18 replies to this topic

[Elaine]

As a lot of you know, almost 3 years ago (after 10 continuous years of Lotus ownership) we sold our Exige... but now we have time to drive one again, and we're thinking of getting another Esprit.

Does anybody know of this car (not the dealer selling it, know about them)? It's miles away from us, so a bit far to travel if it's got bad history.


Thanks in advance,
Elaine&Rich.

Edited by Elaine, 10 April 2013 - 12:54 PM.

[TimSportsTourer]

No idea about this car, I'm afraid. However, since I'm the new, proud owner of a Esprit, could it be that new MLOC Esprit owners are like busses - none for ages then two come along at once? I have gathered I'm one of only two at the moment. It would be great to have more. Good to see you back, by the way.

Looking at the car, the price seems awfully reasonable. It looks like it's in stunning nick, and the S4S is (I gather) very much sought after as one of the best of all Esprits. So why so cheap? My S4 was cheaper, but it's older too. And the inside of this one looks especially tidy. Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope so. It looks stunning!

I'm sure you know all this, but Gerald of GST Performance in Newmarket is a (very) widely reputed expert on Esprit. If you give him a call, he will certainly keep his eye out for one that suits you. So far as my experience and understanding goes, he's both expert and honest. I'd say it's bound to be worth a call. He does have his ear close to the ground with an awful lot of Esprits, too.

Good luck, and let us know how you get along.

P.S. He might also know something about the car, of course.

Edited by TimSportsTourer, 09 March 2013 - 10:31 PM.

[a7esk]

Posted on Lotus drivers club as well fingers crossed I'm meeting up tomorrow with some Esprit guys for breakfast meet up not at hill top this time .

[Elaine]

TimSportsTourer, on 09 March 2013 - 10:30 PM, said:

No idea about this car, I'm afraid. However, since I'm the new, proud owner of a Esprit, could it be that new MLOC Esprit owners are like busses - none for ages then two come along at once? I have gathered I'm one of only two at the moment. It would be great to have more. Good to see you back, by the way.

Looking at the car, the price seems awfully reasonable. It looks like it's in stunning nick, and the S4S is (I gather) very much sought after as one of the best of all Esprits. So why so cheap? My S4 was cheaper, but it's older too. And the inside of this one looks especially tidy. Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope so. It looks stunning!

I'm sure you know all this, but Gerald of GST Performance in Newmarket is a (very) widely reputed expert on Esprit. If you give him a call, he will certainly keep his eye out for one that suits you. So far as my experience and understanding goes, he's both expert and honest. I'd say it's bound to be worth a call. He does have his ear close to the ground with an awful lot of Esprits, too.

Good luck, and let us know how you get along.

P.S. He might also know something about the car, of course.

We're not really new to Esprits but yes, we know what you mean.
Yeah, we were planning on ringing Gerald on Monday. We don't mind working on Esprits ourselves, but we obviously want to know everything we can about this car.

We do know there are rumours of quite a few unhappy UKSC customers. Apparently, not on the internet for fear of what they write being libel (not sure how that works, if they're telling the truth. And most of them do seem to have very little knowledge, so it's no surprise that some of them got caught out with overpricing, poor examples, etc). However, we also know they've had plenty of happy customers over the last 40 years as well (owned Lotus cars ourselves since 2000, and Richard's dad has had his Excel for about 20yrs now, so we've had lots of contact with other Lotus owners at events, etc). We will still proceed with extreme caution, even though it's not like we don't know what we're looking for.

As you'll see from the pics, we kept our old Turbo Esprit meticulously tidy inside & out, so let's just hope this S4s has had similar type owners... *crosses fingers*


I'll let you know whether it's earned itself a space in our garage (or not) next week.
E.

Edited by Elaine, 10 March 2013 - 07:47 AM.

[chris_h]

Probably my favourite of all the Esprit.

Looks good, hope to see you back in a Lotus soon.

[TimSportsTourer]

Elaine, on 10 March 2013 - 07:23 AM, said:

We're not really new to Esprits but yes, we know what you mean.
Yeah, we were planning on ringing Gerald on Monday. We don't mind working on Esprits ourselves, but we obviously want to know everything we can about this car.

