I’ve been looking at Lotus Esprit’s for years having seen the prototype at Los Angeles Auto Expo in the 1970’s. The closest I’ve ever got to purchasing one at this stage is a large poster of the Lotus Esprit Turbo that I purchased and framed many decades before.
Prices are still reasonable for the Lotus Esprit, I expect because they are so undependable. While really clean Esprit’s can fetch $25,000 or more, many are priced in the $15,000 to $20,000 range.
At any rate, my MGB GT is almost finished and I might need a new car project to work on. This 1978 Lotus Esprit is on Bring A Trailer and is located close to me in Portland, Oregon. My guess is that it will sell for about $7,000.
UPDATE: This Lotus Esprit sold for $10,000. That’s a lot of money for a huge project. Have Esprit prices gone crazy?
Is this my future Esprit?
The car certainly has issues but definitely looks to be in good enough condition to save. So tempting but it’s likely one of these projects where it would be far less expensive to just buy a decent Esprit good condition and only do a simple restoration.
This Lotus has an interesting interior. Is this original? Probably but it looks like it sat in a lake at some point.
The engine apparently turns freely so could be an easy rebuild or, a very expensive rebuild.
