People's reaction to the Esprit - what's yours?

[swindon_alan]

You are ace Filip. Flying that best of British motor vehicle design, style and engineering Union Jack every day in Belgium.

Your daily drive puts so many to shame in its country of origin sir.

[Barrykearley]

7 hours ago, swindon_alan said:

You are ace Filip. Flying that best of British motor vehicle design, style and engineering Union Jack every day in Belgium.

Your daily drive puts so many to shame in its country of origin sir.

Yeah and flashing at MILFs 👏

[williamtherebel]

I haven't even had a proper drive in my Esprit S1 yet, but I've had 2 lads on bikes come onto the drive asking questions, the next door neighbour taking photos and various delivery guys coming into the garage asking questions, taking photos etc. Its no wonder I haven't got it on the road yet!! All my time is spent answering questions!

I do get a buzz in my Eclat when I see kids looking at the car, then jaws drop when I pop the headlights. In my 20 odd years of Lotus ownership I have only ever had one negative reaction and that was from a group of drunks. Not bad in a town (Blackpool) where drunk stag and hen parties are a normal part of life.(which is a shame).

[drdoom]

Early Esprit, as a whole, are works of timeless art. What else need be said?

Great to hear all these accounts of appreciation, in any case!

[Jacques]

Just had a elderly Porsche 928 guy driving his 928 stop me on my bicycle earlier this evening on a pitch black back road, asking me: " Well arn't you the guy with a red Lotus Esprit?

"yes".

"well, you are so Lucky. It's so much nicer than my 928".

"Thanks".

Kind regards,

Jacques

[Escape]

Last Saturday I couldn't drive my Esprit, as we were away for the weekend in Dublin. Not wanting to drive around in a typical rental eurobox, I got a Morgan 4/4 to tour the Wicklow mountains. A nice and engaging car and certainly fun on the twisty roads. 2 years ago we toured the same area with the Esprit, and that was another level still.

What I didn't expect, was the amount of reactions, all positive of course, that we got. Either parked or on the road, people where pulling over, taking pictures, wanting to have a chat... It was a pity the owner didn't provide business cards to pass on, would have been good advertising! I do appreciate the fact he kept the car clean, so no big company stickers or such.

I'm used to some attention in the Esprit, being talked to at petrol stations etc. But this was a completely different level! I had no idea a Morgan was considered so special. While certainly not an every day sight, a Lotus and certainly an Esprit is a much rarer sight. Maybe because the Morgan has a more vintage look?

Very enjoyable experience, definitely worth the money!

Filip

[GTK]

 

No mate a Morgan in Ireland in the public eye wouldn't be any less rare a sight, and I say that knowing that a neighbour not 100m away has one. I never see it. It's a much less rare car, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's more visible.

 

[Giniw]

Just had a honk/thumb up from a guy on a motorbike :)

[march]

Just had  a delivery driver ask me if my Esprit was a Toyota 🙄. After a  suitable response I was asked if it was the James Bond car which I suppose is sort of close enough, anyway I think he liked it 🤔.

[Giniw]

5 minutes ago, march said:

I was asked if it was the James Bond car

Maybe he was referring to the 2CV?

[march]

7 minutes ago, march said:

Just had  a delivery driver ask me if my Esprit was a Toyota 🙄. After a  suitable response I was asked if it was the James Bond car which I suppose is sort of close enough, anyway I think he liked it 🤔.

His next question was 'Does it go?' so may be he does know something about V8 Esprit's 🤪

[Barrykearley]

You can tell him confidently that a v8 Esprit has driven many to the edge of dispair

[oneshot]

Drove through a Sainsbury's car park yesterday (long story) in Thetford and a guy stood there and as I went past said "Nice" in an appreciative voice.

[hedgerley]

Pulled into the drive last night as a bunch of schoolkids wandered by. Eldest no more than 10 probably. The usual schoolboy questions then one of the lads started asking about the engine. Is it the V8 he asks, so that'll be the 3.5 he says. It's got twin Garrett turbos hasn't it? I'll bet I could drive it. I doubt it very much says I. Well, he says, I had no problems with the Lamborghini Gallardo manual the other week, so I doubt I'd have a problem with this. 9 years old. 😲 Out of the mouths of babes......

[C8RKH]

54 minutes ago, hedgerley said:

Pulled into the drive last night as a bunch of schoolkids wandered by. Eldest no more than 10 probably. The usual schoolboy questions then one of the lads started asking about the engine. Is it the V8 he asks, so that'll be the 3.5 he says. It's got twin Garrett turbos hasn't it? I'll bet I could drive it. I doubt it very much says I. Well, he says, I had no problems with the Lamborghini Gallardo manual the other week, so I doubt I'd have a problem with this. 9 years old. 😲 Out of the mouths of babes......

Knockhill do a "kids" supercar driving experience that includes a Ferrari, Lambo et al. Maybe it was at that?

[Chillidoggy]

Or maybe he'd nicked it?

[hedgerley]

So, another young whippersnapper this morning, at the cash and carry (Esprit is a delivery truck for our cafe at weekends.....) Car fanatic 7 year old and his dad (just bought an M4). Knew what it was, performance and the BHP. Knew there was a 4-cylinder before it. Knew it was the Bond car, asked to see the pop up headlights etc. etc. Had never seen one in real life. Was completely in awe. Then he has a sit in it, oh is that the fly-off hand brake? Did I say he was 7?

But then I had him - hands on the steering wheel and reaching round, he asks me where the gears are, it's got no gears he says! Ah says I, no flappy paddles about when this was made. Harrumph he says, and walks off. 7 years old. Bloody know it all.........

