1997 Lotus Elise GT-1

[Gary Kadrmas]

Found this surfing the internet, and I thought this would be a very nice addition to anyones stable if they had the $$$ to purchase it. I have no affiliation or connection to the place selling this car. I just wanted to share it with you all because I found the car to be unique. I know, I know, its not a Ford......but I think its a neat car!

1997 LOTUS ELISE GT-1

1997 Lotus Elise GT-1 Race Car, Green/Yellow Lotus colors, excellent condition.

• 1 of 7 built by Lotus GT-1 Racing to compete in the 1997 FIA GT Series.
• This car competed against the McLaren F1, Mercedes CLK-R, and the Porsche GT-1.
• Former MVR Team car #19 raced by Marco Werner and Sandy Grau.
• Copies of the original FIA Paperwork
• Aluminum chassis and a carbon fiber body fitted with a Corvette ZR-1 engine mated to a Hewland sequential 6 speed transmission, carbon fiber brakes, Penske shocks, new Aim dash, Fresh ZR-1 engine built by Lozano Brothers, This engine recently gone through and dynoed by Doug Rippie Motorsports, (659 HP @ 7,250 rpm), and fitted with a LT5 specific EFI system.
• Over $100,000 spares package included: 3 ZR1 engines total, spare bodywork, 4 sets of BBS magnesium alloy wheels, about 85 extra gear sets, new slicks and rains, spare UK EFI system, carbon fiber intake and fuel injection system, exhaust headers, 20+ sets of springs, much more....

Receipts for over $50,000 recently spent on "Freshening". This Lotus Race car was just gone through and set up by Metro Racing Systems of Stuart, FL, track ready, probably the best sorted Lotus GT1 in existence!
Just Reduced to: $299,900

more photos and more information upon request.... Partial trades considered
Follow this link to Doug Rippie Motorsport engine builder for this car

engine above is in our Elise GT1
please note the videos below are not of our car

GT1 video 1

video 2

SCROLL PAST THE PHOTOS TO LEARN MORE MORE ABOUT THE LOTUS ELISE GT1

For more information please contact us.












For an all too brief period in the mid-90s, racing fans were treated to the sight of the fastest road-going exotic cars in the world competeting against each other on the world's stage. It began in 1994 with the victory of the Dauer 962LM. The 962LM was an 80's era Group C Porsche 962 that had been modified for road use, and then brought back to Le Mans under the new GT rules. Following the success of the McLaren F1 taking 1st, 3rd,4th, and 5th overall at Le Mans in 1995 with an almost stock car, many other teams started preparing cars like the Ferrari F40, Jaguar XJ220 and Lotus Esprit for the BPR GT series, which was later subsumed by the FIA..

What began with production exotics being modified with the necessary safety equipment to race, quickly evolved into manufacturers seizing an opportunity. The rules required a minimum number of road legal examples to be built and then modified for racing. Companies like Porsche and Mercedes seized on this to design pure race cars which were then dialed back just enough so they could be licensed, which ultimately resulted inthe 911 GT1 and CLK-GTR.
Lotus created a GT1 version version of the Esprit, which had been racing with some success in lower classes like GT2 and the SCCA World Challenge in the US. The then twenty-year-old Esprit just couldn't cut in the big leagues, though, so the new turbocharged V-8 was moved to a new platform. The Lotus Elise was still new to the world when Lotus decided to stretch the body longer and wider and put the V-8 in the back for the 1997 FIA GT series. The Lotus V-8 was also inadequate for competition and the race cars instead used the LT5 V-8 that Lotus had designed earlier for the Corvette ZR-1.
For more information please contact us.