Lotus Esprit
The Lotus Esprit is a sports car built by Lotus Cars from 1976 to 2004 at their Hethel, England factory. It has a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Together with the Lotus Elise / Exige, it is one of Lotus' most long-lived models.
The Esprit was among the first of the straight-lined, hard-edge creased, and sometimes wedge-shaped, polygonal "folded paper" designs of the prolific, and highly successful Italian industrial and automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Esprit's backbone chassis was later adapted to carry the body of the DeLorean car, another low-bodied, Giugiaro-drawn, sharp-creased, wedge-shaped sportscar design. In 1978, the first updates led to the series 2 and engined Esprit S2.2, made until the 1982–1988 Series 3 and Turbo Esprit models, that used a 1980 Giugiaro designed aerodynamic and aesthetic restyling package.
The Lotus Esprit however, lived on through the 1990s, and into the 2000s. It received its first significant restyling by designer Peter Stevens, who also did styling on the McLaren F1. Stevens gave the Esprit overall softer lines and shapes, but the car did not get a new series number – it is instead often just called the 'Stevens Esprit', or by its project number, the X180, made from 1988 to 1994.
In 1994, an official Series 4 Esprit, drawn by designer Julian Thomson, had a further rounded shape, especially the bumper sections and lower body of the car. Styling-wise, this became the most long-lived Esprit, only receiving its last changes, by Russell Carr in 2002.
Over the years, the performance of the Esprit's 4-cylinder engine was increased from around and just under of torque, to double those power figures, mainly through greater inlet and exhaust flow, and strong turbo-charging. And from 1996, a new V8 twin-turbo engine was added, offering. Contrary to a long list of low-volume British cars, with the 3.5 l Rover V8 engine, the Esprit received a Lotus in-house designed V8. Top speed rose from some in 1976, to over for the V8, twenty years later.
After a 28-year production run, the Esprit was one of the last cars made with pop-up headlights, together with the 5th generation Chevrolet Corvette.
Background
In 1970 Tony Rudd, who had started at Lotus the previous year, proposed two new model development projects. The first, Project M50, resulted in the 1974 Elite. The second, Project M70, meant to develop a successor to the Europa which, like the Europa, was to be a two-door fixed-head mid-engine coupé.A meeting between Colin Chapman and Giugiaro was arranged in 1971 by designer Oliver Winterbottom, who also suggested that Giugiaro use his Maserati Boomerang concept as the inspiration for the new Lotus.
Work began on the new car in mid-1971 with production of a 1:4 scale model. According to Italdesign, Chapman was disappointed with the wind-tunnel test results with the model and halted the project, but the Italian coachbuilder pressed on and built a full-size mock-up on a stretched, modified Europa chassis. That nameless prototype, often simply called "the Silver Car", appeared on the Italdesign stand at the 1972 Turin Auto Show and the positive reception convinced Chapman to approve further development.
Development continued with production of a second prototype, registered as "IDGG 01" and known as "the Red Car", that would be a functional car. Design of the car's mechanical systems progressed, but was not complete when the Esprit was officially announced.
S1 (1976)
The Esprit was launched in October 1975 at the Paris Motor Show and entered production in June 1976, replacing the Europa in the Lotus model lineup. These first cars became known as "Series 1" Esprits. The wedge-shaped fibreglass body was mounted on a steel backbone chassis. Power was from the Lotus 907 four-cylinder engine that was rated at in European trim and in US/Federal trim. The engine was mounted longitudinally behind the passengers and drove the rear wheels through a Citroën C35 5-speed manual transaxle also used in the SM and Maserati Merak. Rear brakes were mounted inboard, following contemporary racing practice. The Series 1 embodied Lotus' performance through light weight mantra, weighing less than.Front suspension consisted of upper A-arms and lower lateral links triangulated by the anti-roll bar. Rear suspension consisted of tapering box-section trailing arms and lower lateral links. The half-shafts had no provision for plunge and handled some of the lateral forces. There were coil-over shock absorbers and disc brakes at all four corners. Steering was by an unassisted rack and pinion.
While the S1 Esprit was lauded for its handling and was said to have the best steering of any Esprit, it was generally regarded as being under-powered, especially in markets such as the United States where the engine was stifled by emission controls. Lotus' claim of acceleration from in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of may have been optimistic, as actual road tests revealed a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 8 seconds and a top speed of about.
File:James Bond Submarine Car from "The Spy Who Loved Me".JPG|thumb|left|Very early Lotus Esprits were used in the Roger Moore era James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me
The S1 Esprit was distinguished from later Esprits by its snow-shovel style front air dam, Fiat X1/9-sourced taillights, absence of body-side ducting, and Wolfrace alloy wheels. Inside the car, the S1 Esprit had a one-piece instrument cluster with green-faced Veglia gauges. The S1 is rare in the present day, mostly due to drivetrain problems.
