Skip advert
Advertisement

Lotus Esprit – Dead on arrival

Whilst Lotus’s 2010 Esprit concept never made it past the styling stage, there was a fully functioning prototype of its all-new in-house hybrid V8

Lotus Esprit

Remembering the Dany Bahar era at Lotus can sometimes feel like recalling the details of an insane fever dream. The vapid ‘brand lifestyle’ magazines printed on paper so glossy it was like trying to read condensed milk. The ‘boutique’ shops selling expensively confected luxury goods while the road car range still hinged on the aged and basic Elise. The 2010 Paris motor show press day when a random grab bag of celebrities including Naomi Campbell and frizzy haired badger enthusiast Brian May pulled the covers off five brand new models while Sir Stirling Moss popped up to proclaim that if he was 50 years younger with one of these cars, ‘well you’d pick up all the girls, wouldn’t you?’ Seriously dude, feel my head, I think I’m running a bit hot.

Advertisement - Article continues below

The minds at Lotus were clearly fevered too, since they honestly reckoned they’d have five all-new cars ready for sale within six years (plus a hybrid city car, made in partnership with then-owner Proton). It was a scheme of such towering ambition that even a well-resourced megacorp such as Toyota or Volkswagen would think twice about giving it a shot, never mind showing their hand by revealing ‘concept’ versions of the entire future portfolio, having designed and built all six from scratch in just ten months.

Skip advert
Advertisement
Advertisement - Article continues below

It seemed like a lot of flim-flam, but there was a small sliver of substance behind it because in Norfolk work was under way on production versions of these concepts, starting with the new-generation Esprit. This one sounded promising, and it got a whole lot more intriguing when Bahar, perhaps still giddy from Parisian afternoons with Brian May, decided to bin its adapted Lexus V8 and instruct Lotus engineers to confect an in-house engine instead.

> Lotus Type 62/2 coachbuilt by Radford debuts at The Quail

In fact, it’s the V8 that’s the real focus of this story, because normally on this page we talk only about cars that got perilously close to production, and the Esprit did not do that. Plenty of CAD work was completed on its basic packaging and performance, and the designers were adapting the show car’s looks to be feasible for production, but it was all a long, long way from finished. The slick-looking Paris motor show car was little more than a glassfibre styling model fitted with electric motors that allowed it to move (slowly) onto the stage. Whereas the engine did reach the fully functioning prototype stage. According to Bahar boasts at the time, it was good for 570bhp in league with optional KERS, and claimed to be 80 kilos lighter and 40 per cent smaller than the bought-in V8 it had usurped. The new motor had been run on a dyno and got so far as to be installed in a hacked-about Ferrari 458 for real-world testing before the roof fell in on the House of Bahar.

The man himself was dismissed in 2012, the magic money tap that was funding his plans ran dry, and the lone powertrain mule was written off in an accident, never to be replaced. With Bahar’s departure, the other Paris cars were quickly declared dead, but the Esprit remained a ‘live’ project until 2014 when new boss Jean-Marc Gales pulled the plug. The promising new hybrid V8 would never get to be anything more than an aborted engineering project.

As a side note, a source tells us that the Esprit revealed at the 2010 Paris show has not been junked and still lives at Hethel, where it serves as a reminder for those working on the Evija hypercar to ‘do things properly this time’.

Skip advert
Advertisement

Recommended

Jaguar C-X75 – dead on arrival
Jaguar C-X75 front
Features

Jaguar C-X75 – dead on arrival

It's unimaginable now but here was a Jaguar concept that absolutely everyone loved... and mourned when it didn't make production
22 Jul 2025
Volkswagen EA 128 – dead on arrival
Volkswagen EA 128
Features

Volkswagen EA 128 – dead on arrival

It was a four-door with a Porsche flat-six at the rear – which was exactly what ’60s America didn’t want
6 May 2025
Lamborghini Cheetah – dead on arrival
Lamborghini 4x4
Features

Lamborghini Cheetah – dead on arrival

How the Italian supercar maker once put its name to a 4x4 intended for the American military
8 Apr 2025
Maserati Quattroporte II – dead on arrival
Maserati Quattroporte II
Features

Maserati Quattroporte II – dead on arrival

Progress on this Citroën SM-derived four-door stalled when the French firm faltered in the mid-’70s
27 Feb 2025
Skip advert
Advertisement

Most Popular

Best cars of the 1980s – performance icons from the decade of excess
Best '80s cars
Best cars

Best cars of the 1980s – performance icons from the decade of excess

The performance car as we’ve come to adore it has its origins in the 1980s. Family cars got fast, fast cars got faster, all of them were huge fun
19 Aug 2025
Mercedes-Benz EQS 2025 review – electric S-class takes aim at the BMW i7
Mercedes EQS – front
In-depth reviews

Mercedes-Benz EQS 2025 review – electric S-class takes aim at the BMW i7

Mercedes put all of its resources into creating a bespoke all-electric flagship, but it’s not quite worthy of replacing the S-class yet
18 Aug 2025
Gordon Murray has built two new supercars, and one of them looks just like a McLaren F1
GMSV S1 LM and Le Mans GTR
News

Gordon Murray has built two new supercars, and one of them looks just like a McLaren F1

Gordon Murray has announced the Le Mans GTR and S1 LM – a pair of track-oriented spin-off supercars from a new Special Vehicles division
15 Aug 2025