bzguy

HI all,

it's been a while : very busy at work, very busy socially (wedding preps etc), but (lucklily) very busy on Lotus : got a 2003 Elise S2 111s now, and a very nice 1984 white Excel NA to add to my "collection"

BUT :

needed to pass yearly MOT last week, and here's the story.

BE AWARE : warning before reading this : this is HORROR ! (well, for me   )

Passed nearly all checks, but lights were offset ; can happen with pop up head lights, but then :

Final step : the guy puts the car onto a bridge to have a look at the steering & wheel mechanics, but the he tried to raise the car a little bit higher (as they do with any other car) with some lifting plates in the bridge : it is a 1m long and 40 cm wide plate, pushing the car up.

As you know, the Esprit is quite difficult to lift, there are only a couple of jacking pints to lift the car in a safe way.

Anyway, he lifted the car, and I heard loud cracking noise : he lifted the car on the body shell, more specific where the seats are (lowest point of the body)

Disaster, I thought

I went to complain at his boss, explaining that this kind of car cannot be lifted as any other, but I'm more worried about any damage. Filled in some papers to put an official "damage report", called Lotus Antwerp to have their advise. They advised me to have an expert having a look on the car, and eventually the car will need to pass Lotus to have an in depth expertise.

I'm really afraid the car has some damage, probably where the body is fixed to the chassis ...

No more news so far, I'm awaiting the expert to arrange an appointment to simulate what happened at the MOT station.

Fingers crossed for any damage, I will put the bill on the MOT's account, that's for sure !

I can assure you : it felt like someone was smacking one of my kids !

Luckily I remained calm, but I could have killed the guy doing this to my beloved Esprit !

Anyone having any idea what to look after ? Where could the damage be ? On first sight no damage, but I'm not an expert

Hi,

we just bought a 2003 Elise S2 111S, a nice young sister for my S4 Esprit : cobalt blue, only 29.000 km's, second owner, full service history, including protective film on the nose etc etc ...

I'll get some money off the bank and within a good week or so it will be at our place

Goal is to use it as a sort of daily driver for the misses (home-work-home)

Pictures below :

One important question :

What about installing winter tyres ? I read somewhere that Lotus recommends 15" all round & 185/55/R15 tyres ?

Hi all,

It's been a while, been sick for some time, but I'm back and I'd like to show you my latest mods : my Silver Frost S4 with black badges on it :

- black nose badge
- black wheel centre badges
- black steering wheel badge
- black gear knob badge
- black badge on number plate plinth (a neat way to hide a small hole in the plinth )
- black badge tyre caps

Since my wheels can use a little respray, I intend to have them powder coated this winter, probably in black (gloss)













Ladies and gentlemen, your votes please ...

Hi,

just bought a new toy in UK -it's not a Lotus, sorry guys ... !

It's a TVR Tasmin 280i convertible, and it's a nice little niece for my Esprit

The car is manufactured in 1984 (as on the VIN plate in the car), but it has been imported into UK in 1989, I heard that originally it was used/registered in Hong Kong or so ...

On the back of the current V5 it says : "special notes : Imported Vehicle - Was registered/used overseas. Declared manufactured 1984"

Current registration mark : SBZ9992, but was subject to a plate transfer : it used to be A886DUY (found an old copy of a V5 in the papers delivered with the car), have the owher at that time's address but don't find any tel number or email ...

How can I know when it has been used for the first time ? In what country ?
Thanx guys !

just found out, by searching on the internet- that prefix A is for cars registered between 1 August 1983 – 31 July 1984 ; S is between 1 August 1998 – 28 February 1999, so the swap has taken place somewhere in between 1 August 1998 – 28 February 1999

Hi all,

I'd like to import a car from UK to Belgium, but apparently UK DVLA has no records at all of the car concerned. All papers are lost, and car was probably Hong Kong registered (since Hong Kong belonged to UK long time ago). V5 is not available, so export papers cannot be made (since car is 'uknnown' for UK legislation). DVLA says customs/border control will not complain since there free traffic of goods within Europe.


Car info : Lotus Europa S2 1969 (RHD) ; number plate SX718L

It was an insurance write off, but I'd like to have as much history as possible of the vehicle.

I hope LotusCars UK could make a duplicate of the 'certificate of conformity', if that existed in 1969 ...

In worst case, car can be restored and put on UK plates (official registration procedure) after having done soecial MOT etc ... and then exported to Belgium (again)

All info more than welcome !

kind regards,
Hans