Esprit GT3s... where are they all?
Discussion
About ten years ago a bloke I worked for bought a brand new Esprit GT3. Not only did I think it was wonderful but the press seemed to too. Many regarded it as the finest handling Esprit with its relatively light weight to the bigger-engined V8 and relatively advanced level of development to the older 'light' Esprits. I've always been curious as to how they've fared on the used-car market, but I struggle to find any for sale. Is the GT3 so great that people simply don't want to part with it, or are there very few about? I'd like to think I can afford one (I currently have an Elise and a late E36 M3 Evo shortlisted for my next car (strange pairing, I know... don't ask!)) but I'll always be curious about the Esprit GT3 too.
I also prefer the simple stripped down GT3 to any of the other later Esprits.
I like the absence of skirts and spoilers, the lack of crap like the throttle jack and the basic interior.
They don't appear for sale terribly often. There are a couple of low milers on Autotrader at the moment at the £14-£15,000 mark and the more expensive independent specialists try to punt them out at about £17-18,000.
Those sorts of prices ought to get you a sub 45,000 miler in mint condition.
I was talking to a chap at an independent Lotus specialist a couple of months ago and he was bemoaning the general lack of demand for Esprits. If you spend a few weeks watching Autotrader, Paul Matty, Barry Ely and Fleabay, it is evident that dealer's cars aren't really moving that quickly.
V8s in particular are still depreciating hand over fist.
I like the absence of skirts and spoilers, the lack of crap like the throttle jack and the basic interior.
They don't appear for sale terribly often. There are a couple of low milers on Autotrader at the moment at the £14-£15,000 mark and the more expensive independent specialists try to punt them out at about £17-18,000.
Those sorts of prices ought to get you a sub 45,000 miler in mint condition.
I was talking to a chap at an independent Lotus specialist a couple of months ago and he was bemoaning the general lack of demand for Esprits. If you spend a few weeks watching Autotrader, Paul Matty, Barry Ely and Fleabay, it is evident that dealer's cars aren't really moving that quickly.
V8s in particular are still depreciating hand over fist.
Great car i have owned her about 3 years and doubt i will ever be able to sell her. 
I have the last one, actually the last of the four cylinder esprits in totality.
Its a great car, its so different to a V8 because you have to work the gears and the engine to make swift progress, picking your moments when to shift between gears, whereas with all the torque in the V8 you can be lazy and shove your foot down in all the gears. For a 2l its a seriously quick car though (remember the technology is from early 1990's) . Cant see me parting with her. Of the other GT3 owners I know, they wont be giving theirs up soon. But this has just come on the market if your are interested
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/222841.htm
Its a great car, its so different to a V8 because you have to work the gears and the engine to make swift progress, picking your moments when to shift between gears, whereas with all the torque in the V8 you can be lazy and shove your foot down in all the gears. For a 2l its a seriously quick car though (remember the technology is from early 1990's) . Cant see me parting with her. Of the other GT3 owners I know, they wont be giving theirs up soon. But this has just come on the market if your are interested
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/222841.htm
I sold my Esprit GT3 last year. It was a fairly mint, low mileage example. In all honesty I found the performance a bit under-whelming and disapointing. It obviously looked fabulous and drew lots of attention when parked. No doubt it looked good on the move to other drivers but from the drivers seat it was all a little bit flat.
Edited by renmure on Saturday 18th August 19:35
renmure said:
I sold my Esprit GT3 last year. It was a fairly mint, low mileage example. In all honesty I found the performance a bit under-whelming and disapointing. It obviously looked fabulous and drew lots of attention when parked. No doubt it looked good on the move to other drivers but from the drivers seat it was all a little bit flat.
I see that you once had a S3 Turbo.How did that compare to the GT3?
I moved from an S3 Turbo to a Ferrari 328 and now I am considering getting another Esprit.
The GT3's comparative lack of horsepower is a bit of a concern and I wonder whether I would be better looking for an S4S.
I don't think I have the courage to take on a V8 Esprit, given their complexity.
I've got a GT3 
When I first got it, it was a little flat fealing. It had lots of turbo lag, flat spots and no torque.
Been Sorting little things out on it, and one of the things I read was that you should make sure the acctuator for the turbo is set correctly! As soon as I did that it transformed it. A lot more torque, much more responsive and most the turbo lag has gone.
And the handling
When I first got it, it was a little flat fealing. It had lots of turbo lag, flat spots and no torque.
Been Sorting little things out on it, and one of the things I read was that you should make sure the acctuator for the turbo is set correctly! As soon as I did that it transformed it. A lot more torque, much more responsive and most the turbo lag has gone.
And the handling
Pat H said:
I see that you once had a S3 Turbo.
How did that compare to the GT3?
How did that compare to the GT3?
It was because I had owned the S3 Turbo that I fancied another Esprit. I used to enjoy the sudden Whoooosh of turbo boost and feelings of laugh-out-loud excitement as the car picked up and took off. It was so much fun to drive and felt like an "event" everytime. I am sure the GT3 was probably faster all round but didn't feel it and even when you checked the speedo and confirmed the numbers it still felt underwhelming.
Also, having an elise 111R and an s1 exige at the same time ment that I had an everyday direct comparison between the handling of the GT3 and that of proper lightweight "chuckable" lotus cars. The comparison didn't really favour the Esprit too well. I sold the GT3 to replace it with an F355 GTB and, althought I have only done a couple of thousand miles in the Ferrari, the GT3 doesn't do too well in that comparison either.
