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98 Lotus V8 Vs. 328 gts

5K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  Firebanshee 
#1 · (Edited)
I was just wondering if im reading the right things. I'm trying to compare these cars and, its so hard to believe. The 98Lotus espirit is a twin turbo v8 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, 3.5 liter with a top speed of 175 mph. The ferrari 328 is a v8 3.2 liter 0-60 mph in 6 seconds. Now the cars are the same amount of money, so the dilemma is buy the lotus and knmow your getting performance, beats even a f355 by half a second, and you will not get spanked by some jdm civic on the road, not to mention the looks aren't to badd either, its a scale version down from the diablo with a little touch up it's an eye baller. Now i can go with the 10 plus old 328 gts with a v8 but 0-60 in 6 seconds, i love the car a lot more, but i just dont know if i want to sacrifice the performance to buy it. I know its a classic, and will probably go up in value soon, the targa doesnt make the decision any easier, although ive heard the lotus model comes with one as well even though i havnt seen it, moreover i do not want to be dissapointed with speed, and acceleration. The lotus Espirit V8 Vs. Ferrari 328 gts?:confused: Anybody know anything bad about the lotus to stop this ridiculous fixation? I do know one thing, that the main problem with the lotus is its not a FERRARI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#3 ·
Thanks boxer, hey can you get in alittle more detail about some of the problems, and the cost, and ive heard there fairly fit for a tall man, im 6'3, i guess im wrong. The Later model gts 86 and up seems the most reliable ferrari, is that correct?
 
#4 ·
I do know one thing, that the main problem with the lotus is its not a FERRARI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's your decision made for you.

I love Lotus cars, and the Esprit is a beautiful looking car, 2nd only to a F355 in the beauty parade in my opinion. As an Englishman, I would love to be patriotic and say go for the Lotus, but I have a 328 GTS not a Lotus Esprit.

As soon as you get in the 328 and take it out for a drive you will have a big grin on your face that you won't take off until you park it back in your garage:D You don't even need to drive it fast, It's a ferrari, people will look at you and point at you, I've even had the driver behind me take photos of the rear of mine when we've been stationary at lights. You won't get that with a Lotus (as great a car as it is).

0-60 isn't important to me, there will always be someone faster than you, if you want sheer accelearation, get a Jap superbike or a Ducatti Monster. Don't worry about the kids in their Civic Type R's, they might be quicker off the mark, but they aren't in a Ferrari. Do what I do, ignore their games and let them burn off at hyperspeed and get caught by the cops.

Get the 328, you will never regret it:)
 
#6 ·
0-60 isn't important to me, there will always be someone faster than you, if you want sheer accelearation, get a Jap superbike or a Ducatti Monster. Don't worry about the kids in their Civic Type R's, they might be quicker off the mark, but they aren't in a Ferrari. Do what I do, ignore their games and let them burn off at hyperspeed and get caught by the cops.

Get the 328, you will never regret it:)
Well put. Owning a Ferrari has never been about beating the punk in the souped up hot hatch off the mark at the light.
 
#7 ·
I've been a Testarossa owner for 6 years now ( on my 2nd one) but some buddies of mine have a high end detail and tuner shop. One day they had a 2000 Lotus V-8 Espirit in there and I stopped in to take a look at it. It did look nice with very good fit and finish...this car was a metallic silver and just glistened under the lights. The car makes 350 horsepower ( under-rated ) and sounds a bit odd due to it's flat crankshaft. But here in the U.S. anything other than Detroit iron sounds odd. I liked the way it sounded. So I then sat in the car....I'm 6'2" and it was a bit tight, not uncomfortable but a little snug. The dash and layout of the controls was very good. Then I looked at the engine bay....but I couldn't even see the actual motor. I wondered how would one ever work on that motor? I like to do all my own work and I'm not sure how I could get to everything without dropping the motor out the bottom of the car. I recently went on a cruise with other Ferraris and we had a Lotus twin turbo car in the group....and I must say it was very wicked! That car just hauled ass and really impressed me. It's true that in traffic people wonder what kind of car it is...but it certainly can back up it's bark with serious bite! I talked to the owner of the car and he said that all the mechanical work he does is laying on his stomach over the top of the motor, sometimes just feeling out for things with out seeing them. And parts get very pricey and there may be a waiting delay for them to arrive.

