The Lotus Esprit V8 Is an Underrated Exotic Sports Car 

this is a 21 minute add for cars and bids..

This really shouldn't have to be said but sadly youtubers chase views even if it hurts their credibility. Look at Donut Media these days but lately it does sound like they're getting the message and starting to find a better balance between quality videos and clickbait. Still the clickbait wont ever go away.

Nah, just promoting his side hustle

Doug is the best in the business for sure.

Yes, he was clearly miserable reviewing this minty Espirit V8 but bravely toughed it out for the viewers and to put food on the table. Someone get him a purple heart!

It's not a V4, it's a 2.2 litre inline 4.

@@bobolulu7615 my bad… corrected!

I assume you're the most popular guy at Cars & Coffee... 🙂

@@bobolulu7615 have to be a troll

Where does he say v4? He said 4 cyl.

I second this. I’ve loved this car since I was a kid.

Also the only car that can also drive underwater. :D

It might be perfect

A lot of people like the Giugiaro original better than the updated bodystyles by Peter Stevens and this final one by Julian Thomson.

I love this car but it looks like it came out in 1988. lmao

@@jamescinman1993not bad considering it released in 1976

um no looks good tho

The car looks great. But it does look like it’s from the 80s. A timeless car will look like it’s new. This car is gorgeous, it’s not timeless.

Amen, but No Turbo - No Funnn !!! ! !!!

This one is particularly beautiful, gorgeous paintwork.

Never say never!!

not just esprit but every lotus ever🤧

How can just looking at a certain car trigger someone?

@@automation7295 this is not my language. Might have come across differently than what I meant to say. What I meant is that it evokes strong feelings of admiration and nostalgia

I enjoyed these facts!

And what type of Esprit they used on pretty woman movie?

The gearbox was a Renault 25 one. 😅

Fo

@@boosteroids The 2.2 liters 4 cylinders turbo "chargecooler"

Keep this low (funny considering I'm commenting on YT) but... it's apparently alive :)

@@longtailgtWatch Harry's Garage on YT . He takes one on a 1000 mile trip to the Italian Dolomites. Good video you might enjoy 👍

I spoke to a person whose Esprit crashed, and he didn't let go of it so he opted for some big repairs. He had them done at a specialised garage. He told me this same garage reinforced James May's Esprit before it went to that Patagonia Special. So don't think you can go off-road in one. It sounded too good to be true anyway. Officially James May's Esprit was crushed along with the other two cars, in front of officials from both UK and Argentina. But unofficially, who knows.

@@hristodochev That's a sad ending . 🙁 Oh well ... thanks for the update .

You do know tv shows are scripted... Top gear is funny, but it's also scripted, just in their case it's car related scripting.

Cigarette lighter I think

@@DR61411 Yeah, it's just an aluminum fashion piece. I have the exact same one in my STi.

Hidden in the gear shifter.

If looks can kill.

Ejecto Seato Cuz?

Yeah the Esprit is really cool. It is much better looking and more impressive in person too.

@MY OVARIES ARE A FELON FACTORY Well yeah obviouslty considering it's 20 years old

Beautiful piece I buy 1

D back looks,like a Toyota celica

And the Bond movie The spy who loved me. I loved that special in Patagonia.

Macaroni and cheese! 😆 I love that! Like red and yellow cars "ketchup and mustard"

Love hearing the stories of people’s first ride in a sports car. Mine was my sisters boyfriends uncle had a Porsche 991.2 911 gt3 and he took me for a drive on the highway. It’s what really made me fall in love with cars

Mine was a 1998 red Toyota supra targa top. Aunts friend came over and had one. I couldn't believe the power. We went from 10-100 so fast

HA! I got that submarine reference.

@@davec5613 Lol!

James bond lol

The design is just amazing, it has similarities to ferraris and lambos, but is very distinctly its own thing. Has a little bit of JDM in there too.

@@realstory77 Says what? Come on… try better at rickrolling me

love it. love it!

I went to Carroll High School over off Woodman on Linden Ave. So many of my classmates parents worked for GM, Harrison & Delco....saw some neat stuff, but ultimately glad to leave Ohio

In the U.K. Vauxhall (owned by GM at the time) launched their Corsa with advertising stating that the handling was tuned by Lotus. They were famous for their handling. The Corsa was not.

@@sherlockrobin597 😂😂😂

GM owned Lotus in the early-90’s. One of my favorites products of that association is the 1990-1992 Opel Lotus Omega (Opel also being owned by GM). They took a mild mannered European sedan and made it a true Lotus. The right hand drive version was marketed as the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton. It was the fasted sedan in the world for a while.