S2 (1978) and derivatives
In 1978, the revised Series 2 Esprit was introduced. External changes included intake and cooling ducts added behind the rear quarter windows; bigger, ribbed taillights, this time from the Rover SD1, and a new front spoiler that was now integrated, folding rearward under the nose and so forming the start of the car's initially modest, thin black side-skirts.S2 Esprits also had Speedline alloy wheels designed by Lotus. Other changes included relocating the battery from above the right side fuel tank under the rear quarter window to the rear of the car, adding an access door to the engine cover, installing wider seats and replacing the Veglia instrument cluster with individual gauges made by Smiths and a new style of illuminated dashboard switches. Many switches and buttons came from the Morris Marina.
A special edition model was released to commemorate Lotus' victory in the 1978 F1 World Championship. Wearing the black and gold livery of John Player & Sons, Lotus' F1 sponsor at the time, these cars were known as the Commemorative Edition Esprits as Lotus had stopped being sponsored by JPS. They were mechanically identical to the regular 2.0, with special seat and dash trim, smaller steering wheel and special plaque. According to Lotus a series of 300 were built, but it is likely the total was considerably lower. Lotus' production records are notoriously vague, but reliable estimates suggest that 149 Commemorative Esprit cars were made.
The S2.2 was a stop-gap model introduced in May 1980 whose only major difference from the S2 was, as indicated in its model name, having a 2.2 L type 912 engine. Engine power output was unchanged but torque rose from to. The S2.2 received a galvanised chassis, but not the revised chassis structure to come in the Series 3. S2.2 cars are extremely rare even among Esprits. According to Lotus only 88 were produced during its thirteen-month production span.
Essex Turbo Esprit (1980)
In 1980 the Essex Turbo Esprit was launched. This special edition model wore the blue, red and chrome livery of the Essex Overseas Petroleum Corporation, the sponsor of Team Lotus from 1979 to 1981. While Lotus dealer Bell and Colvill had been offering turbo conversions for the S2 Esprit from as early as 1978, the Essex Turbo Esprit was the first factory turbocharged Esprit. The Essex Turbo Esprit received the dry sump type 910 engine which has a power output of at 6,250 rpm and of torque at 4,500 rpm. Acceleration from 0- could be achieved in 6.1 seconds and a top speed of.The chassis and rear suspension were redesigned, with an upper link added at the rear to alleviate strain on the half-shafts. The brakes were also improved. Giugiaro designed an aerodynamic body kit for the car, with a rear lip spoiler, prominent louvered rear hatch, more substantial bumpers, a deeper front airdam, and air ducts in the sills just ahead of the new three-piece 15-inch Compomotive rear wheels. Inside scarlet leather combined with a roof-mounted Panasonic stereo for a dramatic environment. 45 Essex Turbo Esprit cars were built, interspersed and followed by a number of non-Essex-liveried but otherwise identical specification dry sump turbo cars.
By the end of 1980, Lotus was building three different models of Esprit with distinct chassis designs and body moulds - the domestic S2.2, the export S2.2, and the dry sump-engined Turbo Esprit.
S3, Turbo Esprit (1982) and derivatives
The Series 3 and Turbo Esprit debuted in April 1981. The two models shared a common chassis, and bodywork was based on a common set of moulds.The S3 received the 2.2 L Type 912 engine. The Turbo Esprit had a wet sump engine with the same power and torque output as its dry sump predecessor. Interior trim was revised which, when combined with changes to the body moulds, resulted in more headroom and an enlarged foot-well. The Turbo Esprit retained the aerodynamic body kit of the Essex cars and featured prominent 'turbo esprit' decals on the nose and sides. The S3 gained the new larger bumpers but kept the simpler sill line and glazed rear hatch of the S2.2 body. Both cars came with BBS alloy wheels. One interesting omission was that the Esprit S3 had no cigarette lighter as standard equipment; ashtrays are tucked away in the door sills.
Minor changes were made to bodywork and front suspension for the 1985 model year.
The final incarnations of the Giugiaro-styled Esprit were announced in April 1986. Higher compression ratios for the engines was indicated by the 'HC' moniker. Power output of the naturally aspirated engine rose to and for the Esprit HC, and to and for the Turbo Esprit HC, with more torque available at lower engine speeds.
For markets with stringent emissions requirements like the United States, Lotus introduced the first fuel-injected Esprits. The HCi variant added Bosch KE-Jetronic fuel injection and a catalytic converter to the Turbo HC engine. This engine had the same peak power as the carburetted version but at a somewhat higher engine speed. Torque dropped to.