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Karl Crossland's 1990
Karl Crossland from Hull, England, owns a 1990 Turbo in Silver, with a blue interior.
Model:
Turbo Year: 1990 Colour: Silver Interior: Blue Driving Style: Normal Miles per year: 1,000 - 2,000 Owned Since: September 2002 Purchase from: Private Sale Serviced at: Other Cars: Saab 900 16v Turbo Sport Coupe Previous Lotus': None Why an Esprit: Wanted one since I was 12. Upgrades: None at present Problems: None as yet! Info: See my Esprit Stories below
How to cheat at cards and win a drive in a Lotus Esprit
Realizing that you have always wanted to own or at least drive
a Lotus Esprit can eventually eat away at you so much that you decide to ignore
all the horror stories you have heard about the car costing too much own,
service, maintain and run ... and ... you go and buy one !!! Well ... I went
and did it ... I have loved the look at the mystique surrounding the Lotus
Esprit since ... yeah ... you all know I am going to
say ... since I saw the white Lotus Esprit in the James Bond movie ... but
... aha ... your all wrong ... my first visual experience of a Lotus Esprit
was when I was 13 years old ... I am 33 years old now ... so ... without the
aid of a calculator I can confidently tell you that it was 20 years ago when
I first saw a Lotus Esprit
It was 1982 ... my father was working on the oil rigs in the North Sea which if people remember this time ... it was supposed to be the place to be to earn good money ... it wasn't my fathers car ... my father owned a Ford Granada Ghia ... it was my fathers friend who owned the Lotus Esprit ... you remember your father's always seemed to have that one friend who wasn't like your father ... because he had the flash sports car and a different girlfriend every time you saw him ... yeah ... the guy who your mother used to hate.
Okay. okay ... how did I get to drive in the Lotus Esprit when the car only has 2 seats ... and ... you would think that my fathers friend would either have his new blonde girlfriend or my father sitting next to him ... well ... I actually won a ride in a game of cards ... yeah ... its true ... my father and his friend were having a drink or two and playing pontoon one night ... I was sitting next to them with my glass of cherryade pretending to be one of the guys and pestering them to let me play cards for a while ... they agreed to let me play ... and ... after a few games I said that we should play for a bet ... the bet I suggested was ... if my father wins ... then I would do the washing up for a whole week ... and my fathers friend would buy my father a drink ... if my fathers friend wins ... then I would wash his car ... and my father would buy his friend a drink ... but ... if I won ... my father would give me double pocket money ... and my fathers friend would collect me from school in his Lotus Esprit.
My father and his friend were both laughing at me ... and ... the bet was on ... I dealt an ace to my father ... a 10 to my fathers friend ... an ace to myself ... the tension was strong as I sipped my cherryade ... I dealt a 7 to my father ... another 10 to my fathers friend ... the tension was even stronger ... I sipped my fathers Rum and Coke and pretended to like it ... I dealt a king to myself ... pontoon ... I had won ... the surprise and my father and his friends faces was so funny ... I put my hand out to receive 10 quid from father and shook hands with my fathers friend to agree he collect me from school the next day.
Of course I had taken advantage of the situation ... my father and his friend had been drinking and playing cards for close to 3 hours ... they were both quite tiddly ... so ... when my father was refreshing the drinks ... and ... my fathers friend was putting on another Tom Jones LP ... yeah ... I grabbed the pack of cards and located an ace and a king and slipped both the cards under the cushion on the floor where I was sitting ... after I had dealt the cards ... I reached down to take a handful of peanuts from a dish sitting between my legs on the floor ... and ... swapped my original hand of an eight and a three for the ace and the king.
Now ... that's how you to cheat at cards and win a drive in
a Lotus Esprit
New to owning and driving a 1990 Lotus Esprit Turbo
after dreaming for 20 years.
I purchased my silver 1990 Lotus Esprit Turbo in September 2002 I had been thinking to myself that my current car a "J" Saab 900 16 valve turbo sport coupe was reliable and fun to drive ... but ... it was about time I treated myself to a sports car. I thought to myself ... okay ... I have been working overseas for over 2 years now ... I have saved some money ... I will set myself a limit of 15,000 UK pounds to find myself a decent second hand sports car.
I sat back in my office chair and thought to myself ... what car would I like ... what car did I always like when I was a kid ... Lotus Esprit ... I logged onto the Auto trader website and entered "Lotus Esprit" and pressed search ... I was amazed to find more than 7 suitable cars within my price range ... the rest is history so to speak ... I found a suitable car ... told my friend to drive to Wales from Hull in East Yorkshire and appraise the vehicle ... he spent 3 hours checking it over and eventually handed over 11,500 pounds for the said vehicle.
At the time the vehicle was purchased ... I was away from home working overseas in Kazakhstan (between Russia and China) at the time my friend collected the car ... so ... I had to wait a further 2 weeks until I got home before I could drive the car. First experience when you get behind the wheel of a Lotus Esprit for the very first time makes you feel like a child at Christmas when you get the mountain bike you have always wanted ... even before you reach for the key to turn the engine on ... you are anticipating the performance of the car from the drivers seat.
