Winter is the new spring for launches

Avoiding 'new car season' has become the norm for a wealth of restomods and other niche vehicles.

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IT SEEMS TO have become a tradition that a flurry of new restomods and hypercars is launched just before Christmas and the New Year, and 2025 has been no exception.

Leading the charge in terms of impact and debate has been the Encor S1, a limited run of 50 remastered versions of the Lotus Esprit S1, a half-century after the original's Paris launch and with a projected cost upwards of £430,000. The basis is an S4 V8 Esprit reclothed in a carbonfibre body that mimics the Giugiaropenned S1 - an S1 was scanned before CAD was used to create the new shape - so while it still employs a backbone chassis, it is the later, evolved version.

The Encor has been designed by Daniel Durrant, former lead designer at Lotus for the Emira, who says: "The S1 Esprit was forward-thinking, pure and utterly uncompromised. To touch a shape like this is a huge responsibility. Every line we've refined, every decision we've made, is about honouring the original's intent while letting the car perform, feel and function in the way its silhouette promised.' The Encor retains the S4's powerplant in place of the Lotus's original 2.0-litre slant-four.