Nevada then must have put "not actual mileage"on the title because of the auction people. If you look at the history of the miles, there is nothing out of the ordinary for a rarely driven exotic, and certainly no contradictions in the mileage. I've worked on the car enough to know that the mileage is in fact, accurate. I don't know why the auction house said that. Maybe they weren't smart enough to turn the key "on" to make the LCD odometer display the miles. |
Lotus Esprit for Sale
1993 lotus esprit with v8 body upgrades
1988 lotus espirit turbo, no reserve, only 38000 miles, one owner
1977 lotus esprit project car
432 hp - 3.5l twin turbo v8 5-speed manual alloy wheels alpine premium stereo(US $38,000.00)
2001 lotus esprit v8 coupe 2-door 3.5l twin turbo(US $25,000.00)
1990 lotus esprit turbo s.e.
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Lotus drops Renault for Mercedes F1 engines
Tue, 08 Jul 2014With only three manufacturers supplying engines in Formula One this season, the teams have been fairly evenly split: Ferrari, Sauber and Marussia use Ferrari engines; Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Force India run on Mercedes power; Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham employ Renault power units. But one important team is reportedly preparing to ditch Renault and switch to Mercedes for next year.
That team is Lotus, an outfit which has fallen off its pace the past few seasons but which has still been a vital partner for Renault. That's because until a few seasons ago, the team based in Enstone, UK, was owned by Renault and bore the company's name. The operation was founded in 1981 as Toleman, was rechristened Benetton in 1986, bought by Renault 2000, taking the company's name in 2002, sold to its current owners Genii Capital 2009 and adopting the black and gold Lotus livery in 2011. As Benetton, it ran Ford engines until switching to Renault in 1995, sticking with the French outfit ever since, but that decades-long partnership - which meandered through Renault ownership and back out again - is now apparently drawing to a close.
The departure of Lotus as a customer team ought to allow Renault to focus instead on its increasing ties with Red Bull, which has taken the Enstone team's place as Renault's principal team. It could prove a smart move for the Lotus team as well, as the Mercedes engines have been outperforming the Renault units this season by an order of magnitude: not only is Mercedes far outpacing Red Bull at the top of the standings, but each of Mercedes' customer teams is performing better than Renault's clients.
Lotus chief promises upcoming SUV will be true to brand
Tue, Jul 7 2015Lotus isn't the first sports car manufacturer getting into the crossover game. It's just the latest, and perhaps most surprising. That's because the British automaker made its name by keeping things as light as possible, and SUVs are anything but. Still, the company's chief executive is adamant that the crossover will be very light... and very Lotus. Speaking with TopGear.com, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales asserted, "If Colin Chapman was alive I believe he would have done" a crossover. That's a pretty bold claim made in the name of the man known for his featherweight sports and racing cars, but Gales may not just be blowing hot air. "It will be the size of a Porsche Macan but only 1600kg, and will be the most agile and fastest of that class on a track," Gales told TG. "It's logical for us to make one in the Macan segment - the rest are all two tons, even a BMW X3. They take a normal car platform with big tires and brakes and transmission. We will use a four-cylinder engine." Keeping it light will be a vital part of the equation for Lotus, but it won't be all. It'll also have to bring up the quality, because quirks that owners might forgive in a sports car might not be tolerated to the same extent in a more mainstream product. Fortunately, Gales has been working on that ever since he took charge of the company just last year. He'll have that much more time to get it right by the time the crossover hits the Chinese market in 2019 or 2020. The vehicle is being designed principally for that market, and will be built locally. The design and engineering work is being carried out, however, at the company's headquarters in Hethel, England. Two designs are reportedly being considered, each with signature Lotus design traits to convey the image of light weight, with a profile reminiscent of the Elite four-seater from the 1970s. If the model proves a success in China, it could make its way back to the UK and Europe, though North American availability remains a question mark, and Lotus spokespeople have been cagey at best about plans to expand their US offerings. Gales also told TG that the crossover will end up only helping the company's sports car offerings, not hurting them. Increasing its quality will be one part, but developing more robust components (like air conditioning systems) will be another. At very least, it will help Lotus stay profitable and fund future sports car projects that may not be possible based on their own revenues alone.
2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]
Mon, May 25 2015Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.