The Lotus Esprit is a sports car that was built by Lotus Cars at their Hethel factory in the United Kingdom between 1976 and 2004. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro’s polygonal “folded paper” designs. Giugiaro wanted to call the car “Kiwi”, but the Lotus tradition of having all car model names start with the letter “E” won out, and the name became Esprit./wikipedia
source/image: Harry’s garage
Rarest of the Giugiaro designed Lotus Esprit, the ’87 Turbo HC version is a gem.The Turbo Esprit was the the last road-going Lotus created under the watchful eye of Lotus founder, Colin Chapman.
source/image: Harry’s garage
Lotus was now touching supercar territory, with a car that beat the psychological milestones of 150mph and 0-60mph in under six seconds. With almost peerless handling they could now be compared with Porsches and Ferraris.
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The extra 50bhp over the normal 2.2-litre Esprit comes from a Garrett T3 turbocharger, though the whole of the engine was re-engineered to cope.
The first 104 were in Essex Petroleum livery (and fetch a £5000 premium).In 1985 the suspension was revised to use more Toyota and fewer Triumph parts. Shortlived HC version for 1987 gets extra 5bhp and 20lb ft of torque.