Check out the Vauxhall/Opel VX220 to see another Lotus badged as a GM car. As for the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton the UK Police used a few for Motorway patrols. No use trying to catch speeding Supercars if you can't keep up with them.

Was looking for a comment on this. That was driving me NUTS!!!

Thanks for Doug Demuro.

Doug is a type of a guy to make monkey sounds when eating banana

I barely made it through that. Shew.

Please stop with these type of Doug jokes. They're old and stale.

The fob had Lotus branding, but it is definitely a Cobra alarm.

Sameeeeee hereeeer...

My friend has a notebook full of where the parts originated from on his lotus esprit. I makes it easy to find the parts cheaply. It is a long list of borrowed parts.

I forget which one but one lambo uses the same indicator/wiper switch gear as you find in a reliant robin/kitten/fox

It’s not where it’s from but how well it works

I love The Spy Who Loved Me .One of my favourite bond films ever. After seeing it in the spy who loved me it made me want one... 'No body does it better, Makes me feel sad for the rest'

Yes it’s true. But as they are British like the Lotus and as everything is planned and written for their show then maybe the Lotus wasn’t as reliable as they said. Or perhaps it was. No one knows except them.

'Several 100 miles without breakdown'.... that's the opposite of reliability

@@TheAdatto ...? 🤔explain.

scripted?

@@og2716 Why would they be insincere about something like that though? Not like they're not impartial to other british cars... Jeremy hates Hammond's Morgans lol

And how many other cars can function so well UNDERWATER?!?!?

Lesser known? Maybe. Underrated? Not even close. “Underrated” is one of the most misused words in the English language. Good job.

It handled not bad and if you modded them to the usual 430-450bhp and rebuilt the gearbox properly then sorted the bad wheel bearings out and got rid of the wheel wobble then yeah they could stay with the 500bhp cossies and all the mad tuned stuff back in the day. Mine warped discs all over the place till I got the bearings replaced with Japanese ones and done every bush on the thing. Only then would it not warp the most expensive discs and pads you could get back then that would fit on it. I done caliper mods the lot before realising the thing just liked to wave its unweighted wheels about so that was causing the grabby feeling if braking into bends and just generally warping the F-ck out of everything, the stock bushing was so soft it caused half the wheel shaking and judder as well as hide it from the driver. Mine blew up in the snow it got snow in the intake overheated

@@cwg73160 it literally is 😂

so true. Once you're done paying for belt change on your Ferrari and done doing engines on 911's. Let's just keep it underrated, undervalued etc. It only makes mine cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain and to insure. So Doug, just delete this video, and forget about the brand ;) Kind regards.

Same

This to join my e46 😍

mine too!

Same here

This car made me a fan. Lotus Carlron Is 2nd place for me on ones I want.

@@kevincollins8620 Maybe Esprit is his exception because Carlton was never sold in North America. So Americans never heard of the Carlton or seen it in person. Lotus Carlton was just a souped up Opel/Vauxhall Omega.

Same here

@@automation7295 To us Carlton is on M3 status. Don't shatter our dreams.

@@automation7295 Bugatti is just souped up VW golf

😂😁😂

@@realstory77 please don't spam. We came here for cool cars and you're redirecting to something unrelated. I know you're a bot, but I hope some human reads this and understands how ineffective and infuriating this tactic is.

@@obsessedwithguitars3157 If you ever go to the videos, they either have a ton of dislikes or the dislikes disabled because the spammer is scared and knows what they're doing. If they made good videos they wouldn't need to spam.

@@bwofficial1776 I did, the comments were universal hate!

There was two of them in Basic Instinct

Maybe, you need to live your dream and buy it?? Too many guys grow of their dreams and never live them...even if you are still a "little boy". Be a MAN and bid on it!!

Hi

Bro

Nah

Hey

Volkswagen cars from the same era had that fob. I remember my parents had to change the housing of the fob for their 2000 VW Polo because the buttons weren't working anymore. Also, on that car, the small button was to unlock the car and the bigger one was to lock it, I don't think the car was equipped with an alarm.

This was the factory OEM keyfob in the Elise (I owned one and they all had it), so I suspect it's also factory for the Esprit.

@@DougDeMuro It was "factory" in many other cars as well. Nothing unusual for different manufacturers to use outsourced keyfobs back in the 90's. I remember ie. Jaguar and Saab having the same keyfobs (though not this one).

@@vibingwithvinyl Jaguar had Ford keys too

@@edwardvalivonis23 True but that's slightly different, as they were owned by Ford.

