That is because Lotus went downmarket as a brand. The Esprit was a porsche 911 Turbo and Ferrari 355 competitor. Lotus doesn't make a car for that supercar segment now and people forget about their past. The same could be said for Maserati, which made exotic sports cars that rivaled Ferraris at one time, but now just makes silly expensive luxury cars.
Pity they dialled-in understeer for the US /Pussy Market and made most of the mid and later cars too heavy. And lets not mention those toyota-like tail lights. Big fan of the Esprit, just being honest.
Péter Kiss and there’s two of them to love, the Giugiaro 70s wedge, and the peter Stevens 80s plastic wedge, both are great looking in their own way but very different cars. I would sell my wife for an S1 in white, of course.
So pleased to have been part of the small team that developed this car and brought it to production. Taking all we had learned from racing the x180R mainly in America. Sadly only 64 made and probably killed off by the production line who did not like making it (the engine bay brace was a bitch). Hope the few owners now love it. Happy days and now retired
Great to hear from someone within the walls! I have an '89 SE Turbo and will probably take it to my grave with me! Tell me Alan, did you do design and development work on the Corvette LT5 engine design?
I remember when I was young, playing NFS 2 SE, leaving all the fast cars and go for a soothing drive in North country with the esprit, it felt right, the interior of the Esprit felt cozy. I have lots of dream cars, but I think the Esprit is my real dream car
More like: because of its age! It started out not long after ItalDesign and Bertone were coming up with the wedge shape for supercars and ended just as the last of the good-looking supercars were being made (e.g. Saleen S7, Porsche Carrera GT). My favourite was the S4s with those slats behind the rear window like the Diablo SE30 also had.
That is a purposely beautiful and archetypal sports car! This video, combined with one Petrolicious did a couple of years ago are seriously tempting me right now.
That's because infrastructure designers don't like bends, so we don't get to enjoy any, which shifts the preference balance from poised handling to assuring acceleration.
I know I'm biased and have been a fan of the brand forever but is it just me or has the Esprit aged so supremely well? Even now it looks gorgeous being driven in anger around Hethel.
@@DrPittenstein 100% true. That's because most sports car buyers aren't car enthusiast and they rely on what media and fanboys say to determine what's a good product. Porsche and its fanboys have done an excellent jobs brainwashing suckers into believing Porsche is the best.
Absolute perfection - Always have been a huge Sport 300 fan - one of the most overlooked and underrated sports cars ever - thanks for sharing and as brilliant as ever Henry! 👍👍👍
I had an 84 turbo. These 300s are halo cars. Great video. This channel and particularly Henry are my absolute favourite on TH-cam. Excellent journalism
Carfection: the alternative fine wine of TH-cam automotive channels. Henry, top-notch as always. I see these videos of cars from the 80s and 90s, and with each passing day, I have more and more difficulty accepting the fact that they are...old now. It's hard to explain. But you folks at Carfection do such a wonderful job putting into words the feelings and emotions these cars bring out in us. Thanks :)
I don't have a 4K screen so, pretty much looks normal. they say, the human eye can't see 4K anyway. that you'd need an 80 inch screen and have to view it from about 60 feet away to truly discern the difference between 4K and 1080.
@@zzz7zzz9 I'm viewing at 2160p on a 43" 4K LED monitor about 3 1/2 ft away. The native resolution is 3840x2160. Video card is Nvidia RTX 2080. Color is calibrated with a Spyder5Pro. I have two windows open both running TH-cam on full screen. One at 4K and the other 1080p. I switch between the two and see the difference. For example, at 1:30 there are swirls on on the rear quarter panel. In HD, the swirls look cloudy, but in 4K, you can see the actual swirls or scratches in paint. The pixels appear sharper in 4K.
One thing I forgot to mention is the focus in the original footage must be spot on in 4K. Any softness in the focus and you can see it clearly in 4K. Carfection has nailed the focus and pulling focus on a moving subject on the track. Bravo Carfection.
