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1 month in and a few jobs ticked off..Loving it so far and enjoyed running a friend down to the factory for his Emira collection and a tour. Nice to see and hear about where it was built..

Last weekend we did the Gentlemen Drivers Rally in the Ardennes. I was there with my Excel, running tech support for the entire group so could use all the storage available. There was one other Lotus, an Esprit, and much to my surprise just after starting the Saturday run I saw it parked on the side of the road. I feared he had trouble, but then noticed another one next to it! I had to squint a few times, but was sure I didn't had that much to drink the night before. Sure enough, the other Esprit had seen him, followed for a bit and then they both pulled over for a quick chat and some pictures. I do hope the guy gets in touch, I gave him my card and told him I'd post on here. Great weekend, both Lotus performed excellent!

The original 900 Series Engine Block & Cylinder Head castings were produced by Aeroplane & Motor in Birmingham eventually part of the AE Group. Both were from Die Cast tooling. In the Mid 1980s Lotus was informed by AE were terminating production of these Die Cast components. A new source had to be found for the Block & Head. The original Die Cast Tooling had to be discarded. The new source was Zeus Aluminium Products (ZAP) who produced new Sand Cast tooling. Cant remember the exact location but from memory (nearly 40 years ago!) it was in Dudley. Both the Block & Head were redrawn to incorporate improved design features. The Zeus components can be identified by a 'Lotus Logo' on the casting.

Evora being about 1/3 of the value of any next thing, yet still pulling a crowd on a supercar show. Feels good!

Took the Evora for a spin today, first time in 6 weeks since the Emira arrived and Its still a great car and Ill probably hang on to it as although similar in concept to the Emira its still different enough First chance of some out door shots of the 2:

A few from our trip down to Nice via Annecy, the Evora hasn't missed a beat & has been everything I’d hoped for on the mountain roads 👌

A quick snap from Glen Nevis as I walked away. 🥰

Busy weekend planned to finish off some remaining jobs. Exciting times with a proper test planning before the end of this month.

Having a fun tour of Wales with some big boys.

I went for a little lakes jaunt yesterday

After my mid-April post, circumstances have prevented it sooner but an hour ago I completed my first meaningful drive in my 2019 GT410 Sport (two seater, Cup 2’s). Right roads, right weather, little traffic. I’m still smiling as I write. I loved my NA and enjoyed my S, but this was properly different. Any worries about switching from four years with an Elise Cup 250 now extinguished; great in its own way but my entry and exit no longer carried quite the graceful flourish that such a car deserves. And I really felt it was Evora time again, and in the version that I wanted, with cross country potential. I accepted concerns about it maybe feeling big and bulky for most decent roads, lacking the Elises immediacy, and generally being the Lotus-for-oldies. But no - I was wrong! Entirely! I’ve read all the positives written here by many and I’ve had test drives - in constraining circumstances - of a Sport 410 and a GT410 some years ago. So I didn’t expect any actual disappointment. Neither though did I expect such stimulating enjoyment, the feeling of lightness, the eagerness, the not-too-big-at-all-ness, the soundscape. A powerful tonic! Lotus-ness undiluted - for the drivers indeed!

A rare trip in to the office the other day (I mainly WFH now). Surrounded by the mundane (I'll let the MINI off 😉) Surprising how small the Evora is against the other cars! ...and back home safely 🙂

Long awaited progress on my 918 engine tubular manifold project. I`m hoping that these will be completed this month, so that we can move across to the EFR turbos

Now that the clutch related stuff is done, the chargecoolers and plumbing can be done. Filled with coolant for the first time, but ran out of distilled water to dilute the concentrate. At least everything is back together and leak free.

Just been given ‘Car of show’ as chosen by the event sponsor at a car show down in Cornwall this morning. 👍😁

Also just arrived, bringing the 100,000th Lotus built back to the house for the day.....