I don't know if it just me ... but ... every time before I
actually get into the car I take a good look at the car and think to myself
every time how much like a sports car it really looks ... in my humble opinion
... there is nothing else on the road that looks like a Lotus Esprit. When
you turn the key and the engine kicks over ... to be honest I don't think
the Lotus Esprit has a tuneful exhaust note ... there are some cars
... particularly Alfa Romeos ... which seem to have had the exhaust built
not only to enhance the performance of the vehicle ... but ... also to let
out a tuneful rasp ... that projects an imagine that the car will perform
really good.
So ... you engage the clutch and slot the gear stick into
first ... well ... you try again to slot the gear stick into first ... you
attempt to move
forward ... aha ... 3rd gear ... bugger ... okay ... the gear change on the
Lotus Esprit is not too hot ... but ... after a little practice ... you do
get used to it ... well okay ... you put up with it. When the first time you
manage to accelerate away in first gear ... you get the first idea that the
car is quite fast ... now ... when you have done this a few times ... you
get the idea that the car is just fast.
Road handling has got to be one of the best points for the Lotus Esprit ... if you take a corner at high speed ... at first you grit your teeth and hope to Christ that the car will make it around the corner and you wont end up asking the farmer to pull your little treasure from his field ... but ... for some amazing Lotus engineered reason ... the car just seems to grip to the road like poop to a duvet ... its a great feeling when you get the car to do exactly what you want it to do ... especially when you are on the motorway in the slow lane doodling along at 70 - 80 ... you indicate to pull out ... drop from 5th to 3rd gear ... punch the accelerator and pull out into the fast lane ... the feeling of instant speed is nothing I have ever felt in a normal everyday family 4 door saloon car ... of course unless your driving an absolutely crazy Lotus Carlton.
I am not particularly mechanically minded ... and ... people have told me that to buy a Lotus Esprit you should be mechanically minded to be able own this vehicle ... oh really ... well ... I am big believer in leaving that kind of work to the specialists and just getting on with enjoying driving the car ... so ... to all you mechanically minded people out there ... well done ... and ... to all you sports car specialist mechanics out there ... don't worry guys ... you can still earn a living from me
Racing a BMW Z3 in a Lotus Esprit Turbo.
Anybody who tells me that they do not drive their Lotus Esprit fast ... I would consider that individual a mad enthusiast who considers their car should be cherished and loved but never driven hard ... or ... just mad !!! A Lotus Esprit is a sports car ... which means it was surely developed for speed and performance ... of course you have to respect the car and use ... but ... don't abuse it ... but ... the whole essence of owning and driving a Lotus Esprit is its speed, performance, handling ... granted ... the car is probably one of the sexiest looking cars on the road ...
so ... when a little 20 something wearing a baseball cap pulls up alongside you in his BMW Z3 ... and ... then takes over you and gives you one of those looks ... you know what type of look I mean ... while you are happily trundling along at 55 mph down a relatively quite country road with no one in sight !!! do you ???
(A) smile at the driver of the BMW Z3 and wish him luck finding a girlfriend even though he has a spotty complexion and the face that only a mother could love ... turn up the volume on the car stereo and enjoy the new CD you purchased ... or ... do you ???
(B) look at the driver of the BMW Z3 which a look that could freeze water ... clutch down ... from 5th to 3rd ... foot to the floor and move past the spotty Colin Mcrae wannabee and great speed.
Well ???
Okay ... I chose option (B) ... and it felt great ... the BMW Z3 just ate my dust ... the BMW Z3 was now just sitting in front of me ... the driver was slowing down after hurtling past me moments before and was now trundling along at a sensible 55mph to 60 mph ... I suppose hoping I would take the bait and race with him ... so ... I shifted from 5th to 3rd and punched the accelerator to the floor and hurtled past the BMW Z3 ... close ahead on the approach was a relatively tight corner ... braked gently in the approach ... shifted down to 2nd and accelerated into the corner ... accelerating all the way through the corner at 35mph ... the back end of the car just very lightly twitching ... shifted into 3rd and continued to accelerate out of the corner up to 70mph ... foot down ... shifted into 4th and steadily approaching a very smooth 100mph ... looking into my rear view mirror I could see the BMW Z3 just banking around the corner ... the good thing in my benefit was that the roads and the area I was travelling ... was the same roads I had driven my cars when I was a 20 something about 10 ish years ago at which time I was driving a mark 1 Volkswagen Golf GTi ... there was a particularly stretch of country roads with some nice bends ... long straights ... and ... which I knew was usually very, very quiet with not many people using the road ... so ... I then shifted into 5th and continued to accelerate to 120mph (if your a police man reading this ... then I am sorry ... but ... it had to be done) at this point the BMW Z3 with zit face was way behind me just starting to accelerate out of the end of the corner ... I new that the straight piece of road ahead of me was just over 1 and 3/4 mile ... so ... I continued to accelerate to 140mph ... at which point the BMW Z3 with zit face was just a blur behind me ... I knew I had to start to slow down soon as there was a cross roads coming up ahead ... I just lifted my foot from the accelerator and let the car coast gradually slowing down ...
I stopped at the cross roads and the road was perfectly clear in all directions ... at this point I decided to wait for the BMW Z3 to catch up and see if he was hungry for more humiliation ... the young guy in the BMW Z3 pulled up alongside me ... he looked across at me and gave me a big smile and a thumbs up then drove away in a different direction with his tail between his legs.
So the Lotus triumphed against the BMW ... it was a good day !!!
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