VIN: the Pete Hall / Gerry Marshall Lotus Esprit Turbo chassis 10962
History of chassis 10962
Chassis 10962 was the first Esprit Turbo built to the non-Essex specification.
Several earlier Esprits had been completed with non-Essex colour schemes, but otherwise, all the expensive Essex equipment had remained.
Once Essex was out of the picture (following company boss David Thieme’s arrest on fraud charges), Lotus made several changes to reduce the Esprit’s price and kick-start demand.
Air-conditioning, the elaborate roof-mounted Panasonic stereo, Sundym glass and leather upholstery (all standard on Essex specification cars) were made optional extras.
This enabled Lotus to reduce the price by over 15%.
Lotus also switched to single-piece BBS cross-spoke wheels as the original split rim Compomotives were not only very expensive but also found to leak air.
Painted red with gold decals, a black leather interior and air-conditioning, chassis 10962 was registered OPW 679W in May 1981.
It served as a press demonstrator and was one of several cars sent to Pinewood Studios when the producers of For Your Eyes Only were considering different colours for the movie scenes filmed in Cortina.
10962 also starred on promotional posters for NGK Spark Plugs and, in November 1981, was featured on the cover of Car magazine.
Esteemed road tester Mel Nichols wrote: “there was very little traffic and I pushed the Turbo really hard. There were enough bumps in some of the bends to make my wrists ache as I pressed the car in as fast as visibility allowed; still the Lotus refused to run wide at the nose, or to be moved off line by bumpsteer. It just went where I directed it, with the wheel jiggling solidly in my hands as the wheels rode over the irregularities. I used all the road and ran the car flat – flat in every appropriate gear and braking as hard and late as I could. It was glorious, a new high in 15 years of high-performance motoring, and with its own climax. I came over one crest to find the road spearing down to a visually open right hander that ran through 90° left. I kept the Lotus flat and swung it really hard into the bend, harder than I've dared swing any car into a road bend before, and entrusted myself solidly to the roadholding. The tyres loaded to the limit – 1.1g, Lotus claim – but the Esprit simply went around with just the mildest trace of understeer (felt as a slight lightening at the wheel) and then a nudge towards something approaching, but not quite, oversteer as the tail was pushing hard down by the full power of maximum revs in third. The g-force was high but there was still time for the mind to record the car's flatness. The following left-hander was of smaller radius and I had to brake hard for it and take second gear with a swift double-shuffle to compensate for its defective synchromesh. Then it was back on the power again to feel the car balance out as it left the bend behind in another fraction of a second and romped onwards. I'd never been around a couple of tight corners so quickly.”
Chassis 10962 was subsequently sold to Pete Hall who ran Industrial Control Services (ICS) in Malden, Essex.
Hall purchased the Esprit to race in the 1982 Production Sports Car Championship and had it prepared by Andy Rouse Engineering.
As per the regulations, other than some fine tuning, modifications were limited to safety equipment such as a roll cage, bucket seat and racing harness. The colour was changed to the ICS livery of blue with white stripes and gold decals.
Pete Hall and Gerry Marshall both drove the Esprit and won on multiple occasions.
In February 1983, Gerry Marshall purchased the car for himself and continued to compete with it.
Marshall retained the car until his death in 2005, by which time it had been painted black with gold decals. Most of the race equipment had been removed.
Marshall’s son, Gregor, sold the car to Mike Brewer who, after a couple of years, sold it on to the late John Haynes.
Haynes purchased 10962 for his motor museum in Sparkford, Somerset, where it currently resides.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Car Magazine - https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/
