1999 GT3

[chats371l]

Hi all,

I have just noticed today that according to the production figures accumulated on the LEW website that there were 13 GT3's made in 1999. These cars being the last production year for non-V8 Esprit's made, I was just wondering how many of you are out there? (Myself being the owner of a 1999 registered car).

[matk]

Adam

Alex GT3 owns the last ever GT3 (and what a nice one it is). He's always on here and has an owners page on LEW. I'm sure he'll clock this himself and make contact.

Just to throw a spanner in the works though, if you're car was 1st registered in 1999, doesn't mean it was manufactured then. Probably was but only way to know for certain is check chassis no with the factory. The factory often produced cars which didn't get sold for a while if the market was slow at the time.

[esprit350]

to start your list there is Alex , he has the last GT3, im pretty sure he will find this thread sooner rather than later

[arbell9]

Found it!

Yes mine was registered in 2000, but rolled of the produciton line in 1999. Here is the letter with the log book.

Alex

[chats371l]

I will check this for certain. Does anyone have a contact for Lotus reference the best person to speak to? My car documents are in Norwich with the car as I am in Glasgow at the moment though I think my car may have been first registered in March of 1999 so could well be an earlier car. I would love to find out for sure though

[Advantage]

Esprits of that era didn't tend to get built as dealer stock (this was at a time when the factory was flat out with Elise manufacturing). Most were built to order and probably wouldn't have been parked up for months on end waiting for an owner.

If any of the bigwigs at the factory had an Esprit as a company car, it tended to be a V8 so GT3s usually had an (impatient!) owner before they were delivered.

[simon gleave]

Adam,

I have a 1999 GT3 registered in April. Now done 65k and in a great colour as you can see!! Alex is with our hooning group in his 'last of the line' car. Mine and infact his have a V8 spoiler added aswell. Love the alcantara trim in mine, most seem to have the V8 seats though. There aren't that many GT3's produced anyway are there?

Hope you get much fun out of yours......

[arbell9]

Been trawling through LEF and LEW to find GT3 owners, from my efforts I can account for possibly 68 GT3 cars (full names are not always given so there may be duplication). Do you think its possible to track down the other 128 cars? Or would this be a futile exercise?

Cheers

Alex

[Jonathan]

Do you think its possible to track down the other 128 cars? Or would this be a futile exercise?

Especially since they're un-official production vehicles

[chats371l]

I checked my documents at the weekend and I have an EEC Certificate of Conformity with a date of 28th Jan 1999 on it so I believe that this suggests the car is an official 1999 car. Another certificate which was the factory fitted Cobra Alarm system has the date of the 20th Jan 1999 so I gather that this would have been fitted as the last part of the production. I am gonna check in the future with Lotus but I am happy for now.

[Loose Cannon]

Adam,

I have a 1999 GT3 registered in April. Now done 65k and in a great colour as you can see!! Alex is with our hooning group in his 'last of the line' car. Mine and infact his have a V8 spoiler added aswell. Love the alcantara trim in mine, most seem to have the V8 seats though. There aren't that many GT3's produced anyway are there?

Hope you get much fun out of yours......

I have a tiny pic of yours copied from the Autotrader when it was 2 years old! Too grainy to be of any interest to you, but I remember it was being sold by HR Owen and was nearly 30 grand.

Having spent my waking hours since 1996 dreaming of owning a GT3 and studying the classifieds I can recognize quite a few. Gets trickier when people plop personal registrations on them though!

[Bibs]

Here are the devinitive facts from our 100% reliable source

The GT3 was introduced to the Lotus model line up to fill the gap between the Elise and the newly introduced Esprit V8.

There was a lot of customer interest in the last 4 cylinder cars produced and this triggered a thought of somehow extending the life of this variant of Esprit.

With the introduction of the V8 Esprit there was an opportunity to produce another Esprit Model. The specification had to be as far away as possible from the already in production V8.

Under the guidance of Giampaolo Benedini (Bugatti) it was decided to create an 'entry level' model of the Esprit in the

[arbell9]

Especially since they're un-official production vehicles

Hi Jonathan,

what does unofficial production mean, did a few guys slip the odd motor vehicle onto the production line in between V8's and drop in a 2l instead, polish up and slap on the decals?

cheers

Alex