Description
After 20 plus years of ownership it’s time to let someone else cherish this rather special Esprit. The car had a full body off restoration and has been back on the road for about 10 years now. A full engine, brakes and suspension rebuild was carried out along with a new clutch. All of the electrical system was overhauled and with the exception of the heated rear windscreen all performs as it should. The revolting champagne velour upholstery was professionally retrimmed with black leather and the interior is probably the best feature of the car. Being over 40 years old the car is tax exempt.
The car is a good driveable example and if I was going to keep the car for the summer I'd fit four new tyres. The tread on all of them is fine but the rears are probably getting too old for lots of spirited driving. Not many S1 Esprit are left on the road and most of those are white. This one is the first ever Silver production Esprit and it was resprayed the same colour about 10 years ago. Its not a concourse paint job but the advertised price reflects that.
I bought this car from a work mate because of its provenance as the car is a genuine Colin Chapman car which is verified by the Lotus Archives and an accompanying letter I have from a previous owner. Because the car spent a lot of time at Hethel it was used as the test bed for many of the S2 improvements so when I bought it had S2 rear lights, dashboard , speedline alloys etc and these have all been returned to S1 spec. The almost impossible to find Wolfrace alloys are now on the car but they have been professionally engineered to fit the car as they were not originally from an Esprit. I was lucky enough to be invited to show the car at the NEC and practical classics did a big feature on the car too along with making it the front cover car for the Lotus buying guide.
Finally if you've ever fancied a model of your car then this is the car for you as Corgi produced a limited run of VEX299S a few years back.
