The Esprit is the automotive equivalent of David Bowie. Both have been British glam-stars for decades, both are chameleons with the uncanny ability to adapt to current trends, both are long, lean and (if you ask my wife) sexy, and both look amazingly good for their age.

The automotive equivalent of David Bowie, the Lotus Esprit has the uncanny ability to adapt to current trends and always look fresh. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press)

I fell for the Esprit's edges and angles at a local car show about the first time I heard my first Bowie album, Young Americans. I quickly ran out and bought Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, followed soon after by Aladin Sane, and the list went on and on.

Unfortunately I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to run out and buy an Esprit, but on occasion a bright yellow example would charge up the highway as I was walking home from a night out playing with my band, probably driven by some well-healed businessman saying under his breath, "Hey look, there's a kid trying to look just like David Bowie!"

So close, yet so far to achieving my two childhood dreams, being a musical superstar and owning my own Lotus Esprit. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press)

Inspired by Mr. Bowie, my music career took me across Europe, throughout the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada, as well as various forgettable locations in the interior wastelands of both countries - what an American friend of mine affectionately refers to as the fly-over states. I came close, or so I figured, but never achieved superstardom, what it was going to take for me to buy the Lotus.