Lotus Esprit V8 25th Anniversary Edition: you can drive up to Julia Roberts on this (21 photos)
Sports cars and supercars are some of the most loved cars in the world. automotive community. Whether it's performance, style or status, they have a lot to love! 
Feature film "Pretty Woman" with Julia Roberts and Richard Girom in 1990 blew up the world box office, confidently entering the top three box office films of the year. Originally conceived as a drama, but in the end turned into a romantic comedy, Pretty Woman quickly became iconic, showing millions of girls around the world a shortcut to happy comfortable life. So to speak, a quick social elevator ... 
But let's not be moralists, let's better remember the main car from the "Pretty Woman" - Lotus Esprit.
Lotus Esprit / "Pretty Woman" 1990 
According to the scriptwriters, the character of Richard Gere is an influential businessman simply had to drive a premium European sports car manufactured by, for example, Ferrari or Porsche. However, even in simple old times, neither the Italians nor the Germans dared to "shine" their cars in the film, where the main character is “a girl with a low social responsibility” (thanks for the definition, Vladimir Vladimirovich). But the modest British company Lotus took such a step with passion, about which I never regretted it - Lotus Esprit sales skyrocketed, especially in the USA!
Lotus Esprit V8 25th Anniversary Edition 2002 
According to the plot, Richard Gere, aka Edward Lewis, got lost in an unfamiliar city and accidentally ended up on a street occupied by professionals selling love. Also, manual transmission control was given a citizen with difficulty - the car was not his. By happy coincidence circumstances "beauty" Vivian Ward performed by Julia Roberts, in addition to other talents, skillfully knew how to handle "mechanics" and extremely deftly delivered Gyra to the place of demand. What happened next was... 
Lotus Esprit, which marked the beginning of a great and bright love of the characters film, is an extremely successful sports car, lasted in production for almost 30 years, in several generations, certainly. Its history began in 1971 with the meeting of two geniuses automotive industry: engineer Colin Chapman, founder Lotus, and the brilliant designer Giorzhdetto Giugiaro. Found in difficult partnership, the form factor remained practically unchanged during restylings. The hard edges have certainly softened in 30 years, but Esprit has always been unmistakably identified as Esprit. 
Behind - a small trunk ... 
... in front - a spare wheel, fuses and more. 
In the main photos, the car is made in 2002 in the anniversary version "25th Anniversary", released, as the name implies, for the 25th anniversary models. These were the last years of Esprit's life. Whatever one may say, times have changed radically and, no matter how cool Lotus is, forever in he could not remain in production. 100 of these were released to the US market. cars, to the rest of the world - only 58. The final versions received aggregate base, which Esprit has always lacked. Specifically, powerful motor. It has a 3.5-liter V8 with two turbines with a capacity of 350 Horse power. In capable hands, the anniversary Esprit accelerates to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds and top speed is a respectable 280 km / h - in the tradition of Lotus, the car is quite light. 
Colin Chapman said something like this: more power makes the car is faster on the straights, and the weight reduction is faster everywhere. Maybe, Chapman would have been happy to equip his cars with more powerful units, but the company was always short of resources... 
The car looks great in our time, although somewhat alien taillights look from the Elise model, which opened a new chapter in history Lotus.
The bright yellow color is great for Esprit. Vivian Ward, and Julia Roberts herself, would definitely approve;)
Appropriate plot... 
This Lotus Esprit will be sold at auction on December 10th. Estimated $60,000 - $80,000 USD 
