Special Editions

Lotus loves celebrating milestones by coming out with special editions of Esprits all the time. There have been John Player Special Editions, Jim Clark Special Editions, 40th Anniversary Special Editions, etc, etc, etc. When looking at a used Esprit, don't let yourself be fooled by the dealer into paying too much more for one of these. Most of them are nothing more than a set of decals and commemorative plaques over a standard issue Esprit. When you think about it, Lotus built so few Esprits that every car is, in effect, a "limited edition".

The only major exceptions to the above statement are

  1. The limited production of twenty X180R models mentioned above. These race-ready Esprits sold for $134,000US when new, and are definitely going to be worth more in the used-car market. By the way, for trivia's sake, at one point five out of the twenty X180R's belonged to Microsoft employees.
  2. The Sport300 which is not available for sale in the USA
  3. The S4s, which, although not considered a "special edition", always seems to garner a higher selling price because it is generally considered (even by Lotus employees) the best handling 4-cylinder Esprit made.