Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

LO all, did anyone see this great program. I have to confess that untill recently I didnt really think too much about classic cars at all. This program had me glued to the T.V as very few programs do these days.

Recently I got a bit of an '80's when I was a lad bug' and ended up interested in classic Porsche of all things. Anyway I digress I know the program wasn't about Porsche but as I watched the program I couldnt help but think how the Esprit must have in part been up against the 944 or the 911 for customers and the performance particularly of the early models up to 2.2 turbo seemed right up against the performance of a 944'T'. The later ones were more of a 911 Turbo of course.

There is no denying the Esprit had something about it and I had no idea there were so many Esprit varients or how much they changed or how many years they lasted. If you are in to 944 or 911 I dont think you could help but have been fascinated by this program.

Back on topic for Porsche , one thing was very clear. The build quality of Porsche seemed to knock the Esprit for dead and I suspect it is also a lot more reasobnable to maintain an older Porsche than it is an Esprit. All in all admire them as I did after this program I won't be giving up my well made Porsche for that interesting but questionably made Esprit

Regards Mas

I had a 79 Esprit. Unquestionably questionably made

I've never came accross an Esprit on the road however back in 1997 my brother and I had my first Silver Rose at York dragway. My brother gave a Yorks PCGB member who had brought a Esprit Turbo 2.2 along a race in my 944T. It was my brothers first time on the track and he got my car sideways off the line and the Esprit got a massive lead before he got the tail back in. Even so the Esprit barely made it to the line first. The PCGB guy could not believe how fast the 944 had made the ground up and refused to give us a return run. He was probably scared his car would blow up.

Stephen

did look at some of these when looking around for something different but was put off by some of the reports of fire!! and that the engine and gearbox was not that strong the later ones are nice looking cars but opted for the 944s2 at the time had better reports on reliability and performance was on par with the 2.2 turbo at that time and yes you dont see many on the road.

The Excel was on my short list before a 911 (four seats a factor) great value-for-mony cars and their performance was/is comparable to 911/944's build quality was typically British of the time, ground breaking but slightly flawed, the engines needed re-building regularly, lotus squeezed their capability, they survived so well becaus the later ones were galvanised chassis with good quality fibre glass....... where porsches somtimes fall down on the bodywork (i've seen lots of roapy 911's)........ wonder if anyone fittes a porsche engine in a Lotus?