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Sorry to hear of the passing of Jimmy Clark's friend and mentor Ian Scott-Watson. He is widely recognised for helping to launch Jimmy’s racing career and remained close throughout. Pic via @JimClarkTrust

Hi Im looking at buying a cover for my Esprit from the forum shop and cant decide what colour to go for? Pictures of what you guys went for will be good. The classic green and yellow is timeless. My turbo is red with gold decals so thinking red with gold Gold leaf scheme perhaps.

Fitting to name a new road running through the heart of Hethel in honour of Hazel Chapman.

If you've not seen this documentary from 1968, it gives a great insight into Lotus, Chapman and his family when he was becoming established as a wealthy and successful team owner and motoring entrepreneur. Also interesting interviews with Hazel C and the legendary Bob Dance. Hope to see both at Hethel on 29 Sept!

I am about to buy my first air compressor and am unsure about what to buy. I hate working on cars so it's not something I will be using a lot. Therefore I don't want to spend a lot of money. Ideally under £150. I would be using it to power an impact driver for removing stubborn nuts and bolts on my car. One other thing I would like to use it for at some point is sandblasting or media blasting metal parts to remove rust etc. What sort of CFM/PSI and capacity volume should I be looking for?

I have been chatting to Autoretrim of Birmingham about getting my S2 seats retrimmed in black leather with black alcantera center panels, topped off with red stitching (Car is Carnival Red) Has anyone used these guys before ? Or do any of you recommend other options? TIA Andy

Hey Everyone I have exactly a day to put together some pictures for a TV producer (Sorry can't say what) for filming Thursday. Due to work at Dads house and us putting some stuff into storage, we are unable to find any pics of Dad with Famous people or cars. Things I am looking for if you have any or know where some are: Famous people. Famous Cars Especially if you have him with any James Bond cars (Or even a White S1). Any of special interest (Him at Events/royalty etc). Thanks if anyone has one they are happy for me to Save and send to said Producer please post below.

Aston Martin have announced this morning that Geely is to invest $295m to become the third largest shareholder. Gives Geely the right to appoint a NED to the AM Board.

Hi gents, I'm very intrigued in the Radical cars world and I'd like to know your opinion about that, how is considered in the UK cars world the Radical brand and their build quality and service? Seems to me that they are very well considered in the race world, also, is the company owned by UK people or something else? Thanks Giorgio

Just reading and saw news about the potholes that are now everyday avoidance wherever you go now! I lost the count where and how bad the holes are now ? It’s a case to avoid by swerve the hole if it’s safe or go another route ! For owners like us we want to enjoy our cars but as the roads are deteriorating at such a rate it’s making it not a cheap or enjoyable experience Wondering should as a forum writing to Daily Mail campaign outlining concerns etc ? Now considering getting extra insurance to cover wheel alloy damage as I suspect the route of claiming back from councils is almost impossible ?

So across the board for any new to me car im considering, prices are crazy!! not sure what to believe with regards to what I read...ie prices will stay high for a while and may even increase but id be interested to know if cars are actually selling at the prices advertised as I see a lot sitting around for a long time Can anyone remind me what the 410 and 430 cars originally retailed at please Thanks

What's all that about? Maidstone Hospital yesterday afternoon...

I have, at last, moved into a house that has space for a double garage to be built. Before embarking on the design / planning I am looking for some inspiration. Over to you guys!