If you want true performance the Lotus will absolutely KILL the Ferrari. But if you want a passionate piece of machinery that rewards you with sounds, smells, and sights....the Ferrari is the car for you. Based on price alone it's a tough call. If you can....try and drive each car and decide what you can live with for a few years. I think the Lotus will be a novelty where as the Ferrari will give you a sense of pride and history of the marque.....hard to really put my finger on it. If it was me I'd try and get BOTH cars....but if I could only have one...it would be the Ferrari.
 
#9 ·
I've driven a '94 S4 Lotus quite a few times, it is a blast to drive and I can understand exactly where you are coming from comparing a 99 to a 328. I like to get to 60 quick! However, I think the reliability issues out-weight the performance in this case. The 328 will give you tons of driving pleasure and at the end of the day when you look in your garage you'll see a Ferrari and it will feel different than having the Lotus in the garage. Follow your heart and let us know how it works out.
 
#11 ·
Hi,

Although recently new to Ferrari I have owned a few Esprits in my time as well as TVR. I love the Esprit and your are right its not a Ferrari. But IT IS a Lotus Eesprit which is a fantastic car in its own right. "Lots of trouble usually serious" is an easy statement to quote. I had no problems with my cars. Tthe early V8's were prone to engine rebuilds but later cars were pretty much sorted. The same can be said of TVR. I had a 54 plate Tuscan II and would have been very unlucky to have needed an engine rebuild unlike the earlier ones. But I still recieved the comments about reliabilty etc.
One of the best Esprits was the S4s - last of the 4 cylinders. the one I owned was beautiful. Didn't cost much to run at all as it was serviced by an independent. Like any sports car of this sort you need to spend money on them from time to time just like a Ferrari. The Esprit handles much better out of the two. Now lucky enough to have owned both I would pick the 328. This is based purely on looks and the attention it recieves. If it had a reliabilty issue I would still choose it. Good luck it's a tough decision

Stuart
 
#13 ·
Hi Andrew,

The Tuscan has awesome performance. Boardering on the ridiculous. I never truley fell in love with the car for some reason. It might have been something to do with me hardly using it (as its was a third car and a toy) and knowing the values were dropping like a stone. Again bad press and rumours that were unessessary!! The Tuscan II is, despite populour belief, a well built car now but you will always get the comments. Although the acceleration and speed is very very quick I always felt like I should be blasting about in it full pelt. The loud exhausts dont help either. before you know it you are up behind another car. With the 328 its nicer to accelerlate gently and be quite

Cheers
 
#14 ·
I've never owned or even driven a Lotus Espirit, although I did test drive an Exige, which made my 512TR feel like a fishing boat by comparison. So, mechanically speaking, I don't have much opinion to offer you. As far as media reports say, the Renault transmission was very weak and the '96 and up V8's had cylinder liner leakage problems. Also, who want's to deal with two turbos. Uuugghhh!!!

What I can tell you is this. The Ferrari has a soul, a history, and you can just feel the exitement all around you everytime you drive it.

The Lotus, on the other hand, is just a nicely sorted pile of metal, rubber, and plastic. Lotus outsourced parts for the Esprit from many different vendors and manufacturers, a sort of frankenstein car. Botique is for furniture making, not building performance sports car's:(
 
#16 ·
I've never owned or even driven a Lotus Espirit, although I did test drive an Exige, which made my 512TR feel like a fishing boat by comparison. So, mechanically speaking, I don't have much opinion to offer you. As far as media reports say, the Renault transmission was very weak and the '96 and up V8's had cylinder liner leakage problems. Also, who want's to deal with two turbos. Uuugghhh!!!

What I can tell you is this. The Ferrari has a soul, a history, and you can just feel the exitement all around you everytime you drive it.

The Lotus, on the other hand, is just a nicely sorted pile of metal, rubber, and plastic. Lotus outsourced parts for the Esprit from many different vendors and manufacturers, a sort of frankenstein car. Botique is for furniture making, not building performance sports car's:(
Very well put. Fully agree. Your points are what has always in the end steered me away from buying a Lotus.
 
#17 ·
Absolutely! I have wanted a Ferrari all my life (I'm 27), specifically a Testarossa. I'm not really even a car guy, my first passion is, and always will be, motorcycles. In the end though, I've always loved cars, trucks, bikes, especially of the racing set. Even at a young age, I recognized and respected the way in which Ferrari's were designed and built.

It hasn't been until the last year that I could actually even consider owning a Ferrari. I didn't grow up with money or anything like that, and as a professional bike tech, I didn't earn but $35K a year. Last year I licensed a suspension system that I designed to the Yamaha Motor Corp. This has allowed me to purchase 1994 512TR. You're all going to flip when I tell you how much I paid for it.

