One to Buy: 001 ex-Birmingham Motor Show 1978 Lotus Esprit S2 World Championship Commemorative Edition
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Although in later years the Turbo generally stole all the headlines when it came anything Esprit, the normally aspirated variants with their fizzy engines and lightweight mid-engined delicacy were something very special back in the day.
Aside from the submersible S1 used by Roger Moore in the 1977 James Bond caper, The Spy Who Loved Me, arguably the most iconic of the ‘atmo’ Esprits was the S2 World Championship Commemorative JPS Edition launched to celebrate Lotus’s 1978 Formula 1 Driver and Constructor titles.
Like the F1 cars driven by Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson to first and second in that year’s Driver’s Championship (in doing so enabling Lotus to easily outscore closest rival Ferrari in the Constructor standings), these limited edition Esprits were painted the iconic John Player Special colours of black with gold highlights.
Loads of other special equipment was also bundled in and Lotus managed to sell 147 copies of the JPS Esprit, the first of which will be going under the hammer at Iconic Auctioneers’ Silverstone Historic Festival sale on August 23rd.
Chassis 78 100 491G was the very car displayed by Lotus at the Birmingham Motor Show in October 1978. It was then most likely used for other promotional purposes as the first private owner (Reuter’s Restaurant in Dublin) did not take acquisition until August 24th 1979 (via Ready Garage, also in Dublin).
JPS 001 subsequently made its way back to the UK in 1989 and was the subject of a six-year ground-up restoration, since which time just 1840 miles have been covered.
