Restomod Esprit

[Mito Man]

I feel like this about most restomods. Just do the mechanical stuff. New but discreet infotainment would be nice. LED bulbs inside the headlights and don’t fecking touch it any more. If you really need to improve high speed performance then flat floor. At least you don’t see it.

[Explosive Newt]

I really want to like it but
a) They have made it look worse
b) For half a million I would want it to turn into a submarine

[Beany]

I feel like this about most restomods. Just do the mechanical stuff. New but discreet infotainment would be nice. LED bulbs inside the headlights and don’t fecking touch it any more. If you really need to improve high speed performance then flat floor. At least you don’t see it.

Well, that, and actually pay attention to fitment of everything, use decent fixtures, rewire it from scratch to be fully modern so it's actually reliable, etc.

But otherwise, yeah, this feels overdone and looks a bit weird to me. What are those tail lights? The rear end of the Esprit always had vertically seperated sections didn't it? why are these horizontally orientated LED bars now?

I just don't get it.

[Jimmy Choo]

I really want to like it but
a) They have made it look worse
b) For half a million I would want it to turn into a submarine

While I love the idea of an esprit that works, for half a million you could just buy 8 of them and work your way through them as they die.

I'd probably spend £65k on a sport 350 and get a bespoke gearbox that won't shit its biscuits at the first opportunity. I'm sure I could sling it at @dan and get him to make it all work.

[integrale_evo]

I like the interior, but the outside looks awful. No ta.

[Beany]

I really want to like it but
a) They have made it look worse
b) For half a million I would want it to turn into a submarine

While I love the idea of an esprit that works, for half a million you could just buy 8 of them and work your way through them as they die.

I'd probably spend £65k on a sport 350 and get a bespoke gearbox that won't shit its biscuits at the first opportunity. I'm sure I could sling it at @dan and get him to make it all work.

Honestly that's the sort of thing I'd rather too. Buy a ratty Sport 350, chuck about half the cost of this thing at someone like Dan, and get the chassis stripped back and properly protected, the interior stripped out and rebuilt using modern adhesives and sound deadening, etc. Take the time over it that they didn't have at the factory, with materials they wouldn't have had access to for a variety of reasons (time period, money etc)

Maybe replace the drivetrain with something more modern, but still appropriate to the application - or just rebuild the existing one nicely.

Get all the electronics ripped out, burned in a bin, and replaced with something commercial off the shelf that is actually maintainable (same with things like brakes/ABS/TC - that tech has come a long way etc)

Have a car that's still very much mostly a classic Esprit in the majority of ways it should be, but never have to think about about putting the key in it in the morning and worrying if it's gonna start or stamping the brakes and hoping they work - actually make it usable daily, rather than something you stick in your glass walled garage to impress your investment banker and venture capitalist mates.

Park it on the street and use it to pick up kitkats and frozen chips

[integrale_evo]

Hey Dan, how much to make a full carbon s1 esprit body and doors with a couple of very subtle alterations please?

[dan]

About 50 grand

[Beany]

If that's broadly right, that's actually less than I expected

[dan]

That’s roughly what it might hypothetically cost to have a carbon (in both senses of the word) copy done of an existing body. Tweaks to the styling would add cost….

[Mito Man]

50 grand is the cost of a replacement carbon McLaren splitter!

[nuttinnew]

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/ ... ch-perfect

[Beany]

I've just noticed it has a full TFT binnacle, but a five speed gearbox.

A fucking five speed box? In 2025? Get fucked.

[integrale_evo]

Did they actively aim to make the rear end look like a 60s dodge charger?

Not a fan of the standard rear lights obviously stolen from another car, so I would have zero issues with a slightly cleaned up more bespoke solution, but really, is that the best they could come up with?

[RobYob]

Those wheels and ride height do it no favours. The projector lamps I'll forgive because any pop-up is better than no pop-up (looking at YOU Diablo restomods).

Beany is correct, a five speed box is GTFO amateurish.

There was a lovely white S1 on I think 14" Wolfraces at Hethel left unlocked in a corner for ages, I'd have rehomed the poor thing but I didn't fit!

[mik]

Just in case anyone needs reminding how good the V8 that you’re about to pull apart looks. Particularly on these wheels (better than the Sport350 wheels for me).

[integrale_evo]

Lotus themselves did a massive downgrade on those with the ugly 355 style rear light conversion. I know it was because they’d run out of ae86 lights, but it still looked like a tacky aftermarket conversion.

I’d want to be able to pick and choose rear wings, they played around with them quite a bit and some look a bit rubbish, but not actually sure which I would choose. Could probably be tempted to go wingless with maybe a little kick up at the back of the tail.

[IanF]

Looks better in these pics

[Beany]

Beany is correct, a five speed box is GTFO amateurish.

"We've replaced everything, except the most objectively shit part of the car, in period and now"

(Yeah I know they've strengthened it, but five speeds is still a joke)

[integrale_evo]

I presume there’s still a transaxle availability issue, I mean, lotus never got around to making their own in the 40 odd years they were making esprits.