When I decided to buy a sports car a few months ago, I knew I wanted a Ferrari, but I was only alloting 60-70K for this purchase. The Ferraris in this price range, like 328's, and 80's Testarossas are all wonderful cars, but I already have a gaqrage full of projects and what not. I wasn't really interested in an older sports car, even though I admire them very much. So, I kind of scrapped the notion of owning a Ferrari at this time. I tested some other, newer, cars like the Lotus Exige, a Z06 'Vette, and a couple of Vipers. I knew those were only emotional replacements for my desire to have a Ferrari. So, I decided to not buy a new car and put some money into my Cadillac CTS-V.

Now, I just want to say, I'm not spiritual, and vintage motocross is as close as I get to religion, but what happened to me about 4 months ago was destiny.

I was parking my RV(5th wheel) on the side of the garage when this lady comes over to me and asks if she could pay me to help her move a 5th wheel. Her brother had passed away and she was clearing out his property, a couple houses down from mine. In the garage next to the RV were three cars all under covers. I asked if I could look at them. There was an older Triumph, a genuine Lancia Stratos, and the beautiful 512TR. I was amazed, I'd lived next to this guy for about a year and had never seen him drive the cars.

I asked her what she was doing with them, she said she didn't really know anything about them and that she would probably be keeping the cars. I told her as much as I knew about them. At this point, I didn't know what a 1994 512TR was worth, I didn't even know what year it actually was. All the later Testarossas I had looked into were going for about 80K. So I told her it was worth about 80K. I then explained to her my desires for such a car and I offered here 55K (the most I could possibly afford). I didn't get a true answer to my offer though. The next day she came to my house and offered me the car for $50k:D if I would offer the use of my truck and myself to help her clear the property out and clean up the yard and stuff. I couldn't say yes fast enough.

That night I found out more about the car and then researched it on the internet and discovered that a 1994 512TR with only 6230 miles on it goes for about 120K. Overwhelmed with guilt, I had to tell her the true value of the car. In the one of the most surreal moments of my life, she said, "the deals done". I was shocked.

Anyway, I purchased the car. I still feel a little guilty to this day, but....

To wrap this up(sorry for the life story guys) I just want to say, of all the cars and bikes I've owned, including my "works" H-D MX 250, and my pristine 1988 Honda RC30, I've never loved a pile of metal like I love my Ferrari. It is a mechanical inspiration to me every time I drive it or even just stare at it--which I do regularly.:) Godspeed Enzo
 
#19 ·
I would post some pics, but I don't own a digital camera or know how to post pictures. Actually, I don't even own any kind of camera:eek: . This is the second forum I've ever subscribed to. The other one is an R/C motorcycle forum. The guys are always asking me for pictures of my bikes and little projects I have going on.:rolleyes:

I guess I'm kind of strange like that, I don't have any pictures of vacations I've been on, I don't have pictures of family or friends, and I don't have pictures of any of the bikes or cars I've owned. One time I bought a disposable camera to take pictures of hillclimb motorcycle that I wanted to build. I couldn't even tell you where those pictures are now. Hehehe

Maybe its time to buy a camera. ;) What do you look for in a digital camera? I know absolutely nothing about cameras. Thanks.
 
#20 ·
I'm no expert on camera's, although I have thousands of photographs and 3 cameras that I use regularly

Canon T90 SLR I bought it in Florida in 1989 - still takes the best photo's, I love this camera but it's too big to take out anywhere so I just use it around the house and garden.
Canon sureshot compact 150MM zoom - bought in 1999, good compact camera.
Sony 7.2 Megapixel Digital Camera bought in 2006, the camera I use most as it stores hundred of photo's on the memory, but I hate it, the quality of the photo's are poor and the flash is terrible.
I stil prefer real film and proper camera's, but digital is far more practical these days and gets the most use for that reason.
 
#22 ·
Well Stile-Alpine, yes it is red over tan. I've been looking at cameras all day on the internet. I should have one real soon.

As far as my car goes, it looks like any other 512TR. It's 100% complete and original. It was very well taken care of and as of now has only 6974.9 miles showing on the odometer. As of right now it's not exactly ready for pictures as the whole back of the car is disassembled for maintenence and upgrades. I am doing a cam belt replacement, refreshing the fuel and ignition systems, and adding some performance parts. That is as soon as I can locate them.
 
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