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UK Police Esprit

The Inside Story of the Police Esprit
We came up with the idea of the Lotus Police car to gain some positive coverage and improve community relations at the time when there were many dark clouds around the company and not much other good news

We arranged with Norfolk Constabulary to make a car available for display at community and local events such as the Royal Norfolk Show, school fetes and so on.

We got help from 3M with the decals (specially produced to be not too sticky so we could return the car to press car duty when not being a police car) and from the top UK supplier of light bars (mounted on a spare removeable roof panel which we had to reinforce) and the rest was done by the Lotus skunk works ably led by Bob Anderson and Colin Moy.

It's Colin in the car with another Lotus employee being the local youth on a bike. The setting is the turnoff the A11 dual carriageway to East Carleston and yes we had police in attendance to make sure we didn't get into the role of police patrol for real.... even so, the number of cars that hit the brakes as they saw us was most rewarding!

We also got our five minutes of fame on ITN News at 10 (in the good old days). Another middle-England police force was so struck by the car they asked if they could borrow it for a high-profile road safety campaign which attracted national TV. It led to all sorts of 'letters to the editor' which ranged from 'sign me up for the police if they're using Esprits' to 'I'm haind up my car keys if the police are using Esprits'.

Patrick Peal
Lotus Head of PR (1991-1996)

Stuff of Police Dreams: Unfortunately for the county's traffic police, this Lotus Esprit was done up in Warwickshire livery only as a publicity stunt.

Rumours
Esprit Police Car is said to have been trialled along with a Impreza Turbo on the M3 and was based at Hampton traffic Station in south west London in mid-90's. Just the possibility that an Esprit Police Car is patrolling the highways could make the job of any Columbus OVI or DUI lawyer much easier.

US Police Esprit

This Esprit was donated I belive by Fox Valley Motorcar (could also be Auto Europe, a Detroit, Michigan area authorized US Lotus dealer, as it has their logo on it. Website below) to a police department in regard of an officer whom was a lover of Lotus and was taken in the line of duty.

www.auto-euro.com

The car was given the markings of her department and the car will be raffled off with procides given to her charity which she supported. Information may be read in Lotus reMarque regarding this car.

This car is not a mock-up or a joke, but for a fallen officer whom cared about her service and love of Lotus. It is a complete working Police car; with all the radios, guns, and other stuff (Radar, etc) on the inside.

 

The US police esprit was donated by Auto Europe. I know this because my father helped Erik Schik build it. I got to see it when I was young. Very cool car – Zack

Another Esprit gets nicked for looking tooo good!

In passing I came across your website including the section under the Police Esprits. I was surprised to see my Colorado State Patrol car (above)....what I mean is that I am the the actual fellow who drew the car. The actual vehicle does not exist. About 4 years ago I created a series on Dream Police Vehicles which included Hummers, Lamborghinis, Mustangs, Corvettes and Camaros and of course one Lotus Esprit. A friend who is a Colorado Trooper Station Commander asked me to create a photo realistic version of the Lotus Esprit for the wall on his office as a conversation piece.

It was so popular I released about 50 of them to the Colorado State Patrol as gifts for Colorado Troopers which were featured on my website www.policebusinesscards.com (I am a printer of law enforcement materials in Canada). It's the first print I have seen online, and to think that people may have thought it was real is very flattering. Nevertheless for your interest I have included a higher resolution image for your website. Keep up the fantastic work and take very good care !

William J. Smith – Co-owner
www.policebusinesscards.com
A Division of
EYE MEAN GRAPHICS LTD.


Twitter Police Esprit

Esprit Police style from Twitter
We spotted this tweet on twitter of a 89 Esprit with a police style band. No lights or writing, but still looks very policey! So we thought we'd add it to our Esprit Police page, as there's not too many police forces taking on the Esprit as patrol cars. Especially with the Esprit out of production for nearly 10 years! Enjoy....

Police Esprit Model
Model (Mar14)
A user is in the process of making a model of the Lotus Esprit Police car used for publicity purposes, this is were he's at and it's not even finished yet. Looks great, S4 wing might be good though ;-)

December 2016
Image found on the web from we guess, Italy!

February 2020

If you know any more information regarding these two Esprits, please contact me at kato@lotusespritworld.com

 
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