The history of the Lotus Esprit is very long and varied and has
seen the car evolve through S1, S2, S3, Turbo, S4 and V8
variants, as the Celebration of a Supercar video on the right
shows
It also went through a "face
change" with a re-design from the original Giorgetto Giugiaro
"folded paper" design to the rounded Peter Stevens form in the
1980s
The history of the orginal
Lotus Project M71 is perhaps more shrouded in history but the Esprit was
always destined to receive the multi cylinder engine it
deserved
Even when the original S1
Esprit was launched it's stretched Lotus Europa chassis and
engine compartment were roomy enough to accomodate more than the
then new inline 4 cylinder Lotus 907
Click the buttons
above for Giugiaro Design, Esprit S1 & S2,
Turbo Esprit
or click here for the
History
of Lotus, the 007 Esprits and the 909 V8
engine