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I bought a 2001 Lotus Esprit


rhunt
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I picked up a 2001 Lotus Esprit at a small dealership in Chicago. We started our drive home and got about 30 miles from the dealership when the odo and speedo started to behave erratically. 30 seconds later the car died and we drifted to the side of the highway. 4.5 hours later the tow truck finally showed up and the car was towed to Lamborghini Lotus Chicago. We determined that the alternator had gone bad and we had to next day air one from Lotus Atlanta. They put the alternator on and we drove the car home 750 miles with no other problems. The car drives great and you can not beat the value as these cars are crushed in value. I plan to drive the car almost daily except for rainy and snowy days. It has 20k miles on it so I don't feel bad putting a bunch of miles on it as a regular car would probably depreciate more than the Lotus. I am getting all the fluids changed in a few weeks along with a timing belt change. Here is a picture of me with the car when I picked it up.

 

Rob

post-217-1312739641.jpg

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Congrats and good luck but you know what they say about Lotus - Lot's of trouble usually serious.

 

I agree about the depreciation.

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Nice! Interested to hear how the maintenance and costs associated are with this and the m5. Both are great value.

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I see these rarely now, they're disappearing as the years pass unfortuantely. Always good to hear about one entering the L-Power family.

 

Plus with the mods that Allan did to his the times on the car really dropped, it can pass for modern-performance if you do some easy upgrages.

 

Congrats. :icon_thumleft:

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I see these rarely now, they're disappearing as the years pass unfortuantely. Always good to hear about one entering the L-Power family.

 

Plus with the mods that Allan did to his the times on the car really dropped, it can pass for modern-performance if you do some easy upgrages.

 

Congrats. :icon_thumleft:

 

The car has an aftermarket exhaust and I plan to do the Red Race ECU upgrade. I have already been in contact with Allan so I am sure he can provide me the information and experiences he had with his.

 

The car runs good and handles great. I would like to get another 50 or so HP out of it to make it compete with the little ricers on the road. I am going to be driving it a lot so I won't do too much to it but want to be respectable.

 

Thanks for all the congratulations to everyone.

 

Rob

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Like I said, love the Esprit.. Best Bang for Buck.. Does you exhaust still have cats? If so I would dump them. its a nice boost and sounds great!

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Like I said, love the Esprit.. Best Bang for Buck.. Does you exhaust still have cats? If so I would dump them. its a nice boost and sounds great!

 

my friend has an older S4 with no cats, the difference is amazing. Sounds intense!

 

congrats to the OP on the purchase! I enjoy the seat time I get in my friends car, good times

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my friend has an older S4 with no cats, the difference is amazing. Sounds intense!

 

congrats to the OP on the purchase! I enjoy the seat time I get in my friends car, good times

 

I have put over 3000 miles on it so far with no further problems. I am loving it as a daily driver with the exception of getting in and out of it but that is to be expected. It has high flow cats and aftermarket exhaust on it. I am shipping out the ECU to get the High Torque upgrade to it. I was going to do the red race ECU but don't want to have to dump a bunch of cash in to upgrading the transmission. It drives great and the handling is superb. It is pretty loud and gets some attention but not as bad as my yellow Ferrari did.

 

Rob

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I have put over 3000 miles on it so far with no further problems. I am loving it as a daily driver with the exception of getting in and out of it but that is to be expected. It has high flow cats and aftermarket exhaust on it. I am shipping out the ECU to get the High Torque upgrade to it. I was going to do the red race ECU but don't want to have to dump a bunch of cash in to upgrading the transmission. It drives great and the handling is superb. It is pretty loud and gets some attention but not as bad as my yellow Ferrari did.

 

Rob

The race ecu will not harm the transmission any more than any other tune.. Its up to you how you handle it. As for attention, both my yellow and silver Esprits got more attention than ANY ferrari.. People would walk right passed them to check out the Esprit.

 

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