1981 Lotus Esprit Turbo

The Lotus Esprit was built between 1976 and 2004, as well as a future release in 2014. The silver Italdesign concept that eventually became the Esprit was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in 1972 as a concept car and was a development of a stretched Lotus Europa chassis. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's polygonal "folded paper" designs.

By the close of 1980, Lotus were building three different models of Esprit, with distinct chassis designs and body moulds - the S2.2, the Export S2 and the dry-sump Turbo Esprit. The Turbo Esprit had a common chassis, inheriting much of the configuration of the Limited edition Essex cars released previously.

The interior was revised and featured new trim; combined with changes to the body moulds, which resulted in more headroom and an enlarged footwell. Externally, the Turbo Esprit retained the full aerodynamic body kit of the Essex cars and featured prominent 'turbo esprit' decals on the nose and sides and were supplied with 15" BBS alloy wheels.

First registered 25/08/1981 this Lotus Esprit Turbo is a rare dry sump original car in its original paint as lotus put it together in factory white with red cloth interior, recently uneathered from its long term slumber where it was laid up since 1996.

The car was last running in 2010 and a sympathetic restoration was decided to be undertaken on the car to retain as much of its originality as possible. Firstly the engine was taken out to be inspected and refreshed and then the restoration had to be halted.

The engine has been lovingly crated wrapped and stored. It is ready to be re-gasketed and put back together after passing all the checks necessary to insure its in good health. The Crankshaft has been checked for balance and approved, oil pump also checked and passed and the cylinder head has been skimmed, polished and valves lapped in.

Presented with the car is a service history folder and original lotus manual along with an old style V5C. A stunning iconic super car with staggering speeds, handling and performance that is presented in terrific original condition.