1986 Lotus Esprit Turbo Test: Animal Magnetism

Car and Driver

13-07-2025

From the July 1986 issue of Car and Driver.
There's something about this car that turns people a little wacko. Porsche guys hate it. They pull up next to you on the freeway, give this evil flower a sniff, and then nail it. Most of the time, this freeway tango isn't so much a challenge to race as it is a simple declarative sentence. It's the profiler's way of saying, "My car can beat up your car." Most can't, but they try. You get some of this from everybody. Guys with personality disorders in jacked-up '76 Camaros suddenly feel a need to crack open their secondaries when they see the Esprit cruising in the next lane. House­wives with station-wagon loads of kids want to drag-race you out of the supermar­ket lot. Bikers give you thumbs-up signs and pop half-mile wheelies.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
What's the meaning of this? Is the Esprit Turbo some kind of automotive Bermuda Triangle? Does it throw sane men com­pletely out of calibration? Does it invali­date the laws of common sense? Does it re­lieve the heartbreak of psoriasis?
The answer to all of these questions, of course, is yes. This Lotus could turn Franz Kafka into a party animal.
The reasons are easy to understand. The Giugiaro-designed Esprit measures a mere 44.5 inches from pavement to roof. That's about the height of your average three-drawer file cabinet. It's wide and wedgy, and it has lots of what the Japanese like to call "surface excitement." That means enough scoops, rocker-panel ex­tensions, air dams, sharp angles, and body breaks to qualify as a shuttle craft for the Millenium Falcon. Except for the Lamborghini Countach, there is nothing on the street that can touch the Esprit's mondo­tomorrow looks. If we had a dollar for ev­ery hard stare we got while driving our test car, we could afford to buy an Esprit in about a day—maybe a day and a half in light traffic.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
One of the other things that make peo­ple a little goofy over this car is the engine noise. At idle it sounds like an F1 motor ex­haling through cardboard tubes filled with beer. More important, and unlike some domestic engines with "sport-tuned" ex­haust systems, the Esprit's turbocharged, sixteen-valve, 2.2-liter, mid-mounted four-cylinder isn't just a lot of talk. For the first time since this engine's debut, in the 1973 Jensen-Healey, it benefits from fuel injection. The Bosch K-Jetronic system added this year in place of the twin Dellorto carburetors does a couple of won­derful things. First, horsepower is up from 205 to 215. Second, EPA city fuel economy is improved from 14 to 18 mpg, highway from 25 to 26 mpg, elevating the Esprit Turbo out of the gas-guzzler tax bracket. Other engine modifications include a boost-pressure increase from 8.0 to 9.5 psi and the use of Mahle forged pistons, a re­designed intake manifold, and a larger, less restrictive catalyst. All these changes add up to significantly improved low-end torque and midrange flexibility.
The increased horsepower and revised tuning also boost the Lotus's performance to world-class levels. The last time we test­ed an Esprit Turbo, it propelled itself to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds and tripped the quarter-mile in 14.6 seconds at 95 mph. The in­jected car now rockets to 60 in 5.7 seconds and does the quarter-mile in 14.3 seconds at 97 mph. Terminal velocity is also in­creased, from 141 mph to 143. This is big­-league stuff, right in there with the 911, the 328GTS, and the Corvette. You do get some boost lag off the mark, but once the turbo spools up, you're in the next state.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
Two years ago, in our "Best-Handling Imported Car" comparison test, we came away with the impression that the Esprit was terrific as long as you didn't need to turn the wheel. We concluded that the car was too heavily compromised, giving up crisp handling in favor of a cushy ride. Ap­parently, Lotus was listening when we voiced our complaints, because the latest version is light-years better in this regard.
The front suspension has been redesigned to relieve the anti-roll bar of fore-and-aft suspension loads, enabling the engineers to factor some anti-dive geometry into the front end. The spring and damper rates, both front and rear, have been adjusted for a much better ride-versus-handling com­promise. That queasy feeling in the cor­ners has been replaced by non-traumatic turn-in and a nearly neutral attitude past the apex and out the exit. The rear still gets a little bouncy over moderately rough pavement under heavy lateral loads, but overall stability doesn't seem to get upset very much.
Steering effort through fairly fast sweep­ers now seems just about perfect. You get plenty of input and a very gradual buildup of effort. In very low, tight corners, though, the effort builds much more dra­matically. It starts to feel like weight train­ing. The problem is magnified by the less-­than-terrific seating position: the buckets are low and have no rake adjustment, and the steering is way up there on the dash where you sort of have to reach up to get it. You can't get enough shoulder torque into the wheel, so your forearms work harder than they should have to.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
