title: 'Lotus Esprit GT3 — Videos' date: '2002-05-18 12:00' taxonomy: category:

• articles tag:
• lotus
• esprit
• gt3

• cars

GT3 Test Run

I recently fitted a new, stainless-steel exhaust to my Lotus Esprit GT3. A number of people have been asking for sound recordings of the car and others have been asking for videos.

On Sunday, 25th March 2001 I decided to show off my Esprit in front of the camera.

Hardware

For information, the pictures were taken by a JVC GR-DVX4 DV camera.

The images were transferred via Firewire into a Pentium III 850MHz PC with 256MB of RAM.

The huge AVI file was then transferred to an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 800MHz PC with 512MB of RAM for post-processing. Currently, the AMD Athlon is the best platform for heavy, computation tasks.

Software

These links are now dead

Capturing and post-processing was handled by Sonic Foundation's Vegas Video. http://www.sonicfoundry.com/

Video processing produces huge files, they need to be compressed into a format that's small for downloading on the Web and also of such a format that keeps most of the video quality. I used a fantastic program bbMPeg http://members.home.net/beyeler/bbmpeg.html to compress the files into MPeg 1.

External Videos

Introduction

A bit cheesy.... but!

0 - 60 Burn

Hear the engine rev-up and watch the Lotus launch into the distance!

Twist

The Esprit down-shifts and negotiates a hairpin bend and accelerates off into the distance.

That Was Close!

After my second standing start, I was greeted by a battered Ford Escort van cutting the corner in front of me. However, I'm sure my experience was only half-as-bad as the woman realising that she was being filmed!

The End of the First Run

The Lotus emerges around the hairpin bend and then comes to rest just in front of the camera.

On-board Videos

On-board Drive

You're on-board during a rainy day. The Lotus negotiates bends and a roundabout, with a hint of oversteer along the way.

Something Different

The Swedish Police catch-up with a speeding Lotus Omega (Carlton in the UK) driver and are then given a demonstration of why the Lotus Omega was said to be one of the fastest production cars ever built.

This video is no longer available — the copyright was owned by a third party and the original hosting has long since gone.