Evening All I picked up my GT410 sport in July 2022, I am still finding any excuse to take it out, and go to local meets at least weekly... what a great car!! A life long love of Lotus, but this is my first 😀

So, Finally fund out what the cause of the hesitancy is! After checking the carb float chambers for contaminated petrol, checked the floats, cleaned the jets three times, checked the distributor, electronic ignition, fuel pump, coil, changed the plugs, checked the leads ------ and all was well! ----- I went into the garage on Friday and noticed the nearside rear wheel looked slightly on an angle. Jacked the rear end up and found the UJ's were knackered!! In 30+ years of Eclat ownership, using the car as my everyday runner, (I only had the Eclat), I can always tell when the UJ's are on their way out because you can hear a rumbling sound. On the Esprit - not a whisper. Because the UJ's (on the Eclat) go down on a regular basis, I always keep a supply in. Ive now changed both UJ's on the nearside and voila- no hesitancy. Happy day. Ive checked the offside and although not as bad, Im going to change them as well. Thanks to everyone who came up with suggestions. They were all appreciated.

Evora came out of hibernation at the weekend and I'd been on the road for 5 minutes when a shirtless and tattooed yoof hanging out the passenger window of a Fiesta ST gave me a thumbs up and a big smile. Who says the youth of today don't have taste? Gratuitous pic of the beast after thrashing the roads of Berwickshire and North Northumberland. Such an awesome car to drive down twisty roads, exhaust blaring between the hedgerows. I love this car more every time I drive it, sublime.

Washed (snow foamed then two bucket) and waxed today.

Thruxton skid pan experience in my Evora. Not sure if this is the right place but happy for it to be moved if necessary. When my wife asked what I wanted for Christmas I opted for Thruxton’s “skid pan experience in your own car”. Quite reasonable in price, I wanted to get a much better feel for what the car does past the limit of grip. I’ve done a bit of drifting before in MX5s and 350z’s and was expecting something a bit between that and the circular skid pan at Benz world which is really a wet donut circuit. Thruxton is quite different. It’s not flat for a start and so you get adverse camber, and either the road falling away or climbing with little or no grip. The grip or lack of it is also inconsistent all the way around the circle. This is intended to introduce real world sudden momentary loss of grip as one might experience on a roundabout or a bend. Hence, the objective at Thruxton is to just drive at a steady speed in a circle and aim to react to what the car does, with the freedom to then try all of the drive modes in a highly controlled environment. The car’s reaction could be a combination of understeer, oversteer, complete loss of grip under braking or a combination of all. Speed wise, we are talking about 2nd gear and at no point did the revs get beyond 4k. Due to the highly polished surface, this is supposed to mimic a much higher speed loss of grip. I initially kept the sport button off. The traction control works by braking the appropriate wheel to try and bring the car back in line. I very quickly wanted to get out of normal mode because the ABS was kicking in constantly. The problem though was that it hardly corrected the car at times due to there being complete lack of grip (ABS needs at least some grip to work) and the vibration from the brake pedal just got annoying. In handling terms the car was very understeer prevalent even with brand new Goodyears on front and part worn PSS on the back. The rear would also then come round but when the rear did go it wasn’t too snappy. In Sport mode the ABS is still quite active. I’m sure the slip tolerance is much higher but I still felt that it was trying hard to control the skid but not achieving much because there was such a lack of grip. Potentially, winter or all season tyres would have made a huge difference just to be able to get some purchase on the front end, but again, understeer was very prevalent unless being very provocative with the accelerator. Race mode, turns all the traction off it seems. I didn’t hear the ABS kick in to correct a slide although ABS definitely remains on under braking which is a relief (and maybe even a legal requirement). I didn’t get any sense that Race mode learnt from the first oversteer event - perhaps it was just too slippery, but it was actually a much more enjoyable experience doing the circles in race mode simply because the car was not seeming to work aimlessly to correct slides. I’m sure if there was some grip, or if perhaps I was on winter tyres, it would be different, but as a result of this I stayed in race mode for much of the time. There are also parts of the P shaped circuit which are wet but not icy smooth and on the occasions I tried to kick the back out with moderate revs. I was surprised how stable the rear was - again, understeer was order of the day, unless I had a lot of angle in the steering. In summary, very low grip induces mainly understeer which was not too scary. After a few understeer moments and initially trying to add more lock, the thinking brain kicks in and straightening the steering helps get things tidy again. Trying to turn in on adverse camber have even more understeer to the point it was uncontrollable and the car just kept going straight. Unless of course, the front near side wheel hit the slippery patch mid turn - this gave immediate understeer but then as soon as the rear touched that same patch (signifying black ice) it all switches round pretty quickly. Because of the time of day (8.30am) I had the whole thing to myself to do as I pleased and I think I really got a better feel for the car than I would have got in 1000s miles of normal driving. Hopefully I will never experience slip levels like that on the road but it was well worth doing and for £125 it was good value I felt. It was also not hard on the car due to low speeds and the highly polished surface. I’d recommend it therefore.

