Loved my S4S as a daily driver until the engine blew up at high speed destroying the bottom end camshaftWith everyone giddy over the Lotus Emira (with good reason!) I'm sticking with my Esprit, for now,... maybe?
Fragile cars even if serviced regular (every 6K miles without fail or watch things that cost £££ break rapidly! This is why they are a fraction of the cost of a Ferrari. In my ownership time I had the following fail:1:Clutch caught fire burnt the flywheel so had to get it reskimmed & new clutch assembly.
2:2nd gear broke (its the most fragile part and prone to failures especially if you do not replace the red clutch hose).
3:Front wheel bearing failed.
4:Bottom end got destroyed after the last service (the garage did not properly check the valve clearances as its so time consuming some skip that unless decent trustworthy mechanics
so the engine went out of balance causing the big end bearing to explode at high speed which had the knock on effect of reshaping the camshaft 
).After spending the best part of £35K on repairs & running costs BEFORE the camshaft got destroyed I decided enough was enough & sold her to someone who wanted to take on the engine rebuild project but do not think she ever got back on the road as the number plate & car VIN disappeared forever which is a good sign she is either in a garage somewhere or never made it back on the road.
When she ran properly though the road handling & acceleration were pretty spectacular !!
Even made it to Pistonheads once!
its why they are so cheap compared to the Ferraris of the same era when new. Now the costs are about the same but the Lotus will be real hard to find certain parts for gearbox especially (which is a known weakness as its a Renault UN1 - which they stopped making so the Esprit got cancelled as Renault closed the production line back in 2003). Same Gearbox as Renault 21 I believe!!
. Still want one though!
