Classic Lotus Esprit V8 in Dubai video review
Super rare in the UAE, we take a 2001 Lotus Esprit V8 for a drive
By Shahzad Sheikh
It doesn’t happen to me as often as it used to when I first started out writing about cars 26 years ago (the last time I drove an Esprit is almost as long ago), but the night before I was to meet one of the only Lotus Esprit V8 models in Dubai right now, I could barely sleep from excitement. Things got even worse when I sat in the car, as you can see from this video, I couldn’t even get my words out right!
For me the Lotus Esprit is my ultimate dream car. It’s a legend. From the very first moment that Q rolled off a ferry in one of these and delivered it to Roger Moore playing 007 – who then outran Jaws and a helicopter gunship before diving into the sea as the Lotus transformed into the sexiest submarine ever – I was utterly smitten and remain so even today.
Although this particular vintage of Esprit is more Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone in Pretty Woman (1990) and Basic Instinct (1992) respectively – both movies in which the Lotus had a starring role. Actually that’s not quite correct. The cars they had were the second generation models, introduced in 1987 and restyle by Peter Stevens who took the iconic original ‘folder paper’ – and very 1970s – design by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and smooth off the edges and rounded the corners.
In 1993 Julian Thompson went a little further with restyled bumpers and skirts introducing more scoops and curves to what was traditionally just a set of converging lines producing the most spectacular expression of wedge-shaped supercar this side of the Lamborghini Countach. Despite the redesigns there has never been and probably never will be, anything quite like the Lotus Esprit.
Where the original got a boost from being the star of the 1977 Bond movie – The Spy Who Loved Me – and was lauded for its light weight (a Colin Chapman mantra – he being the founder of Lotus) and superb handling, it was criticised for being down on power as it only had 160bhp and only managed 0-100kph in about 8.3 seconds (not exactly supercar territory). Not that that mattered to fans like me, because this thing looked fast just standing still!
However, Chapman built cars that he would actually want to own, and he wanted this car to have a V8 – this plan was scuppered by the oil crisis of 1973, and Lotus resorted to a 2.0-litre 16-valve four-cylinder engine when it launched in 1976. It was only towards the end of its 28-year run that the Esprit, in 1996, finally got the V8 it deserved.
Well I say deserved, and in fact it was a Lotus developed and built compact twin-turbo 3.5-litre V8 (originally conceived for a front-engined car that was never produced) capable of 500bhp, but this actually had to be detuned to 350bhp (only about 50 more than even the 2.2 Turbo four-cylinder versions were making by this time!).
At least that meant the engine was never stressed and hence way more reliable than the Turbo – as evidenced by the extreme test the V8 was put to by James May in last year’s Top Gear special in Argentina. The reason for the engine detune was that whilst the Esprit had ditched the ancient Citroen SM gearbox with the 1987 redesign in favour of a Renault five-speed, even that was deemed too fragile to cope with the horses – astonishingly it seems that Lotus couldn’t find another gearbox that could fit and was strong enough to cope.
This 2001 car currently belonging to Matt Denton represents probably the pinnacle of the breed and pretty much the last of the line. There was another minor restyle in 2002 when the rear taillights, still off a 1985 Toyota Corolla coupe, were switched out for four round units to tie-in with the Lotus Elise. However, they don’t really suit the Esprit and these blocky rear lamps are far more preferable in my opinion.
Matt Denton with his 2001 Lotus Esprit V8
This car is absolutely original and in superb condition with less than 5000km from new, and it’s rare too, as less than 1500 V8s out of the total Esprit production run of nearly 11,000 cars were produced. Denton is only the second owner having bought the car off someone who was actually a supplier for Lotus. It’s currently for sale (priced at AED170k – $47k) as he is about to relocate to the US, although he says if he doesn’t find a suitable home for it, he may well just take it with him, since it is a US spec car.
This one’s well equipped with leather upholstery, a Sony sound system with Bluetooth, A/C and airbag. Lotus would borrow not just the aforementioned taillights, but many other bits from other manufacturers, and the fact that Lotus was once GM-owned is evidence most obviously by the steering wheel which is from a Pontiac Trans Am. It also has headlight lift motors from a Pontiac Fiero, Opel Calibra door handles and many other borrowed parts, most odd of which perhaps is the clutch slave cylinder from a Series 2 Land Rover!
With 350bhp at 6500rpm and 295lb ft at 4250rpm available in a car weighing 1325kg performance was impressive for the day (although not quite in supercar territory by contemporary standards) with a 0-100kph time of 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 274kph.
Frankly, knowing what a prized and precious example of a V8 Esprit this is, and despite the encouragement of the owner, I was never going to drive this car hard, but in just a few minutes behind the wheel, it was apparent that aged hadn’t dulled the driving experience one bit. It’s a very easy drive, the power steering that was introduced from 1993-onwards certainly helping.
The engine felt strong and eager to rev with good delivery. It sounded very different to what you might expect for a V8, smoother, less growly, and that’s probably why most Esprit V8 owners would change the exhaust (swapping the bulky steering wheel to a Momo is also common on these).
Going around the couple of roundabouts at moderate speed it felt poised and planted and you get some sense of the fabled Lotus handling thanks to the double-wishbone suspension and great feel through the rack and pinion steering.
This car might not match the current breed of supercars for outright speed, but I maintain that it stands their equal even today in terms of the most important aspects of a supercar – drama, sense of occassion, style, handling and sheer grin-inducement. Plus it has pop-up headlights! It’s still a sensational superstar and I love it.
