1977 Lotus Esprit

S1 Coupe

4 - Cyl.

Manual

77060308H

Gasoline

Here we have a 1977 Lotus Esprit S1 which has been modified by the previous owner to include several interesting body design elements including the original rear quarter vertical vent slats which appeared on the original Lotus Esprit prototype the M70, and lower sill panel gills to aid in airflow into the engine bay.. As such this is NOT a car for Lotus purists who desire an untouched, unmodified body and or interior. It is however a car on it's way to becoming a one-of-a-kind show car. The S1 had the unique recognizable angular lines that made the 007 car famous, which remains in this car, with additional thousands of dollars in finish work to maintain the look of the car, but bring other design elements to it. First, the original body from Lotus was made in halves (top and bottom), then sandwiched together with a trim piece to hide where the two halves met. On this car, this has been smoothed out so that the trim piece is eliminated and the body is unified. I must say a really nice job that was done on that. Other modifications to the body include lower sill "gills", and as I mentioned previously the custom "intake" style rear quarter vents, Frenched license plate area, front spoiler and more. The body of the car is really great. The body is in gray primer awaiting some additional sanding and paint. I bought the car at the stage you see it in in these photos. It has a fresh 907 engine with matched number Dell'Orto DHLA 45 carburators and Citroen transaxle with reportedly less than 1000 miles on them. They were rebuilt at Viking Motorsports in Costa Mesa, CA. The engine was rebuilt to race level quality. The previous owner had plans to replace the interior, so it has been removed. He reupholstered the door panels and seats using a black/orange leather, there is also a roll of each of those materials for additional dash center tunnel covering as well as a roll of high quality black carpet to finish the interior. The car obviously has custom wheels/tires. The body flares were widened to accommodate the wider tires. It is very tastefully done. It has a custom made gage panel with some Stack quality gauges. The car has dual racing fuel cells (of course runs on pump gas), a high end ignition, It also has a cabin operated Halon Fire suppression system....and a high performance radiator. In addition, the previous owner purchased the parts for, and remodeled the "boot" to allow the installation of a later Esprit Heater/AC system A/C (not otherwise available in this year). The complete heater/AC system, A/C hoses, compressor and condensor are all there. There is also a custom made aluminum hatch cover with the car as well as a turbo style rear hatch cover. Also a complete set of new rubber seals that were to go on after the paint, and many other factory Lotus re-assembly parts. I think there is close to every part required to put this car's interior back together. I do not have the California Title, but do have the California License Plate for the car which should make obtaining a new title easy. Otherwise, I am selling this car as a project/parts car. The motor/transaxle rebuild alone was close to $10,000, and of course there are many other difficult to locate parts. I really wanted to complete this car. I am selling it because I have three other Lotus Esprit's in various stages of restoration and frankly, this one just sits without any progress being done to it. I figure this there are guys out there who would love to compolete this project and own one of the most unique Esprit's anywhere. Or if you need an entire S1's car woth of bits, here you go. Happy bidding!On Dec-23-11 at 13:18:48 PST, seller added the following information: In response to a few inquiries, yes I will accept offers that are sensible given the fact that this car has a refreshed engine & gearbox and needs only the interior restored and the body finish-painted. I always envisioned the car painted Calypso Red, but you might envision sometyhing different.