Aston enthusiast is enchanted by Norfolk’s finest supercar
Firstly, may I say what a great magazine you all produce: such varied machinery and stories galore – a real pleasure to read and re-read. The reason for my writing, however, was that I really loved the article regarding the Lotus Esprit V8 GT (C&SC, June), because I was the previous owner of this very car.
The story said that it was a wellmaintained example, and I can agree with that: I owned the car for more than 11 years and Stratton Motor Company – where I had originally purchased it – looked after it for me with no expense spared.
Being a V8 GT, the Esprit originally had no rear wing, but I felt that it gave the car a more aggressive look and also better balanced the shape visually. The original seats were all black, so I had them changed to yellow at the Lotus factory and also added the Lotus logo in the headrests, which back then was the first time that this had been done.
The car had the full Sport 350 set-up (except the high wing), which was all done by the factory for the first owner – who was a producer for the pop group Westlife I believe, and friends with one of the Lotus directors at the time.
To see the car in the magazine was a great surprise, and I hope that the current owner continues to enjoy it. I attach a couple of photos of the car in my ownership, along with my replacement for the Esprit on one of its many adventures around Europe. It’s an Aston Martin Vantage N430 manual in Skyfall silver – you never know, you may want to do an article on this model in time.
John Dawson
Via e-mail