It does bear a striking resemblance....

I like the Esprit, I had an 88 model, only 4 cylinder, but that thing could corner, and it looks great.

When Autocar (I think) showed an artist's impression of the proposed new Lotus about a year ago they actually used the Gallardo as a base for the artwork! You could clearly see the Gallardo rear lights. Unmistakable. The worst thing was that they even had half of the Lamborghini badge left on the "Lotus".

That image looks like one of the pics shown at that time, although a slightly different rear end.

Steve