10k: Turbo-4 Banger: 1990 Lotus Esprit SE
The Peter Stevens (of McLaren F1 fame) designed 4th generation Lotus Esprit was visually similar to Giorgetto Giugiaro’s polygonal “folded paper” design that lasted for the first three generations with only small changes. The big improvement to the third generation car came from the use of vacuum assisted resin injection (VARI) and kevlar reinforcement to increase chassis rigidity, but power-trains were slowly evolved over time as well. Find this 1990 Lotus Esprit
for sale in San Antonio, TX currently bidding for $8,100 with 2 days to go.
The Lotus Esprit looks like a supercar from any angle and this one looks absolutely menacing in black. The 3rd generation design splits the difference between the early James Bond submarine versions that look a bit under wing-ed and the later versions that look like a British version of a Subaru STi.
This one is powered by a 2.2 liter turbocharged and intercooled alloy inline-4 that puts out 264 horsepower. Performance for the 90s supercar is still good today, with 0-60mph put away in 4.7 seconds and a top speed in excess of 160 mph.
This particular car is sold as a mechanic’s special, and while it runs/drives it hasn’t been on the road for the last 5 years. Even though it only has 17k miles on the odometer, potentially wallet busting components are probably minutes from self annihilation…or not.
See a cooler 90s supercar for less? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Every time I see a low mileage car like this, that isn't in a collection I figure the low mileage is probably attributed to stuff always needing to be fixed on it.
As a 40 year Lotus owner, low miles always indicates it has spent its life broken down."Lots of trouble usually serious". They are still great cars, even though they are poorly constructed.I keep buying them because I love them.
Jim Z