Esprit stars at 2025 Garden Party
With an example of nearly every model given pride of place on the lawn of East Carleton Manor, the 2025 Classic Team Lotus Garden Party celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Paris launch of the Lotus Esprit.
The event saw a global guest list of people traveling from across the UK, Europe, the USA and even Australia. Special guests from the Esprit’s history included Giorgetta Giugiaro the original designer of the Esprit, who flew in from Italy with his son Fabrizio, Peter Stevens who was responsible for the 1988 re-design, Julian Thompson who did the same with the S4 in the mid-nineties and Russell Carr, current Design Director of Lotus Cars and who remodeled the car for the final time in 2002. Mike Kimberley, former CEO at Lotus Cars who had worked alongside Giorgetto Giugiaro and Colin Chapman, was also in attendance.
Lotus Cars were fully behind the event and brought along Theory 1, as well as a full selection of the current range including a stunning pearlescent purple/pink example of the Evija, the new Clark Emira and the current GT4 Emira racecar. Head of Design at Lotus Cars, Ben Payne was there to tell us about current plans for Lotus.
With nearly every Esprit model represented, some iconic moments in the car’s history were represented by individual displays around the grounds of East Carleton Manor, with the standout being CTL's very own Bond submarine Esprit submerged in the pool.
A gold Series 2 sat proudly in front of the iconic image of Colin Chapman and his Cessna Chancellor.
An Olin Mk IV ski-laden Turbo Esprit helped to complete the Bond effect! Kit Lotus put on their usual fabulous display of scale models, including a built-up version of one of the new Agora 1:8-scale The spy Who Loved Me Esprit submarine kits.
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