On more4

Fun venue and good roads around. Not quite Caffeine and Machine but worth a visit. I found two Lotus in attendance, picture of the last S1 and an anniversary Elise today. The feline is named De Cat 😺 Justin

No affiliation, but someone sent me a link and I thought this was quite cool. Click HERE. There are gaps today- for example - missing individual dimensions - missing views (sometimes only a side view available of a car) - missing models (eg. Exige, Emira etc etc) - missing varients (can't for example select 964/993/996/997/991/992) And it's a shame the front & rear shots aren't done as an overlay too, BUT - potentially useful resource. 😎 Hopefully they will fill the gaps over time (using the ad revenue - it's quite "ad-y" 🤐 )

Been looking a lot at the new range of Hot Hatches out there after finding out my Old XR2 had been written off recently. Many of the new ones are harking back to the old days of being rough and ready, whilst some others are refined 4WD'ers. I must admit, with Cars at £30k doing 0-60 in 5 seconds there does appear to be some fun cars. I really like the Civic Type R (last years model) this years model is a little "Toned down" in looks though. New Toyota GR Yaris and Hyundai i20N also look like great small hot hatches. Anyone got one? and don't say Golf GTi cause thats the most boring Hatch thats vaguely hot ever!

Hethel, the home of Lotus since 1966 – is reopening to the public. Book your factory tour now: https://www.lotuscars.com/factory-tours/ Factory tours of our iconic Norfolk site were paused in November 2017 as a £100 million redevelopment began. With the Emira, the last petrol-powered car from Lotus, now in production in an all-new, state-of-the-art assembly hall, they will restart.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1597404/driving-fine-land-rover-fined-cyclist-country-lane. Seems that you need to stop if cyclists are coming the other way on a narrow lane £1000 plus fine seems harsh especially as the woman seems unable to remove her feet from the toe clips quick enough

The owners of classic cars are avoiding smart motorways and taking long detours because of the fear of being hit if they break down in a live lane. Drivers of cars made more than 25 years ago said motorways without a hard shoulder held “too many risks” because their vehicles’ age makes them over-susceptible to mechanical failure. Instead, they resort to much longer journeys to bypass the roads, which are 10 per cent of the motorway network. Edmund King, president of the AA, said that the government should “go back to the drawing board” and bring back the hard shoulder. Alan Hames, 80, a highways engineer for 50 years before his retirement, said tha…

I've been looking for something Lotus themed for my son for a little while, and finally spotted something on eBay today. Not seen this model before and it looks quite cool although it's definitely a project car and needs some work. The decals are almost certainly not available anywhere so I'm going to have to get them custom printed to replace the tired ones. The front wing looks like it's been in a few first corner skirmishes so that and some of the other plastic bits... well if they need repairs then I may need a 3D printer or something to build pieces to glue together and fix them. But it's something a bit different and I'm looking forward to the challenge of rest…

Thought I'd post here rather than the slightly moribund Type 14 section, as more folk likely to see it:- https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2019-05-18/cars/ref-1-1959-le-mans-lotus-elite-ex-dickie-stoop/ If only my dodgy knees still allowed me to roll around on the floor underneath old cars, I think I'd be bidding for this, for sure. I could recreate that oh so beautiful 😍 first Lotus I saw as a 9 year old boy. 10 years ago I'd have been all over this car like a rash!

I have always been a Ginetta fan and finally found a car which turned out to be a part of Ginetta resurgence History following the liquidation in the late 1980's. In the 90's I wrote to the factory and got the brochure, price list and the build manual which I still have. I was always taken with the car in the brochure picture. The G27 GRS plate was the factory display plate. I rejoined the Ginetta Owners Club and this car was sort of hidden on the website for sale. The car has been written up in the main stream motoring media and the Kit Car mags multiple times. Once in 1993 and revisited in 2016 by Ian Stent, who wanting to confirm it was as good as he remembered…

I came across these old test results: It would be interesting to do a similar test again, with modern products. The problem would be to get a similar amount of rust to compare the breakout torque. My experience is that there is indeed a big difference between different products, and WD-40 is indeed far from the best choice. I've changed brands a couple of times over the years (Liqui Moly, Würtz and now 5in1), mainly because of what my supplier had on offer, but can't really rank them. I wouldn't be without it though! And maybe I'll try an ATF mix on the next really challenging bit (I need to do the bushing on the rear hubs soon...).