Sport 350 #10 Sold

[spt350]

Esprit Sport 350 no.10 of 48

:: SOLD VIA PISTONHEADS ::

[oneshot]

Err

"One of 48"

It's 42, 50 or 54 depending on which figures you want to take.

42 "Proper" 350s

8 V8's made to look like 350's for USA

4 350's to Japan for track use

[kyliesmith.com]

Yip 42 real ones!!

20,000 pounds is a steal for that car. Had I known that one was going for nothing that could have been a better buy?? Anyone know it?

[Glyn Harper]

If only I had room for another car..

[spt350]

Official figures are as follows :

47 Sport 350's were produced for the UK market. This includes the prototype # 000.

Of these 47 cars, 8 are in Japan, 3 are in Switzerland, 1 is in Belgium, 1 is in Austria, 1 is in Germany & 1 is in New Zealand.

The last Sport 350 produced was #046.

There is a #50, but this was actually built 22nd on the production line and badged as # 050 as a special request.

There were 8 seperate Sport 350's made especially for the USA market, 4 black and 4 silver, but these all had the red engine covers - as opposed to our UK blue ones. Of the 8 USA models # 005

(a black model) was destroyed by fire.

The majority of UK cars are Silver in colour, but there are also 2 white ones, 3 black and 1 blue one.

Regards

Dave

[mike_sekinger]

... and the first off the Production line (after the prototype) was #002

[oneshot]

Official figures are as follows :

47 Sport 350's were produced for the UK market. This includes the prototype # 000.

Not according to the Factory build record - that shows only 46 true Sport 350's (which includes the 4 for Japan track use).

The prototype (No. 0) was in fact a converted V8 so didn't have the Sport 350 chassis. This was also the reason why the USA versions are also actually standard V8's. To use the Sport 350 chassis would have required Lotus to perform crash testing on at least 3 vehicles to comply with American saftey laws.

Crashing 3 vehicles out of a production run of around 50 is not economical so they simply used standard V8's (which already had approval) made to look like 350's

So that is 42 true road spec Sport 350's + the prototype

[Günter]

i personally know the owner of the one German sport-350. And have seen one of the Switzerland cars at JCR'08. What a happy story

i don't know exactly if one of the swiss cars is still available here in Germany. (Was advertised by Auto Salon Singen last year or so..)

[spt350]

Not according to the Factory build record - that shows only 46 true Sport 350's (which includes the 4 for Japan track use).

The prototype (No. 0) was in fact a converted V8 so didn't have the Sport 350 chassis. This was also the reason why the USA versions are also actually standard V8's. To use the Sport 350 chassis would have required Lotus to perform crash testing on at least 3 vehicles to comply with American saftey laws.

Crashing 3 vehicles out of a production run of around 50 is not economical so they simply used standard V8's (which already had approval) made to look like 350's

So that is 42 true road spec Sport 350's + the prototype

It might be a bit picky not to include the prototype as a Sport 350.

It is liveried up as a Sport 350 and I am sure that the new owner would view it as a Sport 350. If you knocked the prototype off my list of 47, you would end up with 46. My records show all the Japanese cars have build numbers that fall in with the production run of cars that make up the Sport 350 numbers.

I'll stick with my records which came direct from Lotus and have been verified by Lotus.

They provided all the build numbers, vin numbers and engine numbers.

Regards

Edited May 6, 2008 by Spt350

[oneshot]

Yep got that and it notes that number 0 is actually a converted V8 and not a true 350.

Hence my saying 42 and not 43

"We made 54 that looked like 350's but we were late in the life of Esprit and getting small scale supplies of components became our biggest bugbear. From my records there were 46 production Sport 350's, just 40 in the right colours: my records show 3 in black, two in monaco, and a single example in solo steel blue. Additionally we sent eight to the USA, but these were not 100% the genuine specification, although that should not worry owners as they are even rarer!. Incidentally Lotus Engineering converted some existing Esprit V8's to the Sport350 spec, thus the distinction between production and those hand built conversions" - Brian Angus, as quoted in Walton J, Lotus Esprit The official Story, Coterie Press, 2006

Number 0 was a Lotus Engineering conversion hence not a production car.

[kyliesmith.com]

The Japanese cars, were these the same UK spec cars? Or a step towards as being a lot more track orientated ( luxury items stripped out etc). I thought I read that somewhere.....off to dig this out.

[spt350]

The cars that went to Japan are :

12, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 & 38

The track cars were 33, 34, 35 & 37.

Edited May 6, 2008 by Spt350

[kyliesmith.com]

Ive never seen the std sports exhaust on the 350 only various aftermarket ones. So I take it thats a std Japanese 350? That exhaust looks delish !

[oneshot]

That pic doesn't have the standard Sports exhaust on it - my car has the standard Lotus supplied sports exhaust which looks very similar to the normal exhaust but has different internals (well none really!!)

[mike_sekinger]

That exhaust was produced by a Japanese tuning shop - Can

[Glyn Harper]

It's ace.. the best statement to start an argument at any Lotus gathering is to ask 'How many Sport 350's were made'?

My wife did exactly this at Oxford a couple of years ago! Bless her....

[Werner]

hi David,

i stumbeld over your 350 listing  by mere accident and although your post is way back from 2008 i wanna let you know that your research about which 350 went where is not correct. at least with car #33.  i own sport 350 #33 for the last 15 years by now.  first and previous owner was CHRIS KNIGHT managing director of lotus cars ltd. in 1999. the car was registred to him december 10. 1999. and is black metallic. 

i hope this info gives you a little helping hand in any of your further research.

take care

W.