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432 Hp - 3.5l Twin Turbo V8 5-speed Manual Alloy Wheels Alpine Premium Stereo on 2040-cars

US $32,000.00
Year:2000 Mileage:43192
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A SPECTACULAR example of the truly rare Lotus Esprit Twin Turbo V8. This car was purchased by me in 2006 and has been meticulously maintained. I have taken many steps to upgrade some of the shortcomings of the car to make it more reliable and truly a joy to drive.

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.

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New Lotus owners ditch ambitious five-year plan

Thu, 26 Jul 2012

This didn't take long. The new overlords at Lotus have reportedly scrapped the company's five-year plan. DRB-Hicom ditched the turnaround strategy, penned by ousted CEO Danny Bahar, because it believes the market viewed the plan as overly ambitious.
The new product plan will slim the number of new model lines from five to three, and Lotus will likely slash the number planned consultants in favor of relying more heavily on in-house talent. According to The Star, the move should help expedite product development and save cash at the same time.
Even so, nothing is written in stone as of yet. DRB-Hicom says the new plan will take up to a year to finalize. The company has dumped around $242 million into Lotus so far this year, and the struggling automaker may require another $121 million by 2013. Lotus all but stopped production earlier this year during a loan freeze, but the lights came back on in April. The company now produces around 44 vehicles per week.

Lotus could build production versions of Renault Alpine, Infiniti Emerg-E

Tue, 14 Aug 2012

As with one of those blockbuster three-team NBA trades that actually improves the fortunes of every team involved, a report in Autocar indicates that Renault, Infiniti and Lotus are in talks that could benefit both manufacturers and enthusiasts. Renault is considering a production version of the devil-in-blue Alpine A110-50 concept but has said that it "probably needs more than the Renault-Nissan Alliance on its own." Enter Lotus, whose Evora platform could supply the running bits for the mid-engined Alpine revival.
That same Evora platform, in range-extended 414E concept form, is the basis for the Infiniti Emerg-E concept. Even though a decision hasn't been made on the Emerg-E's production, it is still being developed and the company has admitted that it "could be built in Britain." For its part, Lotus has said that it's ahead of schedule on the Evora 414E, with its 408 horsepower, 738 pound-feet of torque and 30-mile electric range. Development funds from both Renault and Infiniti could help make all three cars a closer possibility.

European commission investigating F1 finances and anti-competitive accusations

Fri, Jan 9 2015

The Kingdom of Formula One reminds us of renaissance Florence - ruled by a singular chieftan behind a mask of representative involvement, rife with spectacularly convoluted machinations, awash in innovations that help define our world and far-flung, vindictive misery. If we found out Bernie Ecclestone's real last name was de Medici, well, it would explain a lot. Now after a bit of back-and-forth, the European Commission (EC) has taken aim at the kingdom, investigating whether F1 is anti-competitive and if the FIA has abused its antitrust agreement. The reason for EC scrutiny is that a British member of the European Parliament who represents an area in southwest England, Anneliese Dodds, has fielded complaints from engineering companies in her constituency that recent moves in F1 have put them out of business. She wrote to the EC to question why the FIA now has a stake in F1 when it signed an agreement in 2001 to be solely a governing body and abdicate any stakeholding in the sport. She also questioned the F1 Strategy Group, a group of the six top teams in F1 that makes decisions about the direction of the sport; she says that the Strategy Group not only appears to be a case of the F1 shirking its rule-making duty, it has resulted in unfair treatment of the small teams that aren't in the group. Dodds has a bit of a point. In 2001, the FIA sold F1's commercial rights to Ecclestone for 100 years for a sum of $313.7 million. That was done to placate European regulators who insisted that "the role of FIA will be limited to that of a sports regulator, with no commercial conflicts of interest." Although the rights are ultimately owned by the FIA and bring in a $10M fee every year from Formula One, those rights bring in $1.6 billion each year to Formula One Management (FOM), the company that owns F1. When Ecclestone was trying to get the new Concorde Agreement signed in 2013 that governs the running of the sport, the FIA wouldn't sign, saying it wanted F1 to share a larger slice of its revenue – the FIA has been losing money for years, see. To the get the FIA to sign, Ecclestone sold it a one-percent stake in F1 for $460,000 and gave the FIA a $5M signing 'bonus;' whenever F1 has its IPO, that stake is estimated to be worth about $120 million - not a bad return. Yet, according to the aforementioned 2001 agreement, the FIA can't have that equity stake.