Lotus Esprit X180R Registry

Lotus built its X180R race cars in two waves. The first pair, designated Type 105, was developed at Hethel to contest the newly formed SCCA World Challenge — a series for production-based sports cars — and was campaigned in America by Doc Bundy and Scott Lagasse. Both cars were then returned to Hethel to be rebuilt to the more-developed Type 106 specification for the following season, joined by three additional Type 106 cars constructed new for the newly formed LotuSport team to contest the IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship. Beginning in 1992, LotuSport entered the cars under a new model year as the “1992 X180R.” Only one car was nicknamed while LotuSport raced them professionally: according to crew chief Joe Grassi, chassis #11 was called “Christine” — the car, he recalled, seemed to have a mind of its own, and it was involved in several wrecks.

Twenty road-registerable X180Rs were built alongside the race cars, each carrying almost all of the racing equipment — including a fully integrated roll cage — with only the bare minimum needed to allow street registration (a federally mandated airbag steering wheel) and provide for comfortable road use (radio, air conditioning). The reason for exactly twenty was regulatory. IMSA’s Bridgestone Supercar Championship required that a manufacturer produce and sell at least twenty North American-market cars nearly identical to the race cars, save for the modifications needed to make the car legally comply with road-registration and environmental regulations. Thus, Lotus had to produce at least twenty X180Rs for the USA or Canada markets before it could race an X180R in the series. As a marketing strategy — and to make the intent of the car legible to buyers — Lotus Ltd. and Lotus Cars USA branded the X180R as the World Challenge Race Replica Esprit, tying the previous seasons’ race success to the effort of moving inventory of a very specialized car.

Note: During an internal pitch to European Lotus importers in late 1991, the internal binder for gauging interest for a European X180R model indicated Lotus had built an extra X180R demonstration car for potential customers to experience at their Hethel test track. Whether this “X180R” still exists is unknown.