A pinup in its day. Just as gorgeous now. And this one's as fresh as you could conceivably find...
1975 was notable for a few reasons. On a micro level, it was significant for me because that’s the year I arrived on this planet kicking and screaming – actions that I never really grew out of if I’m honest. And on a macro level, it’s the year the swoopy, Pininfarina-designed Ferrari 308 GTB arrived at the Paris Motor Show. The Porsche 911 Turbo was there also, which had just gone on sale, but alongside those two giants there was another significant icon-in-waiting, too: the new Lotus Esprit S1.
Sometimes, greatness appears as effortlessness. A bit like when you watch Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen appear to cruise effortlessly to victory while, behind them, the other drivers thrash around – including their teammates in the same car – in vain to keep up. And on a design level, that’s what the Series 1 Esprit was like. Stand back and observe Giorgetto Giugiaro’s design and it’s dead simple. It’s nothing but a few intersecting lines. A join-the-dots supercar silhouette, if you like.
No wonder, then, that the Series 1 was a landmark car. And, as is often the case, over the ensuing years the simplicity gave way to added aggression, drama and weight. But unlike Mustangs of the 70s, 80s and, well, nearly every version up to the current one, the Esprit never really lost its way. Yes it became heavier but never a heavy weight, even as it morphed into the X180. It grew muscles in the notion of power – much more power – but mostly it retained its sense of purity, too.
Certainly that was still the case with the Esprit S4S. Yes, the arches are fatter and it has a huge rear wing sprouting from its rump, but the essence of the S1’s shape is still there, lurking underneath it all. It still looks pretty. The S4S came hot on the heels of the more motorsporty Sport 300. That had over 300hp, a hot-headed top end, and just 1,243kg to shove along. Sure, that’s more than the 1,000-odd kilos of the original but hardly lardy.
It was still exciting, in other words, but more applicable to those that did more miles on-road than on-track. Yet there’s no denying that the Esprit had, by now, moved from sports car to supercar. The S4S’s sub-five-second sprint to sixty and near-170mph top speed was proof of that – both quick for the time and still quick enough today.
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