The Lotus Esprit made its debut at the Turin Motor Show as early as 1972. Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro’s M70 prototype received well-deserved admiration, and the Esprit S1 production model was presented at the Paris Motor Show in the summer of 1976. Colin Chapman’s idea gave birth to a purposeful sports car: light, fiberglass body, backbone steel chassis and independent suspension. A high-revving, longitudinally mounted DOHC 16 four-cylinder engine in the middle of the car, whose power resources were restrained by disc brakes installed in every corner. The result was the familiar Lotus, a handcrafted car where driving was the focus. The selection of the Esprit as a secret agent’s diving vehicle in the 1977 film 007 – Spy Who loved me further increased the car’s international interest.

In 1980, Lotus wanted to create its own equivalent to the supercar market and challenge the larger and heavier competitors of the major car manufacturers, such as Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche, who relied especially on the amount of top power. As a Formula 1 class and racing car developer, Colin Chapman knew the recipe for a fast car and good driving characteristics. Lotus had won its most recent world championship in motorsport’s premier class just two years earlier. Chapman stuck to his ideology of making a sports car as simple and light as possible that would be fast and efficient enough. At the same time, they wanted to visibly respect the F1 sponsorship agreement with the British driver David Thieme and the Essex Overseas fuel company.

As a result, Lotus got the power source it deserved and thus the Lotus Turbo Esprit Essex was born. The car’s 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine was equipped with a Garrett turbocharger and two Dellorto carburetors. Chapman wanted to ensure engine lubrication in competition use and the engine was implemented with dry sump lubrication. The peak power was 210 horsepower at 6,250 rpm and the acceleration to 60 mph’s took 5.5 seconds, with a top speed of 152 Mph / 245 kilometers per hour.

The bumpers and skirts of the car were more aerodynamically shaped compared to the basic model of the S3 generation, and the Essex model had an Essex blue body, taped with the Essex company’s red/chrome stripes. The Essex model was also equipped with air conditioning and a Panasonic cassette radio. However, the Essex livery with red stripes was not to the liking of all buyers, and in the end only 43 Essex cars were sold to customers.

However, the Lotus factory was prepared to produce slightly more cars, and the rest of the cars with dry sump engines were sold without the Essex livery. This car is one of them. Lotus produced about 143 Dry Sump cars, until Lotus decided that wet sump lubrication was a more affordable and reliable enough way to handle the lubrication of the Turbo Esprit engine.