Bond-Era
Lotus Esprit Reborn To Outrun Supercars
A new
British startup remasters the 50-year-old S1 Esprit using carbon panels and
turbocharged V8 power
It’s 50
years since the original Lotus Esprit glided onto the stage at the 1975 Paris
Motor Show and almost as long since James Bond’s underwater exploits made it one of the
most famous cars in the world. But the S1 Esprit has never received the full
carbon-fiber, Singer-style reimagining it deserves. Until now.
A new
British outfit called Encor has pulled the covers off its Series 1, a
carbon-bodied and modernized, but spiritually old-school, remastering of the
original Giugiaro-designed wedge. Encor teased the project a few weeks ago, but now we
get the whole story, and it’s clear the guys are not messing around.
The team
behind the Series 1 – whose resumés list time at Lotus, Aston, and Koenigsegg –
has resurrected the profile of the ’75 car, but with surfaces tightened, lines
sharpened, and the old two-piece fiberglass mold seam banished in favor of a
single autoclaved carbon shell.
Reimagined pop-ups
Lighting is
handled by ultra-compact LEDs tucked into slim pop-up housings, because Encor
understands that a tribute to the Esprit without pop-ups just wouldn’t cut it.
The wheels blend the S1’s slot-mag vibe with the five-spokes from the later
Sport 350, continuing the era-blending theme.
Underneath,
the engineering is equally serious. Each Series 1 begins life as a late 1990s
donor Esprit V8, which Encor strips to molecular
levels and rebuilds with forged pistons, upsized injectors, renewed turbos,
modern cooling, and a stainless exhaust.
Twice as
fast to 60 mph
The result:
around 400 hp (406 PS), 350 lb-ft (478 Nm), and a target weight under 1,200 kg
(2,650 lbs). That means zero to 62 mph (100 kmh) in about 4 seconds and a top
speed near 175 mph (282 kmh). In short, it performs like the S1 looked like it
should have performed, but never did.
The
Quaife-tuned five-speed manual gains revised ratios, a stronger shaft, a
twin-plate clutch, and a limited-slip differential, essentially turning the
famously fragile original tranny into something you can shift without praying
first.
Suspension
gets the Sport 350 treatment, AP Racing handles the braking, and the steering
remains hydraulically assisted, Encor knowing full well that any Esprit without
steering feel is just pointless.
1970s
tartan meets 2020s digital
Inside, it
is part museum, part sci-fi. The sloped dash, tartan accents, and deep seating
position remain, but everything is rebuilt with modern materials and obsessive
detail.
The
floating instrument binnacle is machined from a single billet of aluminium,
wrapping a digital display that the S1 could only have dreamed of between breakdowns.
Only 50
will be built, each starting at £430,000 ($574,000) plus taxes and the required
donor Esprit. Deliveries begin in 2026. Would you take this over a 911 restomod?
Source: Carscoop.
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