My car is an early 1988
Lotus Esprit Turbo X180. It is finished
in Calypso Red with grey leather interior.
I have loved the Lotus Esprit for many years. It’s a rare
supercar and has been under-rated by the motoring press for many years. For me the best thing about the Esprit is its
design. The original Silver Esprit concept car, designed by Giorgio Giugiaro,
was a classic design. It came from an
era in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when car manufactures where
commissioning similar concept cars, such as Masarati Boomerang, Alfa Romeo
Carabo and Iguana and Countach LP 400.
I’ve always liked the Esprit S2, with its clean lines, Speed
line alloy wheels and a black valance.
It’s a really simple and elegant design.
However, I never bought one, due to its reputation for unreliability.
Instead, I
bought an Esprit Turbo X180 in April 2002, knowing it was a more reliable car
than the earlier models. It needed some working doing to it; including the gear
linkage / cable, new disks and callipers and a C service. Once that work had been completed, the car
ran very well and has been a real pleasure to own.
I have made a
number of upgrades, which include fitting Lotus Esprit Turbo SE alloy wheels with Goodyear GS-A’s
tires all round. This has made an
improvement to the handling and road holding, as the car was under-steering before
with the standard wheels and tires. I
have also upgrade the red clutch hose to a stainless
steel one and replaced the clutch and clutch slave cylinder.
I make sure
I drive the car regularly, and allow plenty of time for the Turbo to warm up
and cool down.