The first UK wet sump Turbo.

[stephenwhyte]

I want your old one!!!

It came back up for sale last year Brooke........

http://www.uksportscars.com/view/lotus-esprit-turbo-1986-51000-miles-from-new-calypso-red/

[stephenwhyte]

The "eagle has landed".......in Scotland?

Work won't start to bring it back to life for a couple of weeks but.........she's mine now?

Only took a couple of pics as the whole experience of taking delivery was rather overwhelming & my head was all over the place!?

 

[Barrykearley]

Wow 

[cbclotus]

double wow .Good luck it'looks a great car .I will watch with interest....Mike

[steve930]

That is one sharp looking car, well done patience does pay off!

[nello]

Thanks Stephen - I do know what you mean about the early cars. Visually theres very little difference  - I think the main factor in appeal is purely down the stance of the early G Turbos - Its the lowered suspension that does it - makes all the difference. The later Toyota suspension makes them sit too high and as such look less exotic. If I ever (!) get mine back on the road I'm planning to get it on to a bespoke lowered setup. Your later red one looked as-new though - were you not tempted just to get the bumpers blackened and that car dropped  

Edited October 16, 2015 by nello

[TAR]

I believe that the dry sump cars sit lower still. I guess they needed to raise the suspension when the engine went wet sump.

:)

[stephenwhyte]

Thanks Stephen - I do know what you mean about the early cars. Visually theres very little difference  - I think the main factor in appeal is purely down the stance of the early G Turbos - Its the lowered suspension that does it - makes all the difference. The later Toyota suspension makes them sit too high and as such look less exotic. If I ever (!) get mine back on the road I'm planning to get it on to a bespoke lowered setup. Your later red one looked as-new though - were you not tempted just to get the bumpers blackened and that car dropped  

Not at all Neil to be honest as originality is king with me and that car was never going to be a car I would love, as nice as it was. But it did allow me to understand the do's & dont's on the Esprit.......so everything for a reason. At the time of buying that one I remember thinking that I should really try and find an HC model like yours as I had given up trying to find an early red Turbo with black interior (there appears to have been precious few of these made - it also turns out the order sheet for mine was meant to be beige inside but the order was changed at the last minute according to Andy Graham and boy I'm glad it was!) as nothing was turning up. I now know though that if I had gone down that route as nice as the HC model is, my own heart lies with the early black bumpered, black mirrored, black decals and as you say slightly lower stanced early models. For me anyway there is ust something about the early ones that seems to have been lost on the later ones......

Everything comes to those who wait though they say.....but I lost count of the amount of times in 3.5 years that friends and the likes told me to walk away as the deal clearly wasn't going to happen. Just goes to show sometimes persistence pays off........??

The issue I have now is deciding whether I should keep the S4s or let it go - I've been here before and it's very difficult to concentrate your interest & efforts on 2 classics but let's see.....

You surely need to get your Esprit Turbo out and back on the road for others to see - they're too beautiful to leave stored away all on their own!?

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by stephenwhyte

[molemot]

The black bumpers work really well with the black decals. When I sprayed mine Eclipse Blue I sprayed the bumpers as well...as they were body colour before...and left all the gold decals off, as I thought they were rather chintzy; had been Essex Blue but I didn't want a metallic finish. The spray job was done because the lacquer was peeling off the metallic paint....didn't need THAT again....

[nello]

Nice one Stephen........ I also think that double band black stripe along the lower edge plays some kind of trick on the eye and makes them look lower as well.

I've an association as has been discussed on here many times with Essex No.17 and they are fabulously low/exotic and period.

I think I'm right in saying the the early pre-prod shots were to make it so ...

This was the classic one that made all the press:

It didn't include the scoop 'wings' behind the 3/4 window either. The 3 section chin spoiler looks nicer as well than the later open-mouth on the HC.

I know they changed all these things for reasons but alot of it is in the aesthetics for me........... I've only owned mine 21 years

Anyway enjoy your great cars

[The Pits]

I've got all the road tests when the first Turbos after the Essex run were driven and most mentioned the 'garish' graphics, you had to go some to be garish in 1981! 

Of course Lotus responded by making the graphics smaller but the G turbo never looked better to me with the more discreet badges. I guess for me it doesn't really work because if you really want to be discreet don't bother writing TURBO on the side of your car at all!

I overheard someone at the Lotus festival remark (sarchastically) when looking at my car something along the lines of "Oh look it says Turbo in massive letters all over it like you'd ever forget it what it was".

I wound down the window and replied: "it says it inside too, just in case."

 

[nello]

You're right Jonny - I've mentioned that before here as well - Its like they all copied each other. 'Garish' seemed to stick with the car and apparently was the reason they changed to make the car available in non-Essex colours......      Funny how they are so popular today - even McLaren turned to chrome! 

