So how many were made S3 and in my colour

[wayneb911]

So how do i find out. Ordered a build spec from Lotus just for the file but will this tell me how many S3 were made and also how many were made in Gold as i have not seen any befor?

[Bibs]

You never will. You'll get a certificate of provenance from Lotus, not your build book and no-one at the factory will go through the archive counting how many of each colour were made I'm afraid, too much hard work. If you want to know how many S3's were built, there's a guide on LEW.

[wayneb911]

Thats a shame! Wonder if they will let me go through the archive when im there next. Will give them extra discounts!! ha ha!! Reality check.. urggh... NO!

[Bibs]

Honestly, there are build books from every car Lotus ever made in there up to a point, it really would be too much work! I reckon there were 8 gold ones, does that help

[wayneb911]

Ye that helps but does that make mine rare at all

[Bibs]

In 28 years of production, only 10,675 cars were built, they're all rare. There's less than half of that left no doubt and very few of them are gold. How many Esprit's have you seen on the road, let alone gold ones?

[matk]

It's not just how many were made, but how many are still on the road? There's a gold turbo on LEW:

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EOwners/JWorthington.html

[wayneb911]

Bibs

I see what your saying and ye i cant remember the last time i actually saw one on the road. So like you say they are getting rarer as time goes by.

[red vtec]

As Bibs said there all rare, but suprisingly there are at least 15 round this local area

I know of:

Rayleigh

V8

S3

Highwing

SE

Your S3

Southend

GT3

V8

S3 Turbo

Wickford

Late V8

Woodham

GT3

Whitham

S3 HC

And Mine

then a bit further out

Dealers at Great Dunmow has

Highwing

X180

S2

Then there are a few more in Herts who are on here, Dave Freeman, Lemoncurd etc

I really like the Gold colour really suits the car.

[Advantage]

Jeremy Walton's book claims 767 S3s were built between '81 and end of production in '87.

1981 - 144

1982 - 160

1983 - 84

1984 - 104

1985 - 127

1986 - 72

1987 - 76

[wayneb911]

Thanks all

Also Chris do you know the owner of the S3 in Rayleigh. Would love to meet up view tha car. Supprising i have never seen any in Rayleigh. I bet i do now that i have one. That happened with the 911. I guess you start to notice them more.

[Bibs]

Wayne - Treat yourself to this...

http://www.thelotusforums.com/shop/coterie...ial-story-.html

You'll learn a lot about your car.

[wayneb911]

Just emailed a Christmas request to my partner!!

[Loose Cannon]

Wayne

For the record I have been trawling the Autotrader mag for as long as I can recall, and their website since the late 90s, every week bar none except holidays. Tragic, yes I know.

In that time I have seen one gold S3 for sale in 2002. I should really have had it myself; spoke to the owner who seemed nice, it was OK cosmetically but not mint, there was not the support of anything like this forum at the time, and I passed.

Gold was very common on the 70s S2s as it was the factory press car colour which spawned a lot of lookalikes. However the only other 80s S3 I have seen apart from the above and yours was in a Lotus brochure (who knows, could have been one of those two).

I know getting another Esprit back on the road is the main thing, and colour is not important, but seriously the amount of G cars which are going over to "Bond white" is a little bit.........