One to Buy: 5000 mile Metallic Silver 2001 Lotus Esprit V8
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Like other late 20th century automotive icons such as the Porsche 911, Lamborghini Countach and Aston Martin V8, the Lotus Esprit was good enough to warrant a remarkably long production run – in this case an astonishing 28 years from 1976 until 2004.
Although the addition of a turbocharged motor in 1980 was a major moment in the Esprit’s history, arguably the most significant development arrived relatively late into the car’s life when, in 1996, Lotus launched a V8 version complete with twin AiResearch turbochargers.
Famously, in GT1 trim the Esprit V8 had the speed to match McLaren’s seminal F1 GTR as evidenced by a famous pole position at the 1996 Nurburgring 4 Hours after having narrowly missed out on victory six weeks prior at the Silverstone 4 Hour event.
Ignoring GT and Sport 350 variants, only 1237 examples of the Esprit V8 road car were built between 1996 and 2004, a particularly fine example of which is currently on offer at the Autosport Designs showroom in Long Island, New York.
Signed off on February 6th 2001, the car was configured in classic Metallic Silver with Black leather upholstery and the optional glass roof. It was dispatched to Lotus main dealer, Auto Europe in Birmingham, Michigan, and was the eighth of 15 2001 Esprit V8s destined for the United States painted Metallic Silver.
In 2024 the Esprit was subject to a major overhaul and it is currently showing a little over 5000 miles on the odometer.
