1998 Lotus Esprit GT3

First registered in November 1998, this Esprit GT3 has been with the current owner (its 6th) since 1 April 2003 and comes with a fully documented service history as well as a number of performance upgrades - detailed in the History Highlights section below.

Whilst it isn’t the best presented Esprit we’ve ever seen - you’ll see what we mean in the On the Outside section - we urge you to keep reading as it gets much, much better.

The vendor bought the GT3 to have fun with and was very active on the Lotus forum in the noughties, hence the popular performance upgrades. He still loves the Esprit, having owned it for nearly twenty years, but he’s had it in and out of storage for most of the last decade and for health reasons hasn’t been able to drive it a great deal.

Shall we start with the good news? Viewing the car from a distance, the low, sleek, black shape of the GT3 looks amazing and would turn heads young and old as it drives past. If those heads know their Esprits they’ll spot that this GT3 is sporting the rear panel and round tail lights from the final restyle in 2002. The sharp-eyed will also note the clear indicator and repeater lenses up front and a stub aerial replacing the roof-mounted whip.

Get to within 5m of the car when stationary though, and you’ll start to see the paint issues - lots of them. It’s not uncharitable to say that if ever a paint shop or detailer wanted a car to demonstrate every type of problem, this GT3 would more than fit the bill. There are dings, scratches, bird lime lacquer damage, petrol damage under the filler, cracks and splits in the rear bumper, chips, signs of over polishing, sun bleach, weather damage, blistering… need we go on? There’s even some surface rust - which you wouldn’t expect on a fibreglass-bodied car - around the pop-up headlamps. However, it is worth noting that this may be the only black GT3 in existence, as very few were ever delivered in this colour.

The GT3 sits on genuine 5-spoke OZ Racing 5-spoke Magnesio alloys, 18" at the rear, 17" at the front. These alloys were made to a Lotus Design for the later Esprit Sport 350 and are now quite rare. The rims don’t appear to be badly damaged but the lacquer is blistering and peeling off in places and there is the occasional kerb scuff - most notably on the nearside rear.

Through the front wheels, the black-painted Brembo callipers are clearly visible. The front wheels are shod with Kumho Ecsta tyres and the rears with Goodyear Eagle F1s.

As always - but especially so in this case - we recommend a thorough scrutiny of the accompanying video and detailed photographs of the exterior to see for yourself the extent of the paint issues and wheel condition. Even better, you can arrange to see the car in person at our Oxfordshire HQ - just use the Contact Seller option.

The interior of the car by comparison presents very well - the black vinyl with contrasting red panels on the door cards has fared very well. The leather luxury sports were an option from the V8 and were dyed black and red to match. Over the years, the natural material has creased and sagged a little with age and use and although still comfortable, the covering is starting to wear in the usual places like the driver’s seat side bolster.

There are a few other options and upgrades to note. The Momo steering wheel, the carbon-fibre finish kick plates and the Alpine stereo and CD changer. Whether you’d call it an upgrade or a prudent addition to any classic, there’s also a fire extinguisher mounted on the bulkhead between the seats.

The carpets are a little worn in places but intact and presentable and up above is a glass sunroof panel that can be either tilted or removed completely.

The front-hinged bonnet panel conceals various ancillaries with a modest, carpeted luggage area in the middle. All appears to be in good order with just a touch of surface rust on the hinges and fittings.

As with the bodywork, the underfloor of the car is mostly fibreglass and is therefore not prone to rust. Steering and suspension components have succumbed though but not to the extent of needing to be noted on the recent MOT.

Under the louvred rear deck, which holds up well on the gas struts, the main luggage compartment looks in reasonable order with no apparent damage to the carpeting and just a little soiling on the floor. The plastic cover conceals the mid-mounted engine replete with its red painted intake, charge cooler and cam covers. The rubber hoses appear to have been replaced fairly recently with like-for-like or upgraded silicone items.

The car has a current MOT valid until July 2023, which it passed without advisories but also without a recorded mileage. It would seem looking back through the online history that the digital odometer hasn’t been easy to read for the last decade, although enough readings have been taken - along with the other history documents - to give reassurance that the 74k miles is genuine.

The car’s history file of photos, MOTs, invoices and other documents has been digitised by the vendor - and can be made available to view on request.

The service history is summarised as follows:

Nov 1998 - 1,304 - Lotus Service Dept

Mar 1999 - 8,836 - a/a

Sep 1999 - 11,810 - a/a

Mar 2000 - 15,051 - Nelmes of Romford

Apr 2002 - 42,671 - SGT

Nov 2002 - 49,517 - Bell & Colvill

Jun 2003 - 53,412 - Ewelme Coachworks

Dec 2003 - 55,968 - a/a

Jul 2004 - 58,235 - a/a

Dec 2004 - 61,029 - a/a

Aug 2005 - 64,014 - Steve Williams Sports Cars

Apr 2006 - 64,324 - a/a

(2006-2011 - in storage but kept running and MOTd each year)

Jun 2011 - 68,952 - Steve Williams Sports Cars (inc cambelt)

(2012-2017 - in storage but kept running)

Apr 2018 - 71,293 - SJ Sportscars (inc cambelt and part restoration)

Jul 2020 - 72,604 - SJ Sportscars (inc part restoration)

2021 & 2022 - 73-74k - Gary Clark (fuel pump & regulator, hoses, oil, plugs etc)

The car has had around £12k spent on it over the last 3-4 years at SJ Sportscars (Esprit specialists), getting the car absolutely mechanically on the button. It also has no error codes or logs when running the Freescan software program. The car has also had plenty spent on upgrades over the years! The vendor thinks these would total to £15k in his ownership.

The cosmetic upgrades have been detailed in the sections above but in terms of performance, the following items are worth noting:

- Upgraded turbo and dump valve - Dermot & Justin

- K&N air filter, sports exhaust and cat, braided clutch hose, braided brake lines - SJ Sportscars

- ECU Red Race chip to #11 (believed to now be around 330 bhp), suspension set up for fast road / light track use and uprated clutch (25-35% stronger) - Marcus at PUK Esprit Racing

A comprehensive history of this car is available, digitised, on request. Please press the contact seller button to see more via a link.

Whilst this car isn’t going to win any beauty contests at the moment - and Julia Roberts may not be so impressed at first glance - don’t let this put you off from considering what is otherwise a mechanically very well-sorted sports car with popular performance upgrades done by well-known specialists. It runs, drives and handles very well too, with some characteristic turbo sounds and the odd pop and crackle from the exhaust.

As we mentioned, the GT3 was never made in huge numbers and there are believed to be around 90 still in the UK of which only 50 are currently on the road. According to those on the forums there were very few in black, in fact they were only aware of this one.

We think this car will sell for between £20,000 and £25,000 - which reflects the need for the paint to be sorted - otherwise you’d be looking north of £30k to get yourself an upgraded GT3 with this sort of mileage and lots of recent money spent.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.