Guide: Lotus Esprit Turbo Essex Commemorative
Background
Turbocharging proved something of a revelation during the 1970s. The art of forced induction was best exemplified by Porsche whose turbocharged road and racing cars were in a class of their own.
Lotus had designed the original Esprit with one eye on producing a turbocharged variant. Work started in late 1977 after the prototype Esprit S2 was unveiled.
By early 1980, the first Esprit Turbos were almost ready: the long gestation period was down to this being anything but a regular Esprit with a simple bolt-on turbo kit. The controversial DeLorean saga had certainly not helped either.
The new car was significantly modified in every key department and would move Lotus into performance territory occupied by the Ferrari 308. A little further up in price was the venerable Porsche 911 Turbo (930).
The Esprit Turbo was practically launch-ready when Colin Chapman wrapped up a two-year F1 sponsorship deal with David Thieme’s Essex Overseas Petroleum Company.
In 1979, Thieme had paid for Essex logos to appear down the Lotus F1 sidepods. 1980 and ‘81 would see the oil spot trading company become title sponsor in a package worth $8m.
Thieme wanted to impress his small cache of oil contacts and saw elaborate promotion through motor sport as the ideal platform.
Part of the deal included a road car tie up and, in February 1980, the Esprit Turbo was launched exclusively as the Essex Commemorative Lotus Esprit Turbo.
Thieme wanted the car to have an extraordinarily high specification. To that end, these early Esprit Turbos came with full leather upholstery, air-conditioning, Sundym glass and a state-of-the-art Panasonic roof-mounted stereo system.
100 examples were to be built, with each finished in the Essex colours of Monaco Blue with chrome and red stripes and a scarlet interior. However, it was not long before Lotus began accepting orders for other colours as their very expensive new car was not selling in the numbers required.
A few weeks before the Essex Commemorative Lotus Esprit Turbo was publicly revealed at the Geneva Motor Show (March 1980), it was displayed at a glitzy press event hosted by Thieme at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Deliveries began in August 1980.
Chassis
The original Esprit’s backbone steel chassis was thoroughly reworked as Lotus wanted to fit revised suspension, improve access to the engine and also have space to install a secret V8 motor that was in development.
Accordingly, the Esprit Turbo came with a beefier backbone chassis that featured wider box sections, new suspension mounting points and a new subframe for the engine and transmission. The chassis was also zinc galvanised and given a five-year anti-corrosion guarantee.
Wide track front suspension comprised upper wishbones, lower transverse links, coil springs and an anti-roll bar. Most of this equipment was imported from the Elite. At the back were non-parallel unequal length double transverse links, radius arms and coil springs. An upper link had also been added to the rear to alleviate strain on the half-shafts.
Brakes were improved too, but when Lotus found the latest ventilated discs lacked feel and longevity, larger solid discs were fitted instead. The fronts had a 10.5-inch diameter while the inboard rears measured 9.7-inches. A bigger brake master cylinder and servo were installed as well.
Lotus fitted stunning new three-piece 15-inch Compomotive wheels to these first Esprit Turbos. The rims were 7-inches wide at the front, 8-inches wide at the rear and came shod with ultra low profile Goodyear NCT tyres.
Engine / Gearbox
Instead of the normally aspirated Type 907 or 912 motors as fitted to the S2 and S2.2, this latest Esprit came with a new Type 910 turbocharged engine.
Redesigned from end-to-end, Lotus paid considerable attention to minimise the throttle lag and poor low speed torque that routinely troubled turbo engines. This work proved remarkably successful and Lotus produced one of the most refined and flexible turbocharged engines of the era.
The Type 910 was another all-alloy inline four with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. It incorporated a new dry-sump lubrication system, a bigger oil cooler and camshafts that had a different profile to those in the normally-aspirated engines.
Lotus fitted a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbocharger running at a conservative 0.55 bar. This was mounted downstream of the Dellorto carburettors for improved throttle response, better fuel / air distribution and improved wet fuel handling when started.
The twin-choke sidedraught Dellorto carburettors were switched to DHLA 40H type.
Whereas the S2.2 ran a 9.4:1 compression ratio, this was reduced to 7.5:1 for the Esprit Turbo.
