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Lotus Esprit S4 owned by Mike Webb  Mike
finally bought his Lotus in 1997, twenty years after drool-ing over
James Bond's white Esprit in "The Spy Who loved Me."
It's a 1993 model in standard spec which means 0-60mph in 4.8sec and 160mph plus. Power output is a respectible 264bhp but Mike commented that most people don't realise that the S4 has an 'overboost' facility which gives the driver 285bhp for 15 sec (just rev to over 5000rpm while in neutral). This extra power is welcome as the opportunity for after market tuning on an Esprit is very limited. The 2.2 Litre engine is already being pushed to near it's limits.
However, repairs and servicing can be a nightmare. Standard servicing ranges from around £400 to £1000 (cam belt means engine out). But if anything goes wrong (as it did!) you could be talking thousands! Mike found that despite what you'd think, independent Lotus specialists turned out just as expensive as a franchised dealer.
Performance per pound is superb according to Mike. Acceleration is fantastic, cornering is superb but best of all is the steering feel - it just goes where you point it. Some people find the interior a bit cramped but it's fine for anyone around 6ft tall. It's even got a decent boot.
His all time top 5 are as follows :-
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This
is Mike's first supercar having previously owned a Capri, Escort RS
Turbo and Celica GT. Mike points out that the Esprit is a great
second hand buy (you can pick up an S4 for around £17k) and
insurance isn't too bad considering the market (he's 35, lives in
Birmingham in the UK and with full ncb paid about £700 fully comp).
Mike
said reliability was reasonable but the big bills came from a
leaking petrol tank that needed the engine out to replace! Tyres are
about £170 each and he generally got about 18mpg (if you're
gentle!).
As he said before, prices are great but depreciation is heavy, he
lost around £10k in 4 years. But the best thing of all for Mike
were the looks. He reckons the S4 still looks the business today and
we totally agree! He's actually sold the Esprit now and would be
looking for a Porsche 993 or lhd Ferrari 348 if funds were
available.
