1998 Lotus Esprit Story
This started as one of those 'don't meet your hero' stories. I always loved the V8 Esprit and was finally able to purchase one. I was told it had a built engine and recently had the interior redone. Turns out it was a turd with low compression, rod knock and an interior that was far below the factory quality. I decided to dive into it and rebuild it myself while having those with more skill tackle the fabrication work. The goal was to make it an OEM+ restoration, to keep the factory look and feel but have it just something extra all around. I ended up with my dream car being the highest horsepower Lotus Esprit V8 ever documented according to member of the Esprit community. With only about 1250 V8 Esprits built for the world wide market these cars are becoming increasingly rare. It was definitely a fun build project and got to meet a lot of great people during the process.
– Tom Hartje
Mods
- Performance: Engine rebuilt with forged CP pistons, Line-2-Line piston skirt coating, Cerakote piston coating, Twin Garrett turbos, billet crank, water to air intercoolers custom built by Jeffery Kennedy, custom fuel system, 1000cc injectors, titanium exhaust build by Jason Simmons, GTO Engineering transaxle internals, Quaife LSD. IGN1A smart coils. Link Extreme ECU and Link Razor PDM. Custom wiring harness.
- Suspension: Protech front/rear dampers, eibach front/rear springs, Polyurethane bushings, front suspension widened 4cm – custom job by Jeffery Kennedy, 6 piston front brake calipers and 4 piston rear calipers from PNM Engineering
- Exterior: Custom widebody fender flare by UMB in Thailand, Fender fitted and pained by ABC Auto Body, all lights replaced with LED, Dapper Lighting projector headlamps, Gregs Racing Parts LED Tail lights
- Interior: Complete interior carpet kit by Steve Margary, Alcantera headliner by Country Auto Upholstry, Momo street fighter steering wheel, customer short shifter and complete shifter assembly by Jeffery Kennedy, Blaupunkt Bremen SQR46 Radio, custom 2bar boost gauge by Caerbont
- Wheels: 17.8.5 Advan TC front wheels, 18×12 Advan Porsche GT wheels in the back, custom Lotus center caps made with badges from HethelSport.
- Tires: 235/40/17 Yokohama Advan Fleva in the front, 335/30/18 Continental ExtremeContact Sport in the back
- Other Mods: Tuned by Tony Szirka at UMS Tuning. Cerakote ceramic coated engine block, heads, turbos, exhaust manifold, intercoolers, transaxle case. Cerakote piston coating on piston crowns, cylinder head bowls and exhaust ports. Cerakote microslick on valve stems, main bearings, cam bearings, and oil pump internals. Funk Motorsports turbo blankets. Clutch modified by Falcon Clutch in NY.
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