Twenty road cars, five factory racers, and the last caged street car any manufacturer sold new in America.
Lotus built the Esprit X180R to satisfy one line in IMSA’s rulebook: to race the Bridgestone Potenza Supercar Championship, a manufacturer had to sell twenty road-going examples of the car it intended to campaign. Lotus built exactly twenty — plus five factory racers — and stopped. Peter Stevens’ reskin of Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Esprit carried a chassis-integrated roll cage, fully adjustable racing suspension, a blueprinted 2.2-liter turbo four, and a catalog of competition weight savings, all of it road-legal and sold new through American Lotus dealers. It went on to win the drivers’ title in the 1992 IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship, and lost the manufacturers’ title to Porsche by three points. Three decades on, it remains the last factory-built race car with a full roll cage — from any manufacturer — sold new and street-licensable in the United States.
It sets completely new standards of driver reward for roadholding, handling and balance, braking and sheer performance — all in a practical, comfortable motor car.