1991 Lotus Esprit

SE Coupe

2.2L 4cyl

Manual

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Clear

I've decided to sell my fantastic, low-mileage '91 SE. I am the third owner, and the car is in great overall condition, with low 22000 original miles, and a few key upgrades that are popular among Esprit owners. In the 12 years I've owned it, the car has been serviced exclusively by Ralph Stechow at RS Motorsports in Closter NJ. It has recently returned from its "A service" and is running great. Here's the scoop on the upgrades: Obviously, as you can see I've got the V8 wheels. Around the time I did that upgrade, I added adjustable dampers to reset the ride height with the larger wheels. You can set the suspension softer or stiffer with a few clicks of a rotary dial at each wheel. I have the WC Engineering single ball bearing turbo upgrade, which was custom designed for the SE. It came with matching larger secondary injectors . I also have a mildly more aggressive exhaust cam grind from Garry Kemp in the UK. Before these upgrades, with only a race chip installed, the car dyno'd 288 horsepower at the rear wheels. Since the turbo, the spool up time and overall acceleration is notably faster, but I have not dyno'd it since. In addition, the car comes with the following two upgrades that are ready to drop in: 1. An up-sized intercooler from Marcus Freudhoefer at PUK Racing in Germany. This is a much larger unit, which keeps temperatures down with the bigger turbo. I had it installed and it performs as designed. I removed it to powder coat it red like the original, which I never got around to doing it. So the original is currently installed. It only takes a few minutes and a couple wrenches to swap this in, and you can install it yourself. Pictures included above. 2. A front "big brake" kit from WC Engineering. These are custom 13" rotors with beautiful AP Racing calipers and Hawk pads. It's never been installed, and the rotors are still in their original packaging. This was over $3000 new and I'm including it with the car. Any qualified Esprit mechanic will be able to install this. Pictures included above. There are only two issues with the car: The AC is not charged -- it never has been, as long as I've owned it. It's the original system that ran the old R12 refrigerant, and I never got around to getting it charged or finding a suitable replacement (R24?) refrigerant. The shift boot is a little ragged. Some guys simply roll it down when it tears, but I like the look of the boot and always intended to replace it. but never got around to doing it. So why am I selling this? This was a great hobby for a while. I learned a lot about turbo engines. And I also learned a lot about what it's like to have pedestrians giving you a thumbs-up at every streetlight. It's hard to be stealthy in this car! But living in Brooklyn, with cramped streets and nearly constant gridlock, I simply haven't driven it nearly as much as I'd like to. It mostly sits in the garage now, and that's a shame. And the reason why I've decided it's time to part ways. Hopefully you can give this car a great -- and possibly less urban -- home, where it can see more street time than it has here. Thank you! -- UPDATE: Many more photos! Interior, engine bay. As you can see, the interior is basically awesome. I removed the nameplate from the stock intercooler thinking I might attach it to the new one or make a stencil out of it -- but never got around to doing so. You'll most likely be using the new one. Powder coated in red was always the plan, which would look awesome. Thanks! -- UPDATE 2: Because eBay refuses to post the questions I've been answering, here's some more info: The car has returned from its A service this month, and has less than 500 miles since its last C service several years ago. It's been garaged almost entirely since then and only driven locally very occasionally. Hence why I'm selling it.I double checked with Ralph at RS Motorsports earlier today about timing belt life span, and he said he thinks it probably has another couple years on it. Even if you were to do a C service in the next year or two, I believe the car is priced right. The brake kit alone is comparable in cost.If you're not from the New York area, Ralph is *the* guy up here and he really is great. Aside from my own tinkering (intercooler, blow off valve), the car has only been seen by him and I've kept all his records. He also has a complete records.Owner's Manual: I'm including a complete set of technical manuals with the car. Three giant binders, with schematics for anything you could ever really want to know about the car's operation -- engine, electrical, EFI, you name it. If you do any DIY repairs or mods, you will want this.