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Some people just aren’t happy when their car is cleaned, polished and waxed to what we’d call a mirror shine, they take it to the next level. Esprit owner Jamie Garroch (JamieG) of Reading, Berks, UK was one such mirror perfectionist and has had his car wrapped in chrome vinyl. In steps TLF photographer extraordinaire Malcolm Feth of www.nineteen80one.com for a photoshoot and all we can say is “Wow”.

Jamie:

OK,  it’s more than a cliché but like many Esprit owners, I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and was influenced by the Bond films.  I’d always wanted the Esprit that went under the water and long after the growing up was complete (if it ever is!) and the reality of cinematic story telling sank in, I still wanted one.  This one is my second and I bought it 5 years ago.  It was sound as far as its original white body work was concerned but needed a fair amount spent on it mechanically and the interior is due to be done next month.

Back in January, I tried to sell the car after my wife’s job moved to London and we found ourselves needing two cars with four seats in each. I was surprised by the sad, almost tearful mood that descended upon my 9 and 7 year old kids. One would have thought I’d disposed of the pet rabbit in some kind of Fatal Attraction re-enactment. My wife then said something profound that the Esprit defines me. It’s what people know me for in the village where I live and the local BADCCC car club where I’m a member and with that, I decided not to sell it. However, the body work was rapidly deteriorating outside in the British ‘summers’ we’ve recently had and the cost of a respray was out of my budget.  So I turned to vehicle wraps and after talking to several companies, came across an independent wrapper called Boss Dog in Dorking.  I always loved the Norfolk Mustard colour but when I discovered chrome vinyl, I thought this car could really be something different.  As a self-employed presentation consultant, I spent a few hours messing around with designs for the wrap based on a two tone chrome and matt black scheme and then got a professional graphic artist friend to create a couple of decent mock-ups of my design shortlist.

Chrome Lotus Esprit Design - Final

The car was wrapped in April this year and I then had the wheels refurbished, selecting a metallic anthracite two paint scheme to complement the chrome body and matt black top together. A few people have since said that I should have gone with chrome wheels but I thought would have been too much – if that’s possible!  A couple of other minor changes were made such as replacing the side/indicator lenses with clear Cobo ones, fitting LED indicator bulbs to overcome the resulting fried egg effect and respraying all of the visible matt black parts around the car.

I’m now the proud owner of a car that’s a little like owning a huge iPhone, requiring a similarly scaled up polishing cloth to keep it dazzling its admirers!

My introduction to Andrzej (aka Malcom Feth) and www.nineteen80one.com came via TLF (thanks Whirlybird) and we got up at the crack of dawn one sunny Sunday morning in May and spent 4 hours on a photo shoot of the exterior.  800 shots later, Andrzej went back to his studio to work his magic.

I’m very pleased with the results and happy to be able share them with TLF readers.  The full set can be seen at a website that I set up just for this car at www.chromelotusesprit.com

Next job, off to Trimmania in June to get the interior fitted out in a royal purple and silver leather scheme.

Jamie Garroch (TLF JamieG), owner of www.i-present.co.uk

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