CTL: Project Gold Esprit - Part 1
In 1978 Colin Chapman was famously photographed on the runway at Hethel with the tools of his trade, his Black & Gold Cessna 414A registered as G-PRIX and the then-new Esprit Series 2 in appropriate Gold & Black.
Of the 1060 or so Esprit S2 cars built between 1978 and 1979 before the introduction of the S2.2 in 1980, it is believed that around six right-hand-drive cars were produced in with a Gold paint finish that was, in some Lotus colour charts listed as 'Championship Gold Metallic'.
We have been trying to trace which specific car featured in the photograph of Colin on the runway, but so far it has proved impossible to identify which chassis this was. All we can assume is that it was the same gold S2 Press Car that was used in a series of press images listed under the title "Gold Lotus Esprit Dev and Sales" and "Gold Esprit" that were taken at Hethel on 19th May 1978.
With this information in hand and realising that finding the car was an impossible task, we decided our best option was to create our very own "Gold Esprit" to have in the CTL Collection.
So, we were fortunate to track down an abandoned 1978 S2 Esprit project that we could take on, with the aim of recreating the factory fresh Gold S2 Esprit that Colin sat so proudly on in 1978.
The car is very original and fairly complete in terms of parts and with the guys in the workshop getting into it in a serious manner, we hope to have it done by the end of the year. Our parts department should have everything we need to complete a ground up rebuild, including (Gold) paint of course. So, let the story begin!
Tags