The Esprit's Goodyear NCTs wouldn't be our first choice for this application, but they do a competent job of keeping the car off the guardrails. Lotus and Goodyear put their heads together and came up with a fresh compound, and the result is a tena­cious 0.83 g on the skidpad.
Beyond linear response and outright lateral stick, there is an extra factor in the Esprit Turbo's handling equation. It has to do with the car's width, the slope of its nose, and its driving position. Due to the license-plate-level seating position, the wide A-pillars, the overall width, and the fact that you'll never live to see the front of the car from the cockpit, you don't quite know where to position it in a corner, espe­cially a right-hander. What we miss is the confident feeling of dialing a close-cou­pled sports car into a turn and knowing ex­actly where to place the inside wheel. Cor­nering in the Esprit is like trying to find an apex by dead reckoning.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
Compared with the last Esprit we tested, the Lotus's braking performance is vastly improved, our test car stopping from 70 mph in 191 feet. Repeated hard braking doesn't seem to affect stopping distances at all, thanks in part to the addition of vent­ed front brake rotors. Lotus still needs to work on the brakes' front-rear proportion­ing, however. Our test sample tended to lock up its rears under maximum braking effort.
The interior is a combination of great and not so great. The biggest problem, especially if you're not built like an F1 ace, is gelling in. It's a little like climbing down a mine shaft. Once in, you find yourself in a seat shaped something like a hollowed-out banana. Except for fore-and-aft position, there are no seat adjustments; if this ba­nana isn't your size, you're out of luck. Lat­eral support is good, but forward g-forces try to launch you under the seatbelt. Shift­ing, though never a real problem, is a little easier in this edition because of a slightly revised linkage-mounting system. The le­ver feels a little rubbery, but it's nonetheless better than before.
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The pedals are close together and well placed for heel-and-toe downshifting, but the left wheel housing intrudes deeply into the footwell, leaving very little clearance between the clutch pedal and the bulk­head. Consequently, there's no dead pedal or flat surface for your left foot.
Instrumentation is complete—for $55,000, it had better be—and includes a tach, a speedo, and boost, oil-pressure, en­gine-temp, battery, and fuel gauges. There are also idiot lights to back up the most critical gauges in case you forget to look.
The removable sunroof is new this year. When it's in place, it keeps out the wind and the rain effectively, and you don't hear a peep or a squeak out of it. When you stow it in the trunk for open-air motoring, you get glare in the rear glass under head-on lighting, reducing rear visibility from mini­mal to near zero.
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
As for ambiance, the Esprit goes first class. Ever square inch of the interior is covered in Connolly leather—five hides, in fact, from no doubt contented cows. The sound of the engine at slightly above free­way speeds can be heard either as noise or as music. Car-enthusiast passengers love it; others think it sounds like ball bearings falling on a conga drum. We like it—especially around 4000 rpm, when it sounds as if the afterburners have just kicked in.
One recent development that will affect the future of both the Esprit and Lotus it­self is GM's purchase of most of the com­pany's stock. It should be fascinating to see what kind of cross-pollination will take place between Behemoth Motor and Lo­tus. Once the dust settles, might we see an­other mid-engined sports car wearing a GM division badge?
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David Dewhurst
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Car and Driver
Labels aside, we hope the cars the union produce will be more like the Esprit than the Pontiac Fiero. The Lotus may not be as fully developed as we'd like, but it's better than it's ever been before. Who knows? With General Motors' money and Lotus's brains, the Esprit might someday give Porsche something to think about.
Specifications
Specifications
1986 Lotus Esprit Turbo
Vehicle Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $56,087/$56,287
Options: metallic paint, $200
ENGINE
turbocharged DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port fuel injection
Displacement: 133 in3, 2174 cm3
Power: 215 hp @ 6250 rpm
Torque: 192 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
TRANSMISSION
5-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: control arms/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 10.2-in vented disc/10.8-in disc
Tires: Goodyear NCT
F: 195/60VR-15
R: 235/60VR-15
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 96.0 in
Length: 169.0 in
Width: 73.2 in
Height: 44.5 in
Passenger Volume: 42 ft3
Cargo Volume: 8 ft3
Curb Weight: 2740 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 5.7 sec
1/4-Mile: 14.3 sec @ 97 mph
100 mph: 16.0 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 13.1 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 9.1 sec
Top Speed: 143 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 191 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.83 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
City/Highway: 18/26 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED