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Especially when I got to do this today:- I’ve had a few experiences bought for me in the past but nothing comes near to this. It was from my wife and son for a significant birthday last year but postponed until this year because of the C word. It was just the most perfect day for it too. Not a cloud in the sky and obviously able to see ‘The Hun’ from a way off!😁 The pilot let me take the controls over to the Isle of Wight and then I handed back to him for the several aerobatic manoeuvres. Such delicate controls on the Spitfire. We often hear how the Lotus steering is so delicate, you can think the car round corners and it’s very much like that with the Spitfire. A barely discernible movement on the stick will have the plane’s attitude changing immediately. What a day and the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition for me. I love my family!😁 Oh and the icing on the cake - the pilot owns a Type 25 Elise SC. Good man. 👍 Just want to do it again now 😁

did a small drive this evening, here some pictures, (the Netherlands)

SET UP and PLANNING.. Here we are at the start of the body restoration on JPS # 044 .. There is evidence it has had previous repair work, with a half rear quarter section put in .. Unfortunately this has not been done that well and is very easy to see.. As we have said in previous threads , any impact repair on GRP has to be explored with consideration of how far the gel crack will travel .. The usual stress points along with the direct connected area will all crack .. In the case of # 044 this consideration was not taken into account and some time after the repair all the gel crack has exposed itself .. I am sure the person who did the original repair was not aware this would happen, but as you will see from the photo's it is quite severe. These cracks stop in a straight line exactly where the new section was butted up to .. I have marked the worst area's , but to be fair they are not that difficult to spot . Stress cracks are very apparent in the seams of the 'B' and 'A' posts , both sides , but more prominent on the N/S .. The shell has also flexed on the o/s rear quarter with gel crack spreading all down that panel aswell . We also have flex area's in the front compartment that will need addressing, It also appears to have impact damage on the front that has not yet been repaired , but has split the front seam and caused extensive gel crack to the front panel . Both headlamp pods have seen better days and will need some creative reconstruction. The only other main area to cover at this point is the roof.. It has been fitted with after market sunroof , which the customer wants removing and putting back to original .. There is also some gel crack in the usual spots. I will cover all the other points as I go through the main shell , section by section . The panels will addressed later in the thread.... First job is to get that smashed screen and the old sunroof out .. Let the fun begin..

Super car meet, thought the Evora did not look to shabby against the competition.

Look what I found! Screwdriver anyone?

Well it did not leak due to fitting, It was stuck in with no intensions of it ever needing removing.. The leak must have come from the seal to the glass.. Needless to say the sun roof was a real pain to get out , but with patients it eventually came free without damaging the roof .. The smashed screen was a messy job but all done and out of the way .. This is where we start the voyage of discovery . As we saw from the external pics of the repaired quarter , it was looking a bit ' ify '. So before starting to sand off the paint and gel coat , I decide to have a good look inside the section.. To my surprise there was no GRP layers at all .. On closer inspection the joint did not even seem to but up. In addition to that, the but faces were clean . This means the only thing attaching the sections is a thin skin of GRP bridging the outside .. This would explain why the repair was so visible.. Also the the imperfect panel profile .. Upon sanding off the paint , we encountered filler, followed by a thin GRP layer over the joint . Very weak and poor !!!. What we were left with was a 5mm gap between the sections.. I decided to leave a couple of small area's not fully sanded , so the shape could be retained whilst I applied a GRP layer to the inside to re-stabilize it , before starting the next step . The above pic was how it started to appear when removing the surface layer . The one below is how it appeared when all flatted out .. It is difficult to show on a pic how clean that joint was, I did not touch it , that is how it came out .. I think this is a classis example of measure twice cut once . It would seem by how parallel the cut joint is, time was taken to cut neatly , but they got the measurements wrong.. Uhmm .. Some nasty impact GRP crack also came to light on the new section , this will need fully grinding out .. The next area to get started on is the roof .. First job was to sand off all the paint and gel layers in preparation for filling in the sun roof hole .. In the above pic you can just make out the thickness of the panel, which will need recreating across the hole . The first task was to make a profile blank to bridge the hole , This had to fit neatly and slightly curve in both plains. The profile section was supported from the underside , without any vertical pressure, so as not to distort the original form. Once happy with the fit and shape I could start grinding off a large taper area around the hole . This left a razor sharp edge where the new and old section join . A release wax a release agent was carefully applied to the profile so it can be removed when the new roof is formed over it .. When all prepped. the new GRP layers can be applied . I started with 1 layer the same size as the hole, then 4 more each getting progressively bigger to neutralise the taper that was ground in . Finally two full layers were applied .. This now needs to be left for several days to fully cure before i can continue this section .. Next week, I will start to get that quarter panel back as it should be.. '' Uhmm ...loads more itchy scratchy to come ''

I'll be at the factory in two weeks, I'll take my gear...

just put a deposit down with B&C. Delivery April 22 ish.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0HomCISlb/

Well.. why wouldn’t you share it here? If they drive it around outside somewhere, others will see it too and post the pictures… I think TLF should be the place for the first spy shots 😉

A couple of pics when out with the family. Sunset one taken by my photography mad son in law. (apologies for the crap parking! ) The other in my local car park. So which do you prefer? The BMW or my S1 ? or are you all prejudice!! Must admit I do like that particular Beamer.

Les Paterson has bought his wife a dog f844da54-8bb9-4128-a924-98dbc4c04019.MP4

Probably a good idea to get rid of the sun-roof – it did leak from time to time. My wife found some (grainy) photos of #44 from late 1983 or thereabouts. I'm sure Dave will rise to the challenge of putting this JPS back to form…

Seriously..... I’m not sure I could even admit what I’ve bought. Even the postman will be disgusted.

Just bought the Purple GT410 Sport from Hendy. Great specification and love the colour. Looks much brighter in real life.

What, volume controls on the steerIng wheel? What is this witchcraft…? 🤪

Nice shot of the dash and wheel on Lotus's home page...

Bristol, Queen Square Breakfast meet spotted one Evora (made me think and defiantly still want one), exiges, esprit the exiges looked awesome!

Back from ceramic coating, looks like new

Back out again!

Many here are assuming Lotus is sticking to the GR-FE ... Some are assuming that the car is heavier than the outgoing car because of added creature comfort... if Emira take a lot from the porosity concept of Evija and the Elemental platform is the stepforward Lotus has made it to be... Some maybe in for a surprise...

I have seen it mentioned on here by several people that it looks like a baby Evija under the covers in the pics we have seen. Lotus just shook up the world with the Evija. If the Emira looks like a baby Evija, and it will be decidedly cheaper, hasn't Lotus already been marketing it? Maybe, just maybe, the expensive car from Lotus has paved the way for the cheaper ones? But what would I know? I'm an Aussie.

After over 3 months of waiting, I finally got my car back at the end of May, just in time for a cracking day at Goodwood (having already missed out on a day at Snetterton that I had booked but had to cancel since the car wasn't ready in time). The car was absolutely fantastic and it felt great to finally be back on track, even though I was seriously rusty from lack of driving and very nervous given all the work that had just been completed, especially at a fast track where I had never been before. I have had lots of positive comments on the new look, which I must say that I am incredibly pleased with myself. Pictures included below. What do you think? P.s. You may recognise the (excellent) photographer from this parish...

Outstanding service from PNM! Pump turned around and back to me only 48 hours after I sent it. Dragan popped over yesterday to join in with some stuff, and brought his gorgeous S2. Primarily, the last couple of half days have been about making the covers pretty. Busy tomorrow, so will lay into pump and cambelt on Friday, yaaaay!

On a serious note: I will have 5 sunday tickets (from purchasing the weekend passes) that I'd like to give away to fellow TLF'ers. Driving back to Germany takes most part of a day, which is why we usually have left FOS on Sunday morning. Means if anybody wants to go on Sunday only, it would be a pleasure to send over the ticket or meet at the entrance before we leave.