Hmm

And basic instinct

The backbone chassis is of galvanized steel.

Looking at this now, I can't imagine how Roger Moore was able to fit in one of those. I'm not as tall as Moore OR Doug, and I have a hard time fitting in them. The I realized it was customized to go underwater and do all kinds of things that most Esprits can't.

And "Taking Care of Business" and "If Looks could Kill"- Richard Grieco is laying on the hood of a red one on the poster

Yes. 300HP from a 4 cyl engine back then was a lot. There wasn't too many cares with 4 bangers over 200 hp so 300 hp was a lot. Love this car

Perfectly true and their reliabilty wasn't that awfully bad. And at least not worse than Jaguars, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other heavy sportcars of the same era. Alpine was OK but a heart from Renault could never compete with the brilliant and prestigious Cosworth mills. We are lucky to know this secret! Take care

@@jefferycampbell9182 300hp from a 4cyl is still good today.

I was in a Morris Marina at the weekend - those ash trays look familiar!

Funny how the lotus ended up being the most reliable of the 3 in that special tho

I have one of these and had it for 17 years and it's never failed once.

@@quarthar i think it was scripted tbh. same with the Bolivia special when the Range Rover was the most reliable car (more than a Suzuki Jimny and a fu*king Land Cruiser?) but who knows

Clarkson did not come up with that ,been around years before him .But being a kid you would never know

Lotus is focused on keeping weight down which helps every aspect of performance except reliability. Even so they can be reliable if well maintained, as usually its a minor issue that leads to much bigger trouble (for example poorly maintained cooling system can lead to major issues).

you're a car?

@@kuudereplus yes, he’s KITTs long lost British cousin.

Then, buy it and live your dream. Trade in that boring SUV or Camry.

@@TucsonDude Well, it doesn't really fit with my life and day-job needs. They're becoming more expensive, so I'm waiting on my YT channel to blow up and throw off the cash for it. Also, I would never drive a Camry... I drive an ACCORD! :) :) :)

might as well just get a c5 corvette

Unfortunately, the Esprits that were selling for $15k in the 90s were horribly unreliable. The V8 is really the only engine approaching what we'd call reliable by today's standards. But, if you use it as a weekend car and do all the work yourself, it's relatively affordable.

@@AllCarswithJon If buying an exotic was easy, then everyone would have one. :)

High mileage V8s in general, or high mileage Lotus V8s? I think there might be a slight bit of difference between your average 4.5-6.0L American V8s built to last at least 75-100k miles, the bulletproof Japanese V8s that regularly far exceed the 250k mile mark, and the small production, small displacement European V8s of this era….

@@jimmydiamond75 I’ve had two esprit v8’s. Both in the 60k mileage range. Hard to find them in that high. One of which was not well maintained at all. Never had a major issue. These engines seem solid. It’s the electrical bits that seem pesky on these.

@@jimmydiamond75 and 60k is barely broken in for a Japanese v8

@@timomomomo969 my point exactly!

Agreed.

True. When I was looking to buy one, I looked at a few examples, but every time, I felt to buy it, because it's so persuading standing next to it. Kind regards.

Why did you sell it?

@@sauronthegreat5799 I still own it. I drive it once a week regularly.

@@jtanabodee love the esprit. One of my all time fav cars.

Here is the recommended clip that say it:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QbHAaWyFCz4.html !!

basic instinct you mean

Yeah I've always thought the same. It does come from the Lamborghini Diablo family.

Here is the recommended clip that say it:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QbHAaWyFCz4.html !!

Besides the MR2(I own an sw20), this has got to be my favourite car of all time, absolutely beautiful

I drove my first one a little earlier in the original Test Drive for my Commodore 64. Definitely one of my favorites in the game.

@@brian5o Same here! Showing our age a little. :)

Here is the recommended clip that say it:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QbHAaWyFCz4.html !!

@@realstory77 Not being rude, but what does that have to do with a Lotus Esprit?

Not the Lotus Turbo Challenge? I only played Test Drive 2 though and F40 is still one of my favorite cars.

But if most af the parts are from other car manufacturers you would think that they can be sourced like that?

you can get what ever you want for the Espits. And a extremely solid aftermarket situation through a line of parts dealers. Lotus does not sell to private any more. But it used to be so, that if you visited the factory with your Esprit, they would take a look at it, and eventually service it (fairly cheap) and you could even get it recarpeted or change all leather or repairs if you wanted. In near 10 years onwards, I have not had any part that I cannot get. Nor does my friends. I think it's a bit harder with the Elise. But over time, things are remanufactured. Kind regards.