I bought a rear silencer from them 32 years ago for £159, which came with a life time warranty. One of the connecting pipes rusted completely through so I contacted Double S Exhausts. To my surprise they said if I still had the original invoice and warranty card they would take a look at it. I had it couriered to them and within a few weeks it was repaired and sent back free of charge! I’m amazed and the silencer is as good as new again. Obviously I highly recommend them, hence this post.

For the few who know the difference.... 😉

Cheers, I'm really pleased with them. Lends just a touch of mid-nineties McLaren F1 GTR to the car I think!

Hi Kimbers, Here as some photos: Prince Micheal of Kent With Giugiaro DeLorean King of Jordan Duke of Edinbourgh Duke of Kent Home Secretary Kenneth Baker

My favourite picture of the day:

Gone to meet it's maker: Ruby reunited with Russell Carr after a long separation. Two legends - and me. Another who stress tested Ruby in the 90s, Gavan Kershaw: Both total gentlemen, listening to the prattlings of this Elise fanboy. They could not have been kinder or more attentive. It's quite a journey from Elise S1 to Evija. Go Lotus! Justin

So much happened, where to start?

Picked mine up last week (1 day short of 26 months from deposit). All great so far.😀 Going for ceramic coating next week when I am away, so will get some more pics then.

More running in... 346317957_6062960397155297_4849640022371480420_n.mp4 346322329_6032985060154528_6262584083765125114_n.mp4

Time to resurrect this thread. After having driven 320 km over 2 years I figured I need to use this thing more often. Yesterday as we were heading back from a car meet the speedo decided to throw in the towel. It had been iffy with a 15 km/h error (on the high side) since I bought it and significant wobble at low speeds too. Luckily the Odo was still ticking so cables were fine. Despite suffering from heatstroke I wasn't about to let my Esprit lounge around with the needle permanently parked at 80 km/h. Into the Lotus Position I went and got the dash out. It's shocking how much is muscle memory with this car - I haven't done this in years but it still went super fast. With the odometer unit removed the culprit was obvious - not the gaps either side of the brass ring on the end of the shaft. I removed the black bezel at the front by prying away at it using a pick until I could get in and proceed all the way round. Its ugly as sin but not visible from the front.Sone further disassembly... Now, the other side of the rear part of the assembly: the center part had drifted backwards. It's meant to be flush with the surface. A gentle tap with a hammer corrected things: Now I've heard some Loctite this back in place to prevent it from drifting back again, but I didn't since something told me I'd be back in there anyway... Reassembling it all didn't take long. I didn't permanently re-attach the bezel. There is no need really. It sits snug in the dash surrounded by a rubber sleeve keeping the lot in place. I've just done a first drive and not only does it work, the bias is now 5km/h or so vs earlier 15, and needle wobble at low speeds is minimal. Happy times. Tips for those who also need to do this: when prying off the bezel in the final stages to get it loose from the housing, be very very careful you don't lever against the glass of the speedo - I chipped mine in 2 places , luckily both behind the bezel and not visible. But it is perfectly avoidable. Also another tip, use silicone spray when putting the speedo back into the rubber sleeve. Now, if you'll excuse me, the open road beckons.

Well, since I have the 25th Anniversary #006 this is really going to trigger the purists so firstly just know that, to quote an older than our Esprit's movie, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn", secondly to those that appreciate a nice mod/upgrade, I think you're gonna like it. My recently acquired, March 2023, 2002 25th Anniversary #006, has 70K on the odometer and is obviously a drivers car, not a garage queen/collectors car. Therefore when I purchased this beauty she had a golf ball size hole in the drivers side seat bolster. I wanted to have the seat re-upholstered but was thinking I might as well make it a little more modern/classy than the original classic. The result is I asked them to add a double stitching to replace the original piping and also to do a double stitched diamond pattern on the seats. I also had the parking brake and seat belt redone with red stitching and the shift boot done with red double stitching. The 25th Anniversary has the Lotus symbol embossed in the headrest so I had them do that as well, the passengers seat is perfect while I would like to have the drivers seat better, as their first embossing job I can accept it. I will probably get them to rework the drivers seat embossing but since I haven't driven the car in a month due to having the seats out I accepted the work. So far I'm really happy with how it turned out and modernized the card a bit. Just food for thought if anyone else is looking to get their seats re-done.

Mrs Bruss has jus given me permission to buy an Emira. Well, I think that's what she said "OOh, I love that blue one". 😃

@mattthesparks lotus esprit This is either a massive coincidence or fate... 1988 Lotus Esprit Turbo (X180) For Sale By Auction (carandclassic.com)

My short video on the event. Might give you a small taste of what it was like. The Little Lotus Goes to East Carleton Manor https://youtu.be/CvSEEzq5WZA

Just back from the Garden party. As Justine said, it's hard to describe it other than absolutely fantastic and an absolute privilege to have been there. As an example, we stood waiting for the group photo and this old bloke ambles next to me wearing a flat cap. Had a look at his name badge and it was Mike Costin (half of Cosworth). Had a great chat with him about when he and Colin started out they only worked part time making race cars as they both had full time jobs. The whole event was a proper slice of Lotus history.

Good start to proceedings. Surrey to Norfolk, hotel special, tomorrow will be intergalantically good:

The first of the Matras has come back to life! 🙂 Not too bad actually, a quick look at the ignition side and a lot of cleaning to get petrol to the carbs. And then rebuilding the starter motor that had died while trying to prime the fuel pump... Still need to rebuild the brakes and fee the clutch, not looking forward to that. And I so much prefer the Lotus position! At least that's lying down. 🙂 Everything seems to be stuffed tightly between the transverse engine and bulkhead, at least you can sit in the boot while straining your back...

Here's what the door panel looks like with some dye Definitely better

The Taste of Every German Car owner ever

No worries - I've just found this. All makes sense now. Never again will I buy a car in a series of boxes. Probably.

Following on. It's a done deal. Two weekends of ceremony and celebrations (food, wine, and a keg of home brewed Nelson's Revenge, I might add) as both our kids hit the university finish line in the same year, so double raise for us! 😋 She with a double major of Biology and Psychology with minors in Environmental Science and Chemistry is an unabashed bird nerd and off the the wilds of Wyoming as an interpretive ranger to jumpstart her career as a budding naturalist. He, older, took a more circuitous course with 3 changes of major, 3 school changes to finally hit his stride and calling in Mechanical Engineering Technology, which combined his previous interests in computer science and engineering into one go. He led a multispecialty team to complete a senior project of designing and implementing a Foosball table with mechanical and AI controls to challenge a human player (just search OSU AI Foosbots on youtube..). He's a whiz at coding, 3D printing, and now AI among all other things that boggle my mind. They are polar opposites but together will bring balance to the Force. Good kids and I'm starting to think there may be hope for mankind after all..

Been making cider for 20 years, first time I've entered a competition. Won 3rd place in Class 2 - Medium Cider!! (I'm going for 1st place amateur behind 2 commercial operations). Happy days https://www.cidermuseum.co.uk/cider-perry-competition/

I think I prefer 'old' Britain.

Good turn out of Emira First Editions at the Collecting Cars "Coffee Run" today at Bicester Heritage. Out numbered Evoras by one!

If anyone fancies making their own solid state voltage regulator all you need is a 7810 chip such as this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290956646047 The letters at the start can vary depending on manufacturer the ebay one is L7810, others are TS7810 etc Only about £1 each Three terminals, in out and ground. they can get a bit hot so attaching to metal or a heat sink is advisable. Small enough to fit inside an original voltage regulator case it you need it to keep looking original. I've made a few over the years.