Lotus Sport Cars Espirit

By Tom I Stables

The Lotus Espirit Family were a series of British sports cars that were highly regarded and respected and where produced by the Lotus home factory roughly between the years 1976 ending production finally in 2004. Yet there were two distinct model units for the Lotus Espirit the first from 1976 to 1987 whereas the second line was produced roughly from 1987 ending in 2004.

By the mid 1980 s Lotus mid-engined Espirit had been in production for a full decade, and thus was more than overdue for improvement- being in the eyes of some sports car aficionados that the Espirits were becoming a bit stale and even long in the tooth. Lotus however unfortunately did not have the full and complete resources to develop, engineer and design a completely new model. Hence a makeover strategy was employed (or what might be politely be called in the automotive industry as a mid-term facelift .

It was not that Lotus, then owned by G.M. U.S. based General Motors was then short of backing and resources , but that all in all there was only a limited development at Hethel most of which were already committed to the all new front-wheel-drive Elan model. In any case Lotus management judged that the existing slant-4-twin-cam 16-valve 2.2 litre power plant still had life and a life time to it.

Accordingly a new project called X180 at Hethel was initiated and started up. Led by Colin Spooner , with body styling at the hands of Peter Stevens. The overall project criteria were to make as many changes as possible without the expenditure of much capital what so ever. The result in the end was that Stevens produced a new body style around the original basic wedge-nose proportions. Instead of a sharp-edged, typically Giugiaro shape, Stevens shaped the stressed Lotus with rounded lines, though Lotus claimed that no part of the new profile was more than one inch / 2.54 cm from that of the old at any point. This meant that old type Vari fibre-glass molds could be reworked without completely new frames and structures being required.

Although, it was not impossible to pick out the normally aspirated from the turbo-charged versions. To those well versed and familiar with Lotus sports models and factory installed options the Turbo had extra driving lamps at the front and each type had its own type of specially styled distinct road wheels. In addition there were badges and monikers that gave the game away to some measure as well. Plus on top of that turbo-charged models there were initially a large pane of clear glass between the flying buttress panels which linked the sides of the roof to the tail lamps. Inside the cabin there was more space than before. The first run up models were notoriously cramped with poor cabin ventilation overall. Both concerns were dealt with an improved with the upgrade.

Thus it could be said and summarized that the 1987 Lotus Espirit was a good and wise step up from the original. It s hard to improve on an original winner. Yet in this case it was accomplished and all with a minimum of costs and resources expended.

About the Author: Tom I. Stables

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