I just bought another Lotus. Yeah, likely crazy as the only thing dumber than owning one Lotus is owning more than one Lotus. But this is a 1986 Lotus Esprit Turbo HCI with apparently only 43,000 KM on the odometer. That’s about 27,000 miles for non metric folks. 43,000 kilometers in 34 years is not very much. What’s interesting about this car is that it was last driven in 1994 and then has been parked inside a garage with numerous other cars ever since. That’s another Esprit in front, a 1983.
I expect the car will need to be thoroughly inspected and numerous gas lines and the like will have to be replaced but of course that’s maintenance. There are a number of unknowns however. The fuel injection system and the turbocharger were removed for some reason. Are they working properly? Apparently the fuel injection parts are hard to find as Lotus only used this system for a few years. Another unknown is the turbocharger but they can easily be rebuilt and new ones are available.
The tires hold air, a real bonus. They are however over 25 years old and will need replacing. The body and interior are in beautiful condition, a real bonus. What could go wrong?
Hopefully this Lotus won’t turn into a crazy project that will take years to get back on the road. Some of the parts are very hard to find if not impossible. Stay tuned!