The above isn't ment to sound like GT3 bashing. I suppose it was more a case of however fantastic it was, it was not being as fantastic as I had hoped it would be.
Jim
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Small world eh Matt It really was the nicest of any that I went to see. I bought it from a guy in Aberdeen who had looked after it really well. We actually stayed in touch and when I sold it and bought the F355 we went for a blast in the Ferrari and he went and bought one too!! The Esprit was bought by a guy from Norwich who lives a couple of miles from the factory and has emailed a couple of pics of it to me recently. They certainly do look Special in a way that a Porsche doesn't (IMHO)
Edited by renmure on Monday 20th August 17:53
a few years back I was lucky enough to have a ride in an Esprit ,
really fantastic experience , the handling was superb the car was Azure Blue ( i think it was an S4 ? ) really lovely colour , the only down side for me was the interior ,or to be more precise the dash lay out
then in 1998 there was the the facelift ,
so for me a GT3 circa 1998 onwards or a V8 GT with out rear spoiler would fit the bill.
really like the Chrome orange , Azure blue and the 98 v8 Gold press car.
Funny I nearly bought the Gold V8 ( ex Mike Bews )
then the Lotus 22 came up for sale at the same time, so I went for it instead, trouble is the wife can"t share the fun !!
However if there are any GT3 owners who are having kids and would go for a part ex on a pristine 02 3 litre Lexus Sportcross
let me know
really fantastic experience , the handling was superb the car was Azure Blue ( i think it was an S4 ? ) really lovely colour , the only down side for me was the interior ,or to be more precise the dash lay out
then in 1998 there was the the facelift ,
so for me a GT3 circa 1998 onwards or a V8 GT with out rear spoiler would fit the bill.
really like the Chrome orange , Azure blue and the 98 v8 Gold press car.
Funny I nearly bought the Gold V8 ( ex Mike Bews )
then the Lotus 22 came up for sale at the same time, so I went for it instead, trouble is the wife can"t share the fun !!
However if there are any GT3 owners who are having kids and would go for a part ex on a pristine 02 3 litre Lexus Sportcross
let me know
I got my GT3 4 years ago, and at the time there was a steady stream of low mileage, original, un-twatted examples around. They seem to have fallen off the radar now for some reason, but you have to remember there were only 200 made anyway, and that includes export. If you are fussy about colour, spec, interior etc you are narrowing your choice to literally a handful of cars.
Re: performance, unless you own a Veyron or a McLaren there will always be a faster car on the road. As mentioned above little tweaks can make a world of difference; for example it was only after running freescan recently I found the car had only been running at 85% throttle
The constant pudding-stirring required to make swift progress can irritate in all honesty, but it's a reasonable trade off for a modern, reliable car that has the feel and simplicity of the original Esprits.
Re: performance, unless you own a Veyron or a McLaren there will always be a faster car on the road. As mentioned above little tweaks can make a world of difference; for example it was only after running freescan recently I found the car had only been running at 85% throttle
The constant pudding-stirring required to make swift progress can irritate in all honesty, but it's a reasonable trade off for a modern, reliable car that has the feel and simplicity of the original Esprits.
renmure said:
Pat H said:
I see that you once had a S3 Turbo.
How did that compare to the GT3?
How did that compare to the GT3?
It was because I had owned the S3 Turbo that I fancied another Esprit. I used to enjoy the sudden Whoooosh of turbo boost and feelings of laugh-out-loud excitement as the car picked up and took off. It was so much fun to drive and felt like an "event" everytime. I am sure the GT3 was probably faster all round but didn't feel it and even when you checked the speedo and confirmed the numbers it still felt underwhelming.
Also, having an elise 111R and an s1 exige at the same time ment that I had an everyday direct comparison between the handling of the GT3 and that of proper lightweight "chuckable" lotus cars. The comparison didn't really favour the Esprit too well. I sold the GT3 to replace it with an F355 GTB and, althought I have only done a couple of thousand miles in the Ferrari, the GT3 doesn't do too well in that comparison either.
The above isn't ment to sound like GT3 bashing. I suppose it was more a case of however fantastic it was, it was not being as fantastic as I had hoped it would be.
Jim
armynick said:
It sounds to me like you may have had a dud! Mine is very quick and does make me grin. Not as quick as a V8 but still quick.
Definately not knocking the car but at 240BHP and 1220kg gives a power to weight ratio of about 200BHP/ton and thats before you start adding the driver and any passenger. That may make a quick car, yours may be "very quick" but my point is that its all realitive and its not as quick/powerfull/fast/awesome/whatever as it looks like it should be.Mr JP said:
DBSV8 said:
and the 98 v8 Gold press car.
Funny I nearly bought the Gold V8 ( ex Mike Bews )
I've had that gold V8 GT press car since Feb 06. It is superb and lives on the south coast now.Funny I nearly bought the Gold V8 ( ex Mike Bews )
JP
Nice that your Lotus is in the South , I will keep an eye out if you are ever in the Poole Bournemoth area
cheers
I'm guilty of hiding my 96 Yellow GT3 (in Evo Esprit buying guide)
It has less than 20k on the clock and has been in storage for 18 months whilst I went back to Uni. I could not bring myself to sell it. Thought about it a few times but the car is coming into its own now. Do you know of any other supercar that wont be top band on CO2 rating!!!
It has less than 20k on the clock and has been in storage for 18 months whilst I went back to Uni. I could not bring myself to sell it. Thought about it a few times but the car is coming into its own now. Do you know of any other supercar that wont be top band on CO2 rating!!!
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