The pace of innovation and development at Lotus was far too high for organised record keeping to be a strong point and some how the Lotus Type 79 number ended up being given to both the 1978 World Championship winning Formula One car and the otherwise unrelated Lotus Esprit S1 & S2 variations.

The second iteration of the Giugiaro designed Esprit, launched in 1978, featured a wrap around bumper which brought down the aerodynamic measure to Cd 0.355 and improved the handling in cross winds.

The Gotti alloy wheels of the original Elite were replaced by Lotus designed alloy wheels manufactured by Speedline. Inside wider seats were fitted along side new instrumentation and switch gear illuminated by fibre optics, the external rear view mirrors became remotely operated too.

Ears behind the rear 3/4 window were used to feed air into the carburetor on the left and into the engine bay on the right.

The Rover SD1 sourced rear lights now incorporated high intensity fog lamps. 1061 Esprit S2’s were built with the original Type 907 2 litre / 122 cui motor that gave the car a top speed of 124 mph. A further 88 S2.2’s were built with the an identical body, galvanised chassis and Type 912 motors of 2.2 litre / 134 cui with the same 160 hp but much improved torque which made the Esprit much easier to drive around town.

Thanks for joining me on this “Wheels & Ears” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !