mike_sekinger's Esprit Blog

Haha, I know, what you mean with "noise", and I guess everyone else, who has ever driven his Esprit fast knows, too. I upgraded my noise canceling stereo with speakers behind the seats. But at some speed nothing helps - maybe the earplugs

Mike, You are crazy!!!!! 295 in an Esprit!!!!!! Wow man, that must have been well over 300km/h on the clock if you did 295 on the GPS. I can really believe you will need earplugs ;-) Not only for the wind, but probably also because you don't want to hear the engine howlin' so loud :-D

Oh my God ! That is Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast !

Nice one Mike !

It became so quiet in here... did you ever get back Mike? ;-)

Hi Gert,

The car is still here in Ratingen. I´m currently moving to Holland for a while, so the Esprit will become my daily transport to and from work.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of driving a 7.5t truck to France and back.... 13hrs at 90Km/h.

I was hoping to find some time to come visit you in Belgium, once we are settled in.

Cheers,
Mike S

Only another 25 kmh to find now. What do you reckon, 15-20% more power needed? Not forgetting how much is going to be aero at these speeds.

Go on, tell us why it felt unsafe. Does it feel a bit 'floaty' and not really planted?

Hi Pete,

I stopped at 6500rpm - but clearly the engine had more to give. It was just a quick test, not a full-bore attempt at a top speed.

It felt unsafe due to the sheer noise and vibration (the cf rear deck moves more than the stock one...). I was totally unprepared for the deafening sound of the engine/turbos at WOTand that combined with the road and wind noise was rather unnerving. The car didn´t feel floaty or as if it was going to take-off ;-)))

I´ll be getting to drive that section of road routinely in the next weeks/months, so I´ll see if I can capture some images.

Cheers,
Mike S

A few weeks of commuting on unrestricted autobahn with a modified V8....

To quote Monty Python:

"You lucky, lucky, lucky b*******d!"

Update: I´ve been travelling daily between Holland and Düsseldorf, which in practice means two 25Km slices of 150mph+ fun each day. The commute is only 80Kms each way, but with a good section of unrestricted Autobahn in the middle of the run.

The car is behaving very well although it really gets through the fuel in a hurry at those speeds. I´m having to fill-up every three days !

In an attempt to address the excessive noise, I fitted 200cpi cats, but removed them very soon afterwards as the power loss was noticeable and certainly unwelcome. I´m now running minus cats but with the Lotus federal centre-exit muffler. Seems a good compromise for now and on light throttle the car is reasonable quiet - still a howling banshee at WOT !

Engine has done just over 8000miles, so 2nd oil change planned for the weekend.

Cheers,
Mike S