When I was younger, in the late 80s/early 90s, I pictured myself behind the wheel of an Esprit, carving out a canyon road in northern California(and I'm a born Southerner in Georgia, by the way). Had pictures of this wedge of wonder in my room. Such an classic exotic.
Always loved Lotus when I was a kid growing up in the 70s. All of them were beautifully designed; Esprit, Elite, Eclat. Always had a soft spot for the Elite, as it had a slight shooting brake or sports brake back look a la Reliant Scimitar or the later BMW Z3 M Coupe. I know they had their reliability issues and arguably their 2 litre 4 cylinder motors lacked the pizzaz and Top Trumps appeal of rivals 6s or V8s, but still, wow!
The Esprit is my childhood dream car, ever since I first played Test Drive on my PC. This edition seems to be the best of the best! Thanks for keeping my dream alive! :)
Great to see some coverage of the Esprit, the British supercar of childhood. I remember seeing the original motor show Sport 300 at London Lotus Centre which was heading off to Japan. Doc Bundy won a US championship with the X180 Esprit and met him many years later at Goodwood FoS, great character.
@LotusLambo Wow, that's a pretty direct insult, without hardly knowing anything about the car I that I had, or my mechanical skills. Do you always make such assumptions when someone doesn't like something you do? I have worked on numerous Esprits, all have had a variety of problems of various degrees of seriousness. Remember, everybody has different experiences with cars. I am sure there are cars I have owned and enjoyed that you would find to be bad/unreliable/etc, but you won't see me calling you a 'bad owner' without knowing anything about you.
Another great video, Henry. I was privileged to drive, on the same day many years ago, a standard Esprit turbo and a 924 Carrera GT, both owned by my boss at the time. Fabulous cars, amazing day.
You teased us on twitter about this video... well worth waiting for. Between you and Harry the Esprit is the one car that brings genuine schoolboy grins..
I had a ride in a friends V8 Esprit many years ago - to this day it's the best car I've ever experienced including AMGs and a drive in a Ferrari 360... it had a magical lightness in the way it went down the road.
TH-cam videos don't come much better than Henry Catchpole driving a Lotus at Hethel. Massively underrated car, and it looks the part in Sport 300 guise. Hopefully there's a new Esprit on the pipeline
Another lovely video, Henry (and team). The bloody thing looks magnificent from so many angles still. Only the lights show it up a lot of the time. Well played.
Back then, a customer of mine (Vulcan) had one. I designed an incredible Rockford Fosgate & Alpine electronics audio system for it. It was state of the art of its time.
I had an M100 Elan so I joined my local Lotus club. I was fortunate to see 2 of the 300s there. Just classic supercars. A bit showy but you could argue the S4 shouted louder.
Damm it another wonderful blast from the past , with the beautifully styled Esprit, and in this version Lotus just highlighted , that when you get it right it's pretty timeless, with Henry grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat 🐱 and the usual top rate cinema graphic filming , it's pure nirvana , I need a lay down 👏
It's amazing to me that Lotus chose a transaxle from a 170hp Citroen and _never changed it_ though 25 years of steadily increasing the power. I remember reading Esprit owners' complaints about that transmission breaking, and then Lotus doubled the number of cylinders and turbochargers. 😅
When I was about 11 years old I used to walk to school and I always used to see a purple coloured Lotus Esprit S4 turbo in one of the driveways at a house down my road . I used to stare and stare and was captivated by the low slung stance and the huge gliding wing- dreaming one day it would be mine. The number plate said JU1CE. I have never forgotten that car and to this day this is one of the reasons why I love cars so much. I am planning to buy a new Lotus Evora in purple next year.
It is funny how you never forget the cars you noticed as a kid. I was just thinking about this 1964 Porsche 911 that this man in my old neighborhood used to own. It was forest green with gold lettering. When I first saw it at as a kid I the 1990s I had to stop and ask what it was. The guy was nice, told me a little about the car, and said that he had inherited it from his dad. What a lucky guy.
Still Searching I agree. It leaves an indelible impression in a young mind. And perhaps that is the ultimate goal of the sports car...not to go fast, but to create a dream.