Moved on three LotusRescue projects today, all to new enthusiasts.

I think the headlights must have been up when the bonnet was open ( or similar ) as the damage has been done by the bonnet hinges ? And to think , I thought all that would polish out

My old Evora S IPS had Gordon Murray down as the first owner in the log book. AU 61 CCY, though currently running DY 61 LOT. It really was fabulous!

That is the most stupid statement I have read in a long time. It looks and reads like you want the Emira to flop, perhaps you are in the wrong forum. I am sure a Porches forum would suit your needs better.

Castle Combe Manor last weekend.

The internal design language. The Evija has a floating dash and a central vertical column for the ancillary controls, for example, which I'm guessing will be mimicked in the Emira rather than the recent tendency for large touch screens. It has echoes of the 340R and other Lotus layouts too.

I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but if one of our esteemed members has just seen the Emira in the wild and uttered the statement “wow, just wow”, then it’s surely going to appeal to a wider audience than just existing Lotus fans. I don’t remember having that thought the first time I saw a Cayman, or any other of its rivals. Don’t forget that this will be a global product. As long as Geely market it accordingly I think it will sell very well.

How of my students see gear changing…..

Is that you on the left looking like a tree?

Hello Ladies and Gents well quite a bit of an update the front end is almost complete. I now have the new rad and the brake system is complete and assembled and put back into the car. All i need to do now is pump up the tyres and low her down so i can measure the gap between the wheel and the arch so i can put her back in the air and tighten up the bolts :). Then i can tackle the rad :D.

Another new Youtuber member, hello @BoostedTrav, some nice content you've made

Wow Amazing what you can see when you're out and about. Yes, pictures but no, won't share. Wow, just wow.

Nah, @Barrykearley just forgot that our overlords have far superior technology and as he has only got an Esprit, not a spaceship, he has no means of obtaining the equipment required to find his wife, or indeed, himself! Latest news from the resistance this morning is that tin foil taped over your kidneys does not diminish the strength of your chips signal. Also, the relaxing of the draconian Covid rules will not happen on the 21st, as the Overlords want over 80% of the population vaccinated with the trackers before we are allowed out to roam again. I believe we are getting close to 10bn and they just want to maximise their profits from the cull. What bastards eh!

So mine has come into silverstone 😍 in which is amazing but a bit frustrating as well as my garage won’t be ready until wk/c 21st so due to pick up 26th 😁. Although I need the garage to be done the car will be spending a lot of time at our caravan in the wyre forest near Bewdley, a gateway to many fun roads off into mid Wales😬 👍. One thing I’ve noticed on my everyday motor t5 when we stop at the van is we do get a lot of detritus from all the lovely trees and they’re inhabitants 🤦‍♂️ So looking for a good cover for when it’s not being ragged somewhere out in the wilds 🤣 I’m presuming the ones on sale from the shop will be fine out under the trees?

switching the aircon on in our bedroom knowing the kids havent got it in their bedrooms 😆

Only the best one. Or will be. Just wait until you see the new interior. It will make you weep. Full auto grade leather interior with bespoke cloth inserts for the seats and lower part of the door cards. Specially made and shipped from a manufacturer in Spain. Specifically designed for hard use areas like car seats. It's going to be stunning. if I say so myself.

The two tone Twin cam Europa is my friend Neil's. Like me he has owned his Europa since his early twenties. He also has a red Special waiting to be restored! And seeing as you missed my Europa...Here it is 😄

The roof mount means I can take the bike and the family. They're very practical cars. Obviously if you've got a 2+0 you can still carry bikes and luggage, just not the family (which may be a good thing )

You mean people who have no intention whatsoever in test driving one, let alone buying one. Typical faceshite/[email protected] doomsayers who criticise everything whilst knowing nothing.

Made it to the front cover of the latest Absolute Lotus Magazine edition with @jerzybondov's Evora Thanks to @Bibs for the heads up about the opportunity. Hope the article reads well.