1994 Lotus Esprit Turbo S4 Test Drive

The 1990s turned out to be an important decade for Lotus. Following a failed management buyout attempt early in the decade, the Hethel-based company, was bought in 1993 by the mysteriously wealthy Bugatti Automobili, whose chairman Romano Artioli, sold Lotuses in Italy. The company also took 200 or so unbuilt Elan’s, which it started to assemble and sell as the Elan S2. Following the collapse of the Bugatti empire, Lotus was again rescued, this time by Malaysian company Protan, in 1996. The Esprit was continually developed, or at leased repackaged to keep with the times, but was perhaps the company’s greatest car since the original Elan was launched.