Green Giugiaro Esprits

[GTK]

I need to scratch and itch, I've become more and more interested in green Esprits. Factory green I mean [poet], Giugiaro era and specifically S1/S2.

Photos of green S1/S2's are exceedingly rare. In fact the only one I've ever seen a picture of was on here and found by someone in a farm yard.  @Paul Coleman was it you? That car was restored white, and I can't find the thread now. Have distinct memory of it having no rear running gear and being hoisted and towed by a tractor.  That Altair green S3 that may or may not have been Chapman's car doesn't really work as a daydream muse because the S3's styling is different.

I'd love to see any pictures of S1's or S2's in any factory green. I'll post a few pics that come up on Google to get the ball rolling. They're all terrible photos, and don't flatter the colour. Some have been colour corrected too, so aren't a true representation. The final photo of an Eclat demonstrates how nice Altair can be on a '70's body.

George

 

 

 

[madmax]

I always thought Altair suited my Elite too - great colour 

[drdoom]

Hi George,

No photo to share but I well recall spotting a later GG Turbo cruising by resplendent in a deep green metallic, tint tending to the cold, bluish side. Snappy.

Cheers

[Paul Coleman]

8 hours ago, GTK said:

Photos of green S1/S2's are exceedingly rare. In fact the only one I've ever seen a picture of was on here and found by someone in a farm yard.  @Paul Coleman was it you?

No it wasn't me George it was @Matt-watts

[frb]

8 hours ago, GTK said:

 In fact the only one I've ever seen a picture of was on here and found by someone in a farm yard. That car was restored white, and I can't find the thread now. Have distinct memory of it having no rear running gear and being hoisted and towed by a tractor.

Hello George. You may have looked for the following thread  :

 

[snowrx]

Not the early G-car, but this is the Lotus A42 BRG metallic color on a Turbo for reference. I don't seem to take pics of clean cars in the sun...

[GTK]

@Paul Coleman Oh! I think I have that mag, not sure. Thanks for the steer. I've a feeling that particular green isn't a factory colour. What do you think? If it is I'd love to know the name.

@frb that's the one, thanks! 

[frb]

@GTK Anytime 🙂

AFAIK there was one domestic spec Esprit S1 in "Mint Green" (VIN 0366G) which may be the car on the cover (?) . 

[drdoom]

Thomas, that's the colour I had spotted. Very nice when clean.

Cheers

[GTK]

So the three possible greens of the early cars could be Martini [can't find a code ref], Mint L29 and Viper A05. The two colour codes come from the Esprit Registry thread here. I'm dubious about Martini even being a Lotus colour, and maybe there were only two possible greens between 1976 and 1980.

Viper seems to be Matt Watt's car colour [the farmyard car], which I would have expected to be Altair Green, but Matt's car does seem to be a slightly paler colour.

Martini Green is claimed to be the colour of KAH 530V below. The thing is, the registry above doesn't list Martini Green at all, unless I'm missing it.

Which leaves Mint Green as the possible colour of the magazine car, VYW 229S, if that is a factory paint job. The article that the photo is from was the February 1996 issue of Practical Classics, but the car hasn't been taxed since then and it's last V5 was issued in March that year. I wonder does it still exist? It was first reg'd in May 1978 so it's a late number S1. This Europa page has a colour code list that shows the Elan below in L29 Mint Green. It doesn't look at all similar in colour.

366G is listed here [but not pictured] as Mint Green and 'released' 240478. That could tally with the UK Gov data on VYW229S having been first registered in May 78. The page also lists one domestic S2, chassis 403G, and three export S2 cars 615H, 616H and 700H as being Mint Green.  

Interestingly 329G is listed simply as being metallic Green, that's Matt Watt's car. No other S1 or S2 cars are listed as having been painted any colour green at all.

It's possible we already have photos here of the only two green S1 cars that were produced, but I'm not sure because the magazine car is so different to everything else. I think it follows that the 'Martini' green KAH 530V below is actually Mint green. As there was [reportedly] only one domestic green S2, KAH 530V is likely 403G, possibly now in Australia.

The project car pictured below came up for sale a few years back. It looks close in colour to KAH 530V [given the KAH photos have long shadows and so unrealistic golden hour warm hue] and to the Elan. It's also LHD and wears a Federal style rear number plate plinth. Could it be one of the three Mint Green export cars?

Any thoughts?

 

 

[frb]

Good question regarding KAH530V.

Lotus with a number plate KAH 5XXV were usually registered by Group Lotus themselves around 1980 (there are several Elite & Eclats and also some Esprits with this series of numberplates). 403G was a super early S2 from May 1978 and would rather have been registered with a "T" or even "S" plate ?

The database is unfortunately not fully complete.  It used Lotus own factory "sales registry" book as main source and development and engineering cars (+ some regular cars ) were often not fully recorded in there. Especially on the very late S2 section many entries seem to be missing.

So KAH530V may be a late S2 ( has later style of door mirrors without chrome base and laminated rear 1/4 windows ) that simply wasn´t listed. Team Lotus briefly ran with Martini as sponsors around that time so "Martini green", at least to me, seems plausible.

It was also featured in a comparison test with a Porsche 924 in 1980 (I think "What car?" magazine).

[GTK]

The Flickr feed I found those KAH photos in had a brief description that said it was a factory demonstrator.

[Bling]

Don’t know if it helps but here are the available colours in 1986

 

 

[drdoom]

The attached link is minimally helpful but offered nonetheless.

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?make=Lotus&con=k&gncl=green&rows=50

Pistachio Green is rather well known, seen on several cars sold via Bring A Trailer in recent months. There was a very bold green seen on later Europa TC's which I believe may have been Bitter Green.

[Matt-watts]

Pictures of my S1 XPE396S taken in 1980 in its original Viper green. Notice the late s1 (now rare) front valance.

Matt

[GTK]

Speechless Matt

 

edit - 

Studying your photos @Matt-watts I noticed your car and mine had almost identical damage on the front bumper! Funny coincidence. Sorry I don't have a better pic...

 

 

[snowrx]

How green do you want to be? 

[drdoom]

Yikes!

BTW, I spotted what seems to be a complete list of paints available for early cars as I browsed my Service Parts Manual for S1 and S2 yesterday. Could take pics of the pages and post if useful.

Cheers

[yeller77]

This thread may be getting too much

[GTK]

44 minutes ago, yeller77 said:

This thread may be getting too much

Never!

I found a couple more images of one of those factory green S2's. If anyone has an Autogespot.com membership it'd be great to see the other 5 images of the car below.

17 hours ago, snowrx said:

How green do you want to be? 

 

I love green, but '70's bathroom green' wouldn't be my first choice of interior colours 

[LOTUSMAN33]

[drdoom]

Owned by someone in our community?

[frb]

There are pictures of an ex-red Esprit S3 repainted in Triumph British Racing Green on top of the following web page:

https://www.euringer.de/html/es3.html

[ChrisJ]

Very interesting website - thanks for the link

[nello]

The S3 Turbo looked great in BRG imo - Altair Green was Hazel's favourite iirc for the Elite - 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by nello