[DanR]

Got into a "spirited" drive on a winding uphill road with Ducati and Honda superbikes behind. I was able to leave them no doubt because of the tightness of the bends. When the road opened up they passed me with the thumbs up signs from both. That was nice.

[semi42]

Another topic in another thread prompted this memory from about about  12 years ago when I hadn't long had my S2

I had learned that the light switches were also used on TR7s and flicking through the local green or yellow free Ads paper, noticed someone local was breaking  TR7s.

Phoned him up one evening and mentioned I was interested in the switches

"which ones"?

"well any really, I know they can be dismantled and the bits inside cleaned and swapped about but its the headlamp switch i`m after mainly , but anything will do"

"Hmm, im sure I`ll have something, I got a couple of the centre consoles with a few of the switches mounted in it"

"sounds good, How much do you want for one of the console panels"?

"Err...What Mk TR7 do you have"?

"well heres the thing , its not for a TR7,  Ive not long bought a Lotus Esprit and they use the same Lucas switchgear so I`m needing a headlamp switch for it and any other switches will come in handy for spares"

"F*ck off and don't ring me back"

speechless

, still to this day I don't understand why the reaction

 

 

 

[Giniw]

Maybe he wanted to keep the switches in the TR7 family?

But still a weird reaction, indeed!

 

(or maybe he lost control of his car and ended up wrapped around a tree after trying to chase an Esprit?)

[Escape]

Strange reaction indeed. Maybe he had bad experiences with people buying parts and then complaining about fitting them without doing proper research first? Probably more likely he was jealous of the Esprit. 😉

I got some very positive reactions on my SE on our recent trip to Wales. The personal plates seem to attract attention as well. The receptionist at our first B&B wanted to quit her job right there and then and come with me. Even though I pointed out it's a 2-seater and I was with my girlfriend. 😁 Quite a pretty lass I might add.

Another guy in a parking lot came over to tell me what a beast the Esprit was. He had worked at Lotus and obviously had found memories of the cars. Even the French border control gave me a nod of approval when waving us through.

All in all a very enjoyable 1000 mile trip, with the twisty Welsh mountain roads making up for the queues on the M25. 

Filip

[williamtherebel]

Pulled up behind a lollypop man who was letting some schoolkids cross the road, in my S1. He had his back to me and was wearing a hi-viz jacket and baseball cap. When the kids had finished crossing, as he was walking back to the pavement, he gave the motorist he was facing a wave of thank you. He turned round to do the same to me and his mouth actually dropped open. Straight away, he doffed his cap and as I started to move off, he said through my open window "I'll clean you car anytime!" I was laughing all the way home. (not that far!) 🤣

[Peter H.]

As some of you know, I'm pretty new to the Esprit thing...... so I was unprepared for the reaction its gets. 

Two weeks ago I was at my local micro brewery members night with a mate. I was driving, so we took the Esprit and parked up. We only had the one pint and we went to leave around 8.30, just as it was getting dark.

We turned the corner to walk towards the car only to find about 15 half cut men standing around and near it with pints in their hands. As it became clear that we were the ones getting into the car, there was general hubub and light hearted cheer of ooohhs and weyhays. At which point my mate received further laughter when, in sign language, he pointed out 'that I must have a small tinker'. This all grabbed the attention of a further dozen or so merry people who turned to see what the excitement was about. 

We got into the car, turned the ignition....and with the help of a performance exhaust, it roared into life. The previous light cheers was turned up in volume quit considerably as more people joined in.

Strangely, there was then an eerie silence and everyone stared at me...... I started to sweat a little as I knew every person in the crowd was willing me to stall the car as I moved off.

To buy a few seconds and since it was getting dark, I searched for the headlight button and turned on the headlights.....up they popped to the shear delight of the crowd, now numbering about 40 people. In amongst the even louder cheers someone screamed 'its even got pop up lights. Respect' as he and his mates held up there pints in a salute as I drove by with a new found confidence. We laughed so hard all the way home.

Completely true story.

[tomcattom]

42 minutes ago, Peter H. said:

As some of you know, I'm pretty new to the Esprit thing...... so I was unprepared for the reaction its gets. 

Two weeks ago I was at my local micro brewery members night with a mate. I was driving, so we took the Esprit and parked up. We only had the one pint and we went to leave around 8.30, just as it was getting dark.

We turned the corner to walk towards the car only to find about 15 half cut men standing around and near it with pints in their hands. As it became clear that we were the ones getting into the car, there was general hubub and light hearted cheer of ooohhs and weyhays. At which point my mate received further laughter when, in sign language, he pointed out 'that I must have a small tinker'. This all grabbed the attention of a further dozen or so merry people who turned to see what the excitement was about. 

We got into the car, turned the ignition....and with the help of a performance exhaust, it roared into life. The previous light cheers was turned up in volume quit considerably as more people joined in.

Strangely, there was then an eerie silence and everyone stared at me...... I started to sweat a little as I knew every person in the crowd was willing me to stall the car as I moved off.

To buy a few seconds and since it was getting dark, I searched for the headlight button and turned on the headlights.....up they popped to the shear delight of the crowd, now numbering about 40 people. In amongst the even louder cheers someone screamed 'its even got pop up lights. Respect' as he and his mates held up there pints in a salute as I drove by with a new found confidence. We laughed so hard all the way home.

Completely true story.

That wouldn't have been at Rebellion by any chance would it?

[TimSportsTourer]

I took a friend to the Rebellion brewery in my Esprit a few months ago. Admittedly, it was daytime, but amongst all the Chelsea ultra-tractors, M5s and shiny Audis, I don't remember anyone batting an eyelid. Perhaps it was you that turned the heads? Or your mate? Or both? Or maybe it's because I didn't turn on the headlights…