18 replies to this topic

[ramjet]

I have not posted about Julian and his esprit that he picked up recently in Melbourne from Steve Taylor after importing it from the UK. I was waiting for Julian to post on here himself. I bumped into Julian when I was taking a friend down to Margaret River from Pinjarra when I still lived in WA in my S4.
Anyway, that got Julian going and he bought his car. I met up with him again in Melbourne when he and his friend picked it up to drive it back to WA. I will let you all look up the distance from Melbourne to Bunbury on google.
Anyway, Julian did not register the car in Australia, but got permits to drive it all the way back to WA from Vic without plates.
So, you have an exotic older sports car, driving from Melbourne to Adelaide and then across the Nullarbor to Bunbury.

How many times did the Oz constabulary pull him over to check things were kosher?

Yep.

0!

Anyway, here is a link of a vid his sister put together for him. Hopefully he will join up on here.

[esprit s2]

Excellent!

[surferphil]

I did a surf trip starting at Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road and loved it! Awesome drive and awesome waves to surf! A truly amazing place. I did it in a V8 Holden estate, the Esprit would have been even more fun.

[USAndretti42]

Car looks great!

[obione]

Thats a great video - love it!

[ramjet]

Should I tell him it should be Agent ACBC?

[Tara]

oMG ! I did that journey via train

I went across the nullarbor desert ... From Perth to Melbourne Via Adelaide
I thought it would be a good experience ....
After the first 24 hrs of the scenery not changing and going in a straight line the novelty soon wore off...
By day three .... Well ...I won't be doing that again
But I'm sure it's better via road ???
Epic journey though .
No quite the great ocean road as surferphil mentioned !

[Roger the Dodger]

[Goldacre]

Hi Ramjet, thanks for the heads up here woohoo My sister is still working on the updated Vid, the time she is taking i am thinking a James Cameron 3 hour epic Working on a trip log and will post soon, Steve Taylor wants to upload onto his site as well so the trip will be well covered, have some fuel stats people will be interested in along with some engine bay temp measurments curtosy of my food grade infra red temp gun. Thanks for the tip about the CC full name mix up, i asked my sister to let me brief the vid clip but she put it straight to Utube

What i can say is that i would do this trip again as it is nothing like the train trip (done that once) and plan to again in October but will take the Esprit over on train from Perth to Adelaide then drive to Steves for some TLC. loving the Esprit ownership and challenges and will figure out how to upload pics and make a nice trip log of it.

Here is a sweetner of the trip done over 4 days...

Steve Taylors place at 5 Marong Court Baronia Vic to Tailem Bend South Australia
667 km, 8 hours 27 mins
Western Hwy/National Highway A8 and National Highway A8

Tailem Bend, SA to Streaky Bay, South Australia
826 km, 10 hours 30 mins
National Highway A1

Streaky Bay, South Australia to Norseman, Western Australia
1,311 km, 13 hours 28 mins
Eyre Hwy

Norseman, Western Australia to Merredin, Western Australia
Coolgardie-Esperance Hwy and National Highway 94
462 km, 4 hours 50 mins

667 km
826 km
1,311 km
462 km
------------
3,266km

I'll be back

J

[ramjet]

So there you go folks. Who said these cars are unreliable? There's an old S3 that went through a service and checkover in Melbourne and then drove 3,266 km with a brand new owner that has never owned an esprit before.

Good stuff Julian.

Check out here http://www.thelotusf...orum-info-help/ for how to do stuff on here.

If you get stuck, ask a question of one of us moderators. We're here to help.

And lastly, welcome to TLF and your first post.

[surferphil]

[NedaSay]

I love that road, it twists and turns and rolls and the background is just epic!

Edited by NedaSay, 01 March 2012 - 05:25 PM.

[Goldacre]

Hi folks, as promised the updated 'James Cameron' lenght video. Once again uploaded before i could proof it but will fix that all up and label some of the photos to make more sense of it when at sis place



JG

[ramjet]

That's how you do it. You buy an esprit from the UK unseen. You get it fettled and checked over in Melbourne. You hop on a plane with a mate from WA. Get picked up by the mechanic, meet the guy whose esprit you saw in WA, pack your stuff in and for your first drive, you drive 3,266 kms without number plates.

Compulsory road sign shots, bandana shots and drive-by video.

What's not to like?

[surferphil]

That's rock n roll man!

[Goldacre]

Hey Ramjet and surferphil, theres a book to! LOL :-D chronicled the trip into 17 pages while memory still fresh, gave Steve Taylor the abridged version he uploaded at Lotus Marques to save him bandwidth

If you have a spare 30 minutes to read the trip experienced PM me and will email.

Ramjet, in melbourne for a week, hanging out at the Windsor opposite the Parliament House, and then a few wine bars, and then a few more. If you need a co driver anytime soon let me know (cheeeezy grin). Visiting Steve T the following Sunday and hope to take him to a local chinese restaurant me and my mate found night before big trip and talk Lotus exponential, your invited, my shout.

PS yeah that bandanna, comes in handy when ones top of the body solar panel is about 23mm from the glass roof!

J

[ramjet]

Bugger.

Doubt I'll be able to sort catching up. Work all week, then pick my brother up Friday arvo after work, then back to Geelong and family stuff Saturday, then have to run my brother back to his mates in Melbourne. Might be able to quickly catch up on Saturday after I've dropped my brother off, but won't be able to stay I doubt. Then my 50th on Sunday at home in the arvo.

[bharper]

What is amazing is he drove 8km more than the number of ramjet's posts, there must be something mystical going on.... must be some speedo error or something to account for that 8km error....

Brian

[Goldacre]

LOL

Kato at LEW has uploaded some pics and the log of the trip if anyone is curious how the trip went day by day ...

http://www.lotusespr...sertEsprit.html