Lotus Esprit Dry Sump Turbo Active Suspension / Essex Pre Production

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ONE OF ONE !!! DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Lotus Esprit Dry Sump Turbo

This car is not only the Only Active Suspension Esprit built it is also the 001 pre-production Essex Car.

With only 34 production Essex Esprit command £100k plus. This car is great value with the provenance of being a pre production car and the active suspension car.

The history of this car as follows:

The car started of as a pre production Essex Esprit and was loaned to the Delorean Motor company. When the car returned to Lotus it was then developed by Lotus engineering to become the Active suspension Esprit development car for active suspension development for formula one. Only one previous owner in the log book which is Team Lotus International Ltd. Lotus were at the forefront of Active suspension for along time.

I have numerous different articles with the car including magazine articles of the car being driven and developed by Nigel Mansell.  Please also search the internet for active suspension lotus esprit and you will see a 1983 Top Gear Video of the car present by John Miles.

So what happened after the car stopped being used and developed? Like a lot of things at Lotus the history was not deemed important (at the time). The car was left behind a hangar at Lotus and destined for the crusher. Fortunately, a former employee couldn’t bring himself to crush the car so kept hiding it and get getting his knuckles wrapped for doing so. Eventually Lotus senior management changed ( I’m lead to believe when Proton got involved) and they tidied the car up and put it on display. Miraculously with just the fuel lines changed, new battery and fresh fuel and the car spluttered into life. The car then spent the rest of its day on display at Lotus. As we all know bad times hit Lotus again and the firm had to raise money. I bought the car with the view to add it to a collection of Lotus cars I had bought. I had good intentions of displaying the car at events along with other cars I own and perhaps in the future even displaying the car in ‘museum’ type scenario.

Life as it often does, got in the way of this and my direction of collecting and using cars has changed. For this reason, the car is up for sale. I sincerely hope that the car goes to a keen enthusiast who is going to show and display this wonderful piece of automotive history.

A certificate of provenance, covering letter, market spec sheet and log book are all with the car.

I have photos of the car when it was rescued from behind the hangar at Lotus with the milometer only reading 7567 miles. Where are you going to find another esprit with these miles. How much would it command ? Sadly, the instruments cluster was stolen while the car was at Lotus but I have acquired another set. The interior could do with recolonising and new carpets. The car needs to be recommissioned. The paint is good with a few areas of titivation needed. The graphics are original and painted on not stickers.

If you have any question about the car, then please call Stuart on 07866 763635. I love talking about car and I am very fond of Lotus and its heritage.

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