Chrome Lotus Esprit
A mirrored Esprit, here's the reflection...
www.chromelotusesprit.com May 2013
OK, it’s more than a cliché but like many Esprit owners, I grew up in the 70′s and 80′s and was influenced by the Bond films. I’d always wanted the Esprit that went under the water and long after the growing up was complete (if it ever is!) and the reality of cinematic story telling sank in, I still wanted one. This one is my second and I bought it 5 years ago. It was sound as far as its original white body work was concerned but needed a fair amount spent on it mechanically and the interior is due to be done next month.
Back in January, I tried to sell the car after my wife’s job moved to London and we found ourselves needing two cars with four seats in each. I was surprised by the sad, almost tearful mood that descended upon my 9 and 7 year old kids. One would have thought I’d disposed of the pet rabbit in some kind of Fatal Attraction re-enactment. My wife then said something profound that the Esprit defines me. It’s what people know me for in the village where I live and the local BADCCC car club where I’m a member and with that, I decided not to sell it. However, the body work was rapidly deteriorating outside in the British ‘summers’ we’ve recently had and the cost of a respray was out of my budget. So I turned to vehicle wraps and after talking to several companies, came across an independent wrapper called Boss Dog in Dorking. I always loved the Norfolk Mustard colour but when I discovered chrome vinyl, I thought this car could really be something different. As a self-employed presentation consultant, I spent a few hours messing around with designs for the wrap based on a two tone chrome and matt black scheme and then got a professional graphic artist friend to create a couple of decent mock-ups of my design shortlist.
The car was wrapped in April this year and I then had the wheels refurbished, selecting a metallic anthracite two paint scheme to complement the chrome body and matt black top together. A few people have since said that I should have gone with chrome wheels but I thought would have been too much – if that’s possible! A couple of other minor changes were made such as replacing the side/indicator lenses with clear Cobo ones, fitting LED indicator bulbs to overcome the resulting fried egg effect and respraying all of the visible matt black parts around the car.
I’m now the proud owner of a car that’s a little like owning a huge iPhone, requiring a similarly scaled up polishing cloth to keep it dazzling its admirers!
The final step was to have a professional set of photography done and the full set can be seen at a website that I set up just for this car at www.chromelotusesprit.com
Next job, off to Trimmania in June to get the interior fitted out in a royal purple and silver leather scheme.
Jamie Garroch, owner of www.i-present.co.uk
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