The Lotus Grand Tourers

Nowt to do with me (or it wouldnt be for sale), the active esprit at anglia auctions, I say active, the last owner clearly didnt get the suspension working, but.....
I presume the active Excel never made it out of the captivity of Hethel.

Bash
https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic ... -essex-car

All that money spent on restoration, and they still couldn't get the most interesting bit to work...

No one will buy it for that price. Lovely story though.

Ive sent an email to classic team Lotus nagging them to buy it back, anyone else want to join the 'nag' and get them to buy it back ?

Bash
Ps, I dont do facebook but is anyone willing to drop the idea there too including Esprit owners.

bash wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 09, 2024 10:43

Ive sent an email to classic team Lotus nagging them to buy it back, anyone else want to join the 'nag' and get them to buy it back ?

Bash
Ps, I dont do facebook but is anyone willing to drop the idea there too including Esprit owners.

I know MJK has commented on Facebook that it should never have been sold and should be part of Lotus history.

I did see the car last year - don’t think it has all it’s brains to make it work. So an expensive ornament for someone.

bash wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 08, 2024 15:36

but.....
I presume the active Excel never made it out of the captivity of Hethel.

Bash

I think at least 2 did. One was for sale when I bought my first one. It needed some restoration and was missing it’s brains.

Another possible one came up for sale about 2 years ago. Fully restored, but converted to “normal” suspension - inner arch shape was very different to standard car.

As Alan says, the ‘brains’ are missing. I remember hearing that the software was probably thrown away during one of the clearouts at Hethel. That I think included the processor as the software would have been on some kind of non-volatile memory. Such a shame.

I got a reply from Classic Team Lotus.....
Hi John
Thank you for your email, yes, we spotted the active Esprit a couple of weeks ago, we did think about bidding but £90k/£120k is way too much for us, for what is possibly a can of worms!
We made a big investment buying Paul Matty’s parts, which is slowly turning into a business but is keeping us very busy trying to get things sorted and offer a decent range of parts for all classic Lotus cars (including Excel, I know, work in progress).
Having said that, we will keep an eye on the auction.
We are in the process of restoring Senna’s 99T Active car, including the Active Suspension, so really have our hands full.
Hopefully, whoever buys it, will treat it with respect.

Very best regards

Rupert

Very nice of them to reply, anyone know any rich benefactor that might donate it to them !!!!
If they can sort Sennas car out who knows ?

Bash

Thanks for that Bash! It really was an interesting period for Lotus.

Pete

Don't know if already spotted, but the "active" Esprit is for sale on EBay ref.176248924857.
Can't quite afford it, but a great read. Jeff.

bash wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 09, 2024 21:28

I got a reply from Classic Team Lotus.....
Hi John
Thank you for your email, yes, we spotted the active Esprit a couple of weeks ago,
We are in the process of restoring Senna’s 99T Active car, including the Active Suspension, so really have our hands full.
Hopefully, whoever buys it, will treat it with respect.

Very best regards

Rupert

Very nice of them to reply, anyone know any rich benefactor that might donate it to them !!!!
If they can sort Sennas car out who knows ?

Bash

I wonder whether Senna's active suspension F1 car's computer could run the Esprit.