Both engines displaced 2174cc thanks to a bore and stroke of 95.2mm and 76.2mm respectively.
Peak output of the turbocharged motor was 210bhp at 6250rpm and 200lb-ft at 4500rpm. This compared favourably to the normally aspirated S2.2 with its 160bhp at 6500rpm and 160lb-ft at 4900rpm.
The existing Citroen five-speed manual gearbox was retained, but a new alloy bellhousing, new driveshafts and a larger diameter clutch were fitted to cope with the extra power.
Bodywork
As the original architect of the Esprit’s fibreglass body, Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Ital Design studio were commissioned to revamp the styling for this latest iteration.
Lotus required something that reflected the new car’s status as the fastest and most expensive model in their range. However, it also had to incorporate safety features like bigger bumpers to ensure it was legal for markets like the USA.
The manner in which Ital Design adopted these big new wraparound bumpers was a lesson for every other manufacturer. While most auto makers were forced to adopt ugly safety appendages, the Esprit Turbo somehow managed to emerge as the best looking Esprit yet.
The car’s main shape and structure was left unchanged, but Giugiaro designed a beautiful new body kit that visually enhanced its performance credentials.
In addition to the new bumpers, the Esprit Turbo came with a full width front spoiler, side skirts, a louvred rear hatch, an integrated rear spoiler panel and deeper rear apron. Aside from the bumpers and rear windscreen louvres (which were finished in satin black), these latest additions were all body coloured.
The front spoiler housed intakes for the radiator and oil cooler while the side skirts contained fresh air ducts for the engine compartment.
More air was fed to the engine by intakes located behind each rear side window (although these were not fitted to the earliest prototypes).
Interior
Inside, the cockpit retained the same basic layout as before, but thanks to body mould changes, it offered more headroom and larger footwells.
Standard upholstery was ruched leather while the seats had revised bases and new head rests.
All the switchgear became backlit and a 170mph speedo and boost gauge were installed.
Air-conditioning and Sundym glass were standard along with an extremely high specification Panasonic RM-610 stereo system. The RM-610 was an elaborate overhead console stereo. It featured an FM tuner, cassette deck and power amplifier and was infinitely adjustable thanks to an array of equalisers. Two speakers were mounted in the bulkhead behind the driver and another two in the fascia below the windscreen pillars.
Weight / Performance
The Esprit Turbo had a kerb weight of 1148kg, a top speed of 150mph and 0-62mph time of 5.6 seconds.
These performance figures firmly established it as the fastest junior supercar available.
Production
Following the Albert Hall press event in February 1980, the same Esprit Turbos were then used for the model’s public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
Deliveries began in August 1980. The original plan was to produce 100 Essex Commemorative Esprits before more conventional colours were made available.
Unfortunately, the flamboyant Essex colour scheme did not appeal to everyone and only 45 were built (including prototypes).
Around the same number were built to ‘Essex-specification’ (with full leather, air-conditioning, Sundym glass and the roof-mounted Panasonic stereo) but in different colours (mostly white, red and fire bronze).
For Your Eyes Only
Soon after production began, Lotus supplied a number of Essex-spec. Esprit Turbos to the producers of the latest James Bond caper, For Your Eyes Only.
These cars (covered separately) were painted white and fire bronze.
The publicity generated from the film upon its launch in July 1981 gave Lotus a major boost.
David Thieme’s Legal Problems
The final Essex-spec. Esprit Turbos left Hethel in March 1981, shortly before David Thieme was arrested by Swiss authorities when his private plane landed at Kloten airport in Zurich.
Thieme was accused of a $7.6m fraud by Credit Suisse. He was released from two weeks of incarceration once $150,000 bail had been paid.
The Monaco Grand Prix in May 1981 was the last time Essex logos appeared on Lotus F1 cars.
Thereafter, David Thieme disappeared completely from view.
End of the Essex Commemorative Specification
From April 1981, the Essex specification was dropped.
Stripping out the expensive leather upholstery, air-conditioning and overhead Panasonic stereo meant Lotus were able to substantially lower the price which, combined with the James bond publicity, led to a dramatic uptick in sales.
Circa 100 Esprit Turbos were completed to the Essex Commemorative specification, just under half of which were finished in Essex livery.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Lotus - https://www.lotuscars.com