We do know there are rumours of quite a few unhappy UKSC customers. Apparently, not on the internet for fear of what they write being libel (not sure how that works, if they're telling the truth. And most of them do seem to have very little knowledge, so it's no surprise that some of them got caught out with overpricing, poor examples, etc). However, we also know they've had plenty of happy customers over the last 40 years as well (owned Lotus cars ourselves since 2000, and Richard's dad has had his Excel for about 20yrs now, so we've had lots of contact with other Lotus owners at events, etc). We will still proceed with extreme caution, even though it's not like we don't know what we're looking for.

As you'll see from the pics, we kept our old Turbo Esprit meticulously tidy inside & out, so let's just hope this S4s has had similar type owners... *crosses fingers*


I'll let you know whether it's earned itself a space in our garage (or not) next week.
E.

Elaine, I recognise you had one before, and didn't mean to teach you to suck eggs. I know when I bought mine, what I wanted was to see if I was right to wonder certain things, so I tried to give you what I would have wanted. I doesn't mean it's helpful to you though. I'm quite envious. If it's as good as it looks, you are onto a proper winner. I'm glad you know Gerald - he's quite local to me, but I wasn't sure if his fame and influence extends that far into MLOC territory. On the upside, I drove 400 miles over the weekend in mine. More gas than an Elise, but it was a much more relaxing drive and the heater kept us warm and toasty (!). The car was a great drive, and I'm loving it at the moment. That's the furthest I've driven it so far, and I added 1% to its lifetime mileage on a 20y/o car. Certainly at the moment, it is feeling like the right decision to get this rather than another Elise. I look forward to the next update.

[Elaine]

Cheers, Eddie.

And ours, Chris.

TimSportsTourer, on 11 March 2013 - 11:58 AM, said:

Elaine, I recognise you had one before, and didn't mean to teach you to suck eggs. I know when I bought mine, what I wanted was to see if I was right to wonder certain things, so I tried to give you what I would have wanted. I doesn't mean it's helpful to you though. I'm quite envious. If it's as good as it looks, you are onto a proper winner. I'm glad you know Gerald - he's quite local to me, but I wasn't sure if his fame and influence extends that far into MLOC territory. On the upside, I drove 400 miles over the weekend in mine. More gas than an Elise, but it was a much more relaxing drive and the heater kept us warm and toasty (!). The car was a great drive, and I'm loving it at the moment. That's the furthest I've driven it so far, and I added 1% to its lifetime mileage on a 20y/o car. Certainly at the moment, it is feeling like the right decision to get this rather than another Elise. I look forward to the next update.

LOL I didn't take it like that at all, Tim.

Gerald rang me yesterday (I'd emailed him). He doesn't know the car, so we're just going to give it a thorough going over ourselves at the weekend. It's priced about right for the mileage... and we'd only pay what we think it's truly worth anyway. We work very hard to earn our pennies.

Yeah, we used our old Turbo when we got married, it took us to the North Yorkshire moors for our honeymoon. Never missed a beat, and covered loads of miles over a few days. Probably shouldn't have sold it really, because records show it was last on the road in 2007, so we fear the worst has happened to it.


Will let you know how it goes,
E.

[TimSportsTourer]

Sad about your old one. I'm very envious about that S4s, though. I look forward to hearing how it looks. Good luck with it. They are madder than some really quite mad things, but great fun, I reckon. How exciting!

[Reg]

I spoke to Steve at Morland Jones today, they have looked after the car for the past 6 years.............. "it's wanted for nothing" and "the owner really looked after it"....
Sounds promising.

[a7esk]

It's looks like its a well looked after Esprit

[Reg]

a7esk, on 12 March 2013 - 07:09 PM, said:

It's looks like its a well looked after Esprit

Mechanically yes, couldn't really fault it. However, it has a poorly repaired front bumper and paint work that was so dull it looked like it had been cleaned with a brillo pad (don't know how they got it to look so shiny in the photos)!
The hunt continues.

Edited by Reg, 17 March 2013 - 09:27 AM.

[a7esk]

Photo shop never mind keep looking its a start
Eddie

[Elaine]

WELL, after another week of searching (with no luck) we decided to throw in a very cheeky offer on the Silk Red one....... it's got bags of history, and IT'S OURS!! We pick it up next week, then we'll give it a good few hours of clay bar & repair the bumper. Hopefully in time for Donington.

Can't wait,
Elaine&Rich.

[KurtB]

That looks lush....

[a7esk]

Well done

Edited by a7esk, 24 March 2013 - 02:05 PM.