Big fan of this one! I've been calling the Sport 300 my favourite Esprit since it was featured in one of the early nineties car mags. Impressive performance and handling aside, it's actually the best looking Esprit in my opinion.
The only place I ever saw the Esprit was in my own collection......of Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars. Even at that scale it stood out. That car was well worn by me, lol. I think the Esprit would make a great resto mod "re-imagined" with some modern components and design touches. It is timelessly beautiful.
It's, like, the ZR-1 of Esprits. Speaking of which, I think that would be a real treat to see Carfection review a 1990 ZR-1. It would be quite a different perspective!
The Esprit is not talked about as much as it deserves. It’s a truly amazing car
You couldn't have said it better
That is because Lotus went downmarket as a brand. The Esprit was a porsche 911 Turbo and Ferrari 355 competitor. Lotus doesn't make a car for that supercar segment now and people forget about their past.
The same could be said for Maserati, which made exotic sports cars that rivaled Ferraris at one time, but now just makes silly expensive luxury cars.
It is one of the best looking cars ever made. I would take this over a Lamborghini Countach any day even thoug hhhb they both look cool.
Pity they dialled-in understeer for the US /Pussy Market and made most of the mid and later cars too heavy. And lets not mention those toyota-like tail lights. Big fan of the Esprit, just being honest.
@@Dave.S.TT600 this are not toyota-like. They are straight from an A86
I'll never get bored with the beautiful shape of the Esprit.
Péter Kiss and there’s two of them to love, the Giugiaro 70s wedge, and the peter Stevens 80s plastic wedge, both are great looking in their own way but very different cars. I would sell my wife for an S1 in white, of course.
Yass
Always been my dream car. 😍
I agree. It’s why I love the Cybertruck so much!
This car and the NSX-R are two of the greats.
It is worth watching these videos just for the sight of Henry grinning like a mad professor !
So pleased to have been part of the small team that developed this car and brought it to production. Taking all we had learned from racing the x180R mainly in America. Sadly only 64 made and probably killed off by the production line who did not like making it (the engine bay brace was a bitch). Hope the few owners now love it. Happy days and now retired
Thank you (and the rest of the team) so very much for developing this car, the Sport 300 it is truly wonderful!
Great to hear from someone within the walls! I have an '89 SE Turbo and will probably take it to my grave with me! Tell me Alan, did you do design and development work on the Corvette LT5 engine design?
It's also one of the best looking cars I've ever seen
It's like a mix between the Nissan 300zx and Lamborghini Diablo
And an MR2 mk 2!!
N executed perfectly instead of lookin like a Frankenstein creation 🔥
And a bit of Toyota AE86 in there as well (thanks to sharing the rear lights with one)
@@creamwobbly I have no idea who designed the Esprit actually.
It a Giorgetto Giugiaro design, one of the great designers.
Always have had a yearning for the Esprit. Looks good always.
I remember when I was young, playing NFS 2 SE, leaving all the fast cars and go for a soothing drive in North country with the esprit, it felt right, the interior of the Esprit felt cozy. I have lots of dream cars, but I think the Esprit is my real dream car
Why are these videos so good Henry? Pls keep up the good work you have made carfection a real automotive cinema of content now
Greatly executed!
Despite it's age, the Esprit remains to me one of the most beautiful car designs of all time.
More like: because of its age! It started out not long after ItalDesign and Bertone were coming up with the wedge shape for supercars and ended just as the last of the good-looking supercars were being made (e.g. Saleen S7, Porsche Carrera GT). My favourite was the S4s with those slats behind the rear window like the Diablo SE30 also had.
Love the Esprits. Fantastic looking thing. I miss 90's cars. XJ220, F1, Esprit
EB110...
@@JonathanNichollsjono Doesn't do much for me
That thing looks so good on track from the low down camera angle.
A hidden gem in the history of cars
That is a purposely beautiful and archetypal sports car! This video, combined with one Petrolicious did a couple of years ago are seriously tempting me right now.
I have always been a huge fan of this car. Thanks for confirming how good it still is. Time to check out the classifieds....
More Lotus content please!!