[stephenwhyte]

Nice one Stephen........ I also think that double band black stripe along the lower edge plays some kind of trick on the eye and makes them look lower as well.

I've an association as has been discussed on here many times with Essex No.17 and they are fabulously low/exotic and period.

I think I'm right in saying the the early pre-prod shots were to make it so ...

This was the classic one that made all the press:

It didn't include the scoop 'wings' behind the 3/4 window either. The 3 section chin spoiler looks nicer as well than the later open-mouth on the HC.

I know they changed all these things for reasons but alot of it is in the aesthetics for me........... I've only owned mine 21 years

Anyway enjoy your great cars

It's funny that for all my over the top anal detail chasing.......I've never noticed the ears missing from those early Essex Turbos. You know you'll now have me looking through old pics tonight to see if the pics I've got are the same. Love it - thanks Neil!? 

[stephenwhyte]

Got her home this week after buying in October and getting it sent to Craig Moncrieffs in Edinburgh while we tried to source a new manifold solution. Well couldn't get one and decided to bring it home until such time we know whether Lotus are going to remanufacture another batch. So even though the car still isn't roadworthy, it's not all bad though as I got a chance to clean the car for the first time - she scrubs up well, but still plenty to do.

[The Pits]

Such a treat so see one that still looks new 34 years after it first rolled out of the factory gates. I really think this shape is getting better looking with every passing year.

Thanks for sharing it with us. Best of luck with the manifold issue. There must be someone on here with a spare as I know that some bought more than one. Fingers crossed that something turns up soon otherwise the uprated manifold option might have to be explored even if its only a temporary solution.

 

[stephenwhyte]

Someone just pointed out the familiarity of these 2 pics to me - how cool!! Just wish was my Turbo was moving like the one in the NGK ad......

 

 

[The Pits]

Yours looks newer!

 

[Andyww]

On 16/10/2015 at 17:36, The Pits said:

I've got all the road tests when the first Turbos after the Essex run were driven and most mentioned the 'garish' graphics, you had to go some to be garish in 1981! 

Of course Lotus responded by making the graphics smaller but the G turbo never looked better to me with the more discreet badges. I guess for me it doesn't really work because if you really want to be discreet don't bother writing TURBO on the side of your car at all!

I overheard someone at the Lotus festival remark (sarchastically) when looking at my car something along the lines of "Oh look it says Turbo in massive letters all over it like you'd ever forget it what it was".

I wound down the window and replied: "it says it inside too, just in case."

 

I was going to start a thread on the subject of the big graphics until I spotted its already been discussed here.

I find some people really dont like them and make comments such as "Did it really come out of the factory with those graphics" or "where did you get the lettering from", and its quite obvious they are being too polite to say what they really think.

Its not something I have thought about much before, but thats probably as I grew up with the cars and know that they had these graphics from new. It was an 80's thing and also from the era when very few cars had turbos.

A lot of younger people think they have been bought and stuck on as aftermarket shouty graphics. 

No plans to remove them of course..... 

[stephenwhyte]

Overdue an update here I think.

I've been working away over the last few weeks readying the car for when the time comes to attempt to get it back on the road. Shouldn't be too long now, all going well.........dare I say maybe even this month

Anyway I managed to get another set of black seats (all leather this time) and have fitted them in place of the half leather originals.......the thought being that I'd like to keep the originals looking as new as possible and worried how the cloth in particular might wear with sagging etc. Quite like the all leather look now and will be less paranoid using these instead of the originals. Yes OCD nutcase here

Hope you like - gave her a damn good polish too and she's shining up beautifully but more to come given time. I really love this car!!

 

[Bazza 907]

Great looking car Stephen, love it!

[cbclotus]

Yes I am with Barry .Both great looking cars .Wow.....Mike

[The Pits]

Where on earth did you find two perfect full leather seats? Great idea though, I think it looks even better in there. Delighted it's all starting to come together for you. Magnificent!

[Barrykearley]

Looking amazing that 

[LOTUSMAN33]

Great work Stephen and looks like you found a fantastic condition pair of seats, did they need and colour treatment? 

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Dave ?

[stephenwhyte]

They're not absolutely perfect seats Gents as I had to get 2 small repairs carried out on each seat and the one done on the passenger seat could have come out better. But overall I think they look great and I wasn't big on full leather before but these are more heavily padded like the early type Essex seats.

They still need bolted in as they are just sitting in place just now as I want to condition the leather another couple of times before finally securing them down. I did get them re-coloured as part of the cleaning and leather fix process and they look really good now.

Arguably the originals are in better condition as they have only had 17,500 miles worth of use but I prefer this solution and can now jump in and out of the car without worrying about the material sagging and stretching on the half leather originals.

Oh and Jonny - I found the seats on here and they were located even further North than me.......so it was meant to be me thinks