1985 Lotus Excel

This is the first Lotus Excel on the register - one of the most overlooked Lotus cars.. Such great styling and typical of the era, the excel is a rare beast, with just 2,075 built. This example has just under 100,000km, and at the time we spotted it on trademe.co.nz, with a starting bid of $25,000. Not too bad if you got it for that! The seller made the following comments in the original advertisement:

"New Zealand new Lotus Excel in excellent condition. This is quite a rare car being new in New Zealand and never exposed to UK roads. It has been looked after well over the years, as can be seen in the photos. It runs extremely well and is a great touring car.
The Lotus Excel is often overlooked, as the Esprit got all the glamour. It is much more reliable than than Esprit and looks great. The Excel is front engine, rear drive with a 50/50 weight distribution, which makes it a great handing car. As Lotus was owned by Toyota when the Excel was being designed, it has Toyota Supra running gear (gearbox, rear drive), with the Lotus 2.2 engine, the same as the Esprit. The engine is non-turbo, and produces 160 hp in this model which is plenty of power for a relatively light car. The body is all fiberglass, so no problems with rust and being NZ the chassis has no problems. The interior is in great condition and is all leather as can been seen by the photos.

I have had the car for about 10 years and only selling it as it is not used. I have had the rego on hold for the last four years, but it has been regularly run and just flew through its WOF with no problems. It has been regularly serviced, even in storage and the cam belt was changed in 2020, so you can drive it away and enjoy."