Yesss
Yasss
This brand is the perfect example that we don’t value balance in a car. We rather big HP numbers.
Absolutely. The most popular and successful sports car is rear-engined!
That one have gear box that will go broke.
That's because infrastructure designers don't like bends, so we don't get to enjoy any, which shifts the preference balance from poised handling to assuring acceleration.
I know I'm biased and have been a fan of the brand forever but is it just me or has the Esprit aged so supremely well? Even now it looks gorgeous being driven in anger around Hethel.
@@DrPittenstein 100% true. That's because most sports car buyers aren't car enthusiast and they rely on what media and fanboys say to determine what's a good product. Porsche and its fanboys have done an excellent jobs brainwashing suckers into believing Porsche is the best.
Absolute perfection - Always have been a huge Sport 300 fan - one of the most overlooked and underrated sports cars ever - thanks for sharing and as brilliant as ever Henry! 👍👍👍
Henry, drew, Charlie and everyone at carfection if ur reading this, thank you, these vids are the modern day countach poster
Pressed like before watching it. You had me at Esprit Sport 300!
I had an 84 turbo. These 300s are halo cars. Great video. This channel and particularly Henry are my absolute favourite on TH-cam. Excellent journalism
Carfection: the alternative fine wine of TH-cam automotive channels. Henry, top-notch as always. I see these videos of cars from the 80s and 90s, and with each passing day, I have more and more difficulty accepting the fact that they are...old now. It's hard to explain. But you folks at Carfection do such a wonderful job putting into words the feelings and emotions these cars bring out in us. Thanks :)
I loved that car back in the day. One of the best looking supercars of all time.
This used to be mine - same number plate. Best handling car at the time. I was also fortunate to own no 4 - a BRG example.
I love the Esprit models, they simply are just right in about every possible way.
Best video I've seen about the Lotus Esprit !!!
And there are still so many great things to say about it !!!
One of the best cars ever !!!!!!!
This video is in 4K and it's glorious. TY Carfection.
I don't have a 4K screen so, pretty much looks normal. they say, the human eye can't see 4K anyway. that you'd need an 80 inch screen and have to view it from about 60 feet away to truly discern the difference between 4K and 1080.
@@zzz7zzz9 I'm viewing at 2160p on a 43" 4K LED monitor about 3 1/2 ft away. The native resolution is 3840x2160. Video card is Nvidia RTX 2080. Color is calibrated with a Spyder5Pro. I have two windows open both running TH-cam on full screen. One at 4K and the other 1080p. I switch between the two and see the difference. For example, at 1:30 there are swirls on on the rear quarter panel. In HD, the swirls look cloudy, but in 4K, you can see the actual swirls or scratches in paint. The pixels appear sharper in 4K.
One thing I forgot to mention is the focus in the original footage must be spot on in 4K. Any softness in the focus and you can see it clearly in 4K. Carfection has nailed the focus and pulling focus on a moving subject on the track. Bravo Carfection.
Finally a video of a superb yet underrated car. Love the Esprit!
When I was younger, in the late 80s/early 90s, I pictured myself behind the wheel of an Esprit, carving out a canyon road in northern California(and I'm a born Southerner in Georgia, by the way). Had pictures of this wedge of wonder in my room. Such an classic exotic.
Always loved Lotus when I was a kid growing up in the 70s. All of them were beautifully designed; Esprit, Elite, Eclat. Always had a soft spot for the Elite, as it had a slight shooting brake or sports brake back look a la Reliant Scimitar or the later BMW Z3 M Coupe. I know they had their reliability issues and arguably their 2 litre 4 cylinder motors lacked the pizzaz and Top Trumps appeal of rivals 6s or V8s, but still, wow!
Love the way you create the videos, talk, the story, the passion. Don't stop!
The Esprit is my childhood dream car, ever since I first played Test Drive on my PC. This edition seems to be the best of the best! Thanks for keeping my dream alive! :)
Great to see some coverage of the Esprit, the British supercar of childhood. I remember seeing the original motor show Sport 300 at London Lotus Centre which was heading off to Japan. Doc Bundy won a US championship with the X180 Esprit and met him many years later at Goodwood FoS, great character.
