Air Conditioner
| Silly A/C Vents | Ventilation was pretty much an afterthought is Esprit
design until the '90 SE. My 1989 SE was one of the many Esprits that has
those highly efficient knee-cooling vents; not to mention those
wonderful upward facing vents that so cleverly frost your windshield and
quarter windows.
In 90MY Lotus finally wised-up and moved some of the vents to the binnacle so that they would be truly face-level. I often contemplated replacing my main dash with the newer ones, just so I could relocate the vents. Then I could freeze my knuckles instead of my knees. In 98MY Lotus redesigned the interior of the Esprit to make it more up to date. In doing so they replaced the a/c vents with face-level units in more conventional positions. An added benefit is that the passenger side vents actually face the passenger now instead of leaving a frosted circle on the surface of the windshield. BTW: no matter how cool your face (or knees) get, your back still gets sweaty in the wonderful 105(F) degree Florida summers. Some owners have overcome this with sheepskin seat-covers. These really do help prevent you from leaving your outer layers of skin on the hot leather when you're wearing shorts. Unfortunately, they also cover the beautiful Lotus leather seats. You decide. |