Esprit S1 - Reimagined. Has anyone done one?

[Dodgey_Rog]

What with all the Singer 911's and various spin offs and people doing nice resto jobs of classics with modern parts etc these days. The burning question, has anyone done one to an S1 Esprit yet?

I love the shape of the S1's and the style, but there must be someone out there that can create one with modern brakes, components and everything? Unless I've missed it, which is likely.

[Hedgerley]

After he bought the Bond S1 a few years back, Elon Musk said he would create a limited run of replicas with Tesla drive trains and build them to go underwater. A modern, high performance sports car that makes like a submarine as required.

I guess with all his other problems he never got round to it...

Edited by Hedgerley on Saturday 7th July 00:33

[Cold]

It's certainly possible to do and with minimal bespoke parts too. The later chassis does fit the early body although extra brackets, braces and fittings are required.

There are at least two TEs running on SE chassis and running gear and I know of one ongoing (UK based) project of a 76 S1 being modified with a GT3 chassis and running gear.

[anonymous-user]

Dodgey_Rog said:

has anyone done one to an S1 Esprit yet?

Essentially that was the 1980s Lotus Esprit S3 - a massively better car. And there would be nothing to stop you putting the Turbo engine in an N/A body if you want the power with the original shape.

However, you've got to ask yourself how fast you want to go in a car shape that genuinely needed the wings, spoilers and slats to keep it on the road and prevent it from severe overheating.

To do a reimagine today I would think a car like R8/Gallardo might make the best starting point although I can't see the addition of bespoke "Esprit-like bodywork" ending up as anything but a horrible mess. And the interior would be an absolute nightmare unless left standard as per the donor car. Also the financial viability of spending £50k to turn a £100k Gallardo into a £30k Lotus look-a-like might also be worthy of careful consideration....

[Dodgey_Rog]

Maybe just a massive resto project with an updated engine/gearbox, brakes etc. It would need to be cosmetically the same as the S1 exterior, the interior could be adapted slightly I guess?

But then, the original did have its charm, its such a compact package that any obvious changes would upset the balance of the car drastically I'm sure.

A little searching found a couple of nut and bolt restorations, one in grey and another in red.

[anonymous-user]

Dodgey_Rog said:

A little searching found a couple of nut and bolt restorations, one in grey and another in red.

Bell & Colvill have for sale an immaculately restored S3 turbo in Ice Blue (glacier). It's very, very similar to the N/A S3 that I used to own. Fantastic car for sale at an asking price of £38,995. If my garage wasn't already full I'd be very tempted indeed....

https://www.bellandcolvill.co.uk/usedcars/cardetai...