1977 Lotus Esprit Coupe

The production Esprit was introduced at the 1975 Paris Motor Show. It had fiberglass body panels, a steel backbone chassis, and was powered by a 2-liter four-cylinder engine sourced from the Europa and the Eclat. Although exotic, its engine, combined with its 2,000 lb. unladen weight, did not make it very fast. In European guise, the engine offered 160 horsepower with the American-market cars had 140 hp. Later updates added additional power, eventually receiving a turbocharger.

The Series I examples had black front and rear bumpers, no side air ducts behind the passenger compartment, and taillights from the Fiat X1/9.

This particular example was completed by the factory on February 16th, 1977, and was the 27th of 459 Series I Esprits distributed to the U.S. market. It is the second of just six U.S. examples painted in orange (S04), of which four were finished in 'self-color' gelcoat, where the original color was added to the gelcoat. The interior was trimmed in Oatmeal cloth on the seats, center console, and door trim, along with brown Marcasite elsewhere.

The car's first owner was Tim Zaremba, a real-estate developer who only put about 4,000 miles on it before tucking it away in climate-controlled storage under a car cover for decades. It was later discovered and acquired by Tony Krncevic.

The car currently rides on the original tires wrapped around the correct Wolfrace chrome alloy wheels.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2018