Same here, I met Doc at FoS, what a pleasure it was to see him and his X180R up the hill!
Looks mean AF, love the stance, and those rear tires suit the wedge shape perfectly.
What a brilliant film to perfectly describe the joys of a rare breed of cars nowadays! Henry killing it as usual!
I owned an Esprit for two years. It was fun having to fix something after nearly every single drive.
@LotusLambo Wow, that's a pretty direct insult, without hardly knowing anything about the car I that I had, or my mechanical skills. Do you always make such assumptions when someone doesn't like something you do?
I have worked on numerous Esprits, all have had a variety of problems of various degrees of seriousness. Remember, everybody has different experiences with cars.
I am sure there are cars I have owned and enjoyed that you would find to be bad/unreliable/etc, but you won't see me calling you a 'bad owner' without knowing anything about you.
Another great video, Henry. I was privileged to drive, on the same day many years ago, a standard Esprit turbo and a 924 Carrera GT, both owned by my boss at the time. Fabulous cars, amazing day.
You teased us on twitter about this video... well worth waiting for. Between you and Harry the Esprit is the one car that brings genuine schoolboy grins..
1 of my top 5 dream cars. Unappreciated but an absolute gem. That goes to all Esprits.
Miss my old exAMOC/750MC 91 SE, it had the sport 300 engine set up, turbo, eco chip, brakes and aero, coillies etc, was a raw experience
I absolutely love your videos. There is something special about them. You can feel the passion and love for cars.
I had a ride in a friends V8 Esprit many years ago - to this day it's the best car I've ever experienced including AMGs and a drive in a Ferrari 360... it had a magical lightness in the way it went down the road.
TH-cam videos don't come much better than Henry Catchpole driving a Lotus at Hethel.
Massively underrated car, and it looks the part in Sport 300 guise.
Hopefully there's a new Esprit on the pipeline
Even today it is an incredibly good looking car. Great video.
Love the design... the bodykit-looking styling works so well here and that wing makes it so ‘90s which is awesome. And yes turbo flutter!!!
Loved it! As always Henry. Would be great to see you guys drive more of these youngtimers.
God, this channel is great. Thanks for reminding us what greatness lies outside the P, F, and L car badges.
Another lovely video, Henry (and team).
The bloody thing looks magnificent from so many angles still. Only the lights show it up a lot of the time.
Well played.
Back then, a customer of mine (Vulcan) had one. I designed an incredible Rockford Fosgate & Alpine electronics audio system for it. It was state of the art of its time.
I had an M100 Elan so I joined my local Lotus club. I was fortunate to see 2 of the 300s there. Just classic supercars. A bit showy but you could argue the S4 shouted louder.
Thank you very much for the fantastic video, the Sport 300 truly is the ultimate Lotus Esprit.
Growing up this and the F40 were my idols.
He's clearly a fine driver and respecting the vehicle without dawdling.
Great video as always Henry. Been a fan of the Esprit for decades!
Beautiful car. I've always loved the design of the Esprit.
Damm it another wonderful blast from the past , with the beautifully styled Esprit, and in this version Lotus just highlighted , that when you get it right it's pretty timeless, with Henry grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat 🐱 and the usual top rate cinema graphic filming , it's pure nirvana , I need a lay down 👏
Great video. Didn't realise how many modifications Lotus made from the standard esprit s4
Right here, is my childhood dream car. Looking forward for the day when Esprit makes a proper return.
It's amazing to me that Lotus chose a transaxle from a 170hp Citroen and _never changed it_ though 25 years of steadily increasing the power.
I remember reading Esprit owners' complaints about that transmission breaking,
and then Lotus doubled the number of cylinders and turbochargers. 😅
Wonderful but too short. Can we have a director's cut please? Some of us have waited many years for a new Sport 300 video!
Hear hear!!
I'd recommend anyone who enjoyed this to check out *your* videos of the Guigiaro Esprit. They are excellent.
