WayneB
03-30-2011, 07:16 PM
I was visiting another Lotus forum the other day and happened to read a bit of a thread in which one of the moderators was being rather disrespectfull about the original source of the Giugiaro (and X180)Esprits doorhandles (which seems to be some sort of default insult) which kinda got me thinking as to the origin of some of the other Esprit components used, so I came up with a bit of a list off the top of my head.
Exterior Doorhandles -
Morris Marina, then used on Triumph TR7 and Range Rover Classic 4 Door.
Front Turn Signals-
S1/S2(early S3) Mini Clubman
S1/S2 (Federal) MGB Rubber bumper
S3 Leyland Sherpa Van
Tailights-
S1 Fiat X1/9 Bertone
S2/S3 Rover SD1
Interior Doorhandles-
MGB
Transaxle -
Citroen SM
Clutch Slave Cylinder -
Land Rover S2/S3
Front Suspension -
S1 Opel Kadet/Ascona
S2/S3 Triumph Spitfire, Ford Escort Mexico brake Calipers and Opel Manta discs (Later cars used Toyota sourced ball joints etc)
Other Ford,Triumph and Jaguar parts are used in other locations in the car (steering column, switches,electrical, HVAC).
Using these parts probably saved Lotus over 1 million in tooling costs back then (maybe more), and of course it was also common practise for Ferrari,Maserati,Detomaso and Lamborghini to also source parts from mass produced models from other manufacturers (Fiat,Lancia and Alfa Romeo)
Without the use those parts I doubt the company could have considered attempting to produce a car for sale.
Today of course , Lotus are using alot more bespoke parts on their current models,(excepting the engine/transmissions) I remember MJK telling me about the most expensive part of the Evora development being the tooling cost for the headlamp units, which was a couple of Million If I remember rightly.
BTW those doorhandles look alot better on an Esprit than they ever did on a Marina!
http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/79e80142f66d228fb935342ccb4205449e90a78e/MTC9114-DOOR-HANDLE-RH-OUTER.jpg
Exterior Doorhandles -
Morris Marina, then used on Triumph TR7 and Range Rover Classic 4 Door.
Front Turn Signals-
S1/S2(early S3) Mini Clubman
S1/S2 (Federal) MGB Rubber bumper
S3 Leyland Sherpa Van
Tailights-
S1 Fiat X1/9 Bertone
S2/S3 Rover SD1
Interior Doorhandles-
MGB
Transaxle -
Citroen SM
Clutch Slave Cylinder -
Land Rover S2/S3
Front Suspension -
S1 Opel Kadet/Ascona
S2/S3 Triumph Spitfire, Ford Escort Mexico brake Calipers and Opel Manta discs (Later cars used Toyota sourced ball joints etc)
Other Ford,Triumph and Jaguar parts are used in other locations in the car (steering column, switches,electrical, HVAC).
Using these parts probably saved Lotus over 1 million in tooling costs back then (maybe more), and of course it was also common practise for Ferrari,Maserati,Detomaso and Lamborghini to also source parts from mass produced models from other manufacturers (Fiat,Lancia and Alfa Romeo)
Without the use those parts I doubt the company could have considered attempting to produce a car for sale.
Today of course , Lotus are using alot more bespoke parts on their current models,(excepting the engine/transmissions) I remember MJK telling me about the most expensive part of the Evora development being the tooling cost for the headlamp units, which was a couple of Million If I remember rightly.
BTW those doorhandles look alot better on an Esprit than they ever did on a Marina!
http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/79e80142f66d228fb935342ccb4205449e90a78e/MTC9114-DOOR-HANDLE-RH-OUTER.jpg