Esprit de cor!

Lotus marked the 50th anniversary of the Esprit with a VIP event and a special display at a fitting venue. SIMON HUCKNALL was on the guest list

- PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON

We think of the Porsche 911 as being the stalwart of the junior supercar world, but after 28 years and more than 10,000 sales, the Lotus Esprit in all its guises was probably the closest contender. And this year marks half a century since it broke cover at the 1975 Paris motor show, where its radical Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed shape was revealed in production form for the first time. Overseen by Colin Chapman and a small team from Hethel, the Esprit went on to be Lotus’s first proper Ferrari challenger. Its four-cylinder engine and initially meagre output were mitigated by a sublime chassis, a sub-900kg kerb weight and bar-raising mid-engined dynamics.