Same here. Not much content on Esprits generally unfortunately
When I was about 11 years old I used to walk to school and I always used to see a purple coloured Lotus Esprit S4 turbo in one of the driveways at a house down my road . I used to stare and stare and was captivated by the low slung stance and the huge gliding wing- dreaming one day it would be mine. The number plate said JU1CE. I have never forgotten that car and to this day this is one of the reasons why I love cars so much. I am planning to buy a new Lotus Evora in purple next year.
It is funny how you never forget the cars you noticed as a kid. I was just thinking about this 1964 Porsche 911 that this man in my old neighborhood used to own. It was forest green with gold lettering. When I first saw it at as a kid I the 1990s I had to stop and ask what it was. The guy was nice, told me a little about the car, and said that he had inherited it from his dad. What a lucky guy.
Still Searching I agree. It leaves an indelible impression in a young mind. And perhaps that is the ultimate goal of the sports car...not to go fast, but to create a dream.
Good luck with the Evora! Wonderful cars.
The Esprit is one of my top 3 must haves!
A British Icon. My Dream Car is as Perfect as I thought it would be. Thanks for a Great video.
My absolute favourite car.. ever!! Love the sport 300
I've got to say, it was the Turbo for me. I adore that car.
Big fan of this one!
I've been calling the Sport 300 my favourite Esprit since it was featured in one of the early nineties car mags. Impressive performance and handling aside, it's actually the best looking Esprit in my opinion.
Thanks Henry! Great trip back down memory lane .
The only place I ever saw the Esprit was in my own collection......of Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars. Even at that scale it stood out. That car was well worn by me, lol. I think the Esprit would make a great resto mod
"re-imagined" with some modern components and design touches. It is timelessly beautiful.
Same page Henry. Same page. Love my V8 so much I just bought an S4S. About as close to a Sport 300 as I am likely to get to owning one. Cheers!
Amazing car, awesome review.
Fell in love with it ever since I saw it in Gran Turismo 2.
What a car!! Adore the sport 300...
Thank you Henry and team. Wonderful job.
What a dream, one of my bucket list cars
The 90's had some really nice cars:
Mclaren F1 (LM)
Nissan R390 GT1
TVR Speed 12
Porsche Schuppan 962CR (Dauer 962 Le Mans)
Ferrari F50
Porsche GT1
Mercedes CLK GTR
Bugatti EB 110
Jaguar XJ220
Jaguar XJR-15
Acura NSX
Lotus Elise GT1
Panoz GTR-1
Toyota GT-One
Pagani Zonda
Cizeta-Moroder V16T
Marcos Mantara LM600
Venturi 400GT
Some nice machines there.
I love the Esprit's 😀
I love your take on how you execute your videos!! Very unique!!!
Just another great video by Henry, such a good story teller.
What a legend!
Now I'm left crossing my fingers waiting for Henry's review of an Elan SE Turbo of the same era :P
Great video! I‘m lucky to have an S300. Dreamcar!
Brilliant.... perfect balance of history and thrills.
Makes me want an Evora more and more! Modern day equivalent. Nice vid as usual 👍
Agreed!
I LOVED this car when I was a kid.
Beautiful car, looks and the drive, luv it.
Never heard of the Sports 300 before, looks a good drive.
that turbo sound is superb
GREAT review of an impressive car that delivers on "the joy of driving" motif .
Tenacious and stupendous in the same sentence. Bloody marvellous old bean!
Another brilliant video Henry!
I’m sure many will disagree but I always have and always will think the Esprit is the most beautiful car ever made.
It's, like, the ZR-1 of Esprits.
Speaking of which, I think that would be a real treat to see Carfection review a 1990 ZR-1. It would be quite a different perspective!
I miss pop up headlights.
Great review Henry, i too love that turbo chatter.
One of my all time favorites
Memories of staring into the show room at a yellow one, still looks great
Lotus Esprit
that's the most spiritual name for a car
In the flesh the Esprit is truly a great looking car!! I would love to drive a sport 300!
Another brilliant video. Fantastic, guys 👍🏼
My dad once owned an esprit S4 GT Championship edition, it was no.4 of only 11 ever built
Great episode! Thanks!