Forum Shops, Caesars Place, Las Vegas
August 2006On our annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to unwind from the pressure of running the greatest website in the world, we were interrupted as usual by the greatest car on the planet. Trying to get some R&R wasn't going to be as easy as hoped, as we managed to run in to an Esprit, which we had to bring you details of. Things never stop here at LEW.
Visiting the Forum Shopping Centre inside Caesars Palace, we had a quick look around the Exotic Cars set-up while waiting to get seated at a restaurant. We'd been in there before and knew the set-up, which hadn't changed much. Last time we reported the Yellow Esprit that was a prize on top of the slots within the actual casino. This car was part of the Exotic Cars set-up and was being used to promote the exhibit (see May 2005 news page).
Well this visit we checked out the cars on display, which are all for sale. To be honest we sneaked a look as it was $5 to 'walk the loop'. We spotted a Silver Esprit. With no camera, we had to go back, just for you. As you can see from the picture above the main entrance is all about merchandise. Lots of Ferrari stuff to buy. A yellow Lamborghini Murcielago tempts you in.
They did have a few bits of Lotus stuff, but nothing Esprit related. We did check all the models out, but only an Elise to be found among the hundreds of Ferrari's and Lambo's. They did have an american motor you could look at without paying. Not sure what it was though!
We paid our $5 to get into the loop to check out the Esprit. It was a 2000 Lotus Esprit V8 with 14,000 miles on it and a couple of owners. We pretended to be interested, which we were, just not in buying unless a jackpot came out before we went home.
We found out the price was $55,000, which is probably a little over price, but then we're not experts in US pricing of the Esprit. The touch-screen computer displays gave details of each model on show, which was pretty cool.
With all the very expensive exotics on show the Esprit didn't look out of place at all and the salesman said it was nice to have something more reasonably priced. The Ferrari Spiders you can see below were priced $100,000 over list price, at $340,000 as you can have them straight away and don't have to wait the 3 years, which is what the currently waiting list is. Sort of makes sense. If you have real money, you don't want to wait 3 years, as it will probably be replaced pretty soon after.
The Swedish built Koenigsegg was pretty impressive. You get the feeling it wouldn't be as practical as the Esprit. Didn't get a price on this, but I can imagine it being fairly expensive.
Among the Ferrari's and another Lambo, was a couple of Porsche 911's a Honda NSX, A Ferrari F40, Bentley and a few American muscle cars
There was also some custom bikes about, but we didn't have much interest in those. A quick walk around the loop got pictures of the whole set up. Impressive and probably pretty handy if you're a multi-millionaire, which you find the odd one or two in Vegas.
Way too many Ferrari's for our liking, but then if there weren't so many, then maybe we'd like them more. So it's not all bad. We found out the Yellow Esprit was sold a few months back and they'd also sold a couple of Elise's recently. So Lotus are holding their own. We're happy to report back from Las Vegas on assignment, but we don't think LEW's funds would stretch for a visit. So maybe next time we're out there.
Lotus Esprit World's Comments
Seems even the rich and famous still think the Esprit can cut it.
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