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There is a heatwave coming, how do I know, coz I just put the winter tyres on my daily

As a fellow GT430 owner, and knowing how much the Americans were promised and then well and truly shafted by the top brass at Lotus USA, agree with Jonny

Totally agree brilliant job Your car looks great from here. you must be keen going to all that trouble well done; My car the Plum Crazy one with the SUIVRE reg will be TV early next year in the US having a fun with a Friend of mine in my 211 it was great day out keep a look out for it can't say any more for now. Hi to the US Lotus fans.

I think given the effort and expense that @KG has gone to trying to recreate the car that was originally promised for the US it would be uncharitable and uncharacteristically sniffy and pedantic of TLF to be excluding him from this thread. I say let at least the GT430 recreations or ‘continuations’ to stay. I’m sure the very astute members here will be able to work it out and get a decent night’s sleep afterwards.

So. Many of you may have thought LotusRescue has been a bit quiet of late, but no. Been quietly working away in the background on a few projects as well as spending a lot o extra time overseas at my full time job. Yep, got to work to pay for the toys. So 2019 has been a busy kind of year with one thing and another. My club, Club Lotus North East Scotland has again had a bumper year attending shows with the highlight as normal being Glamis. 42 cars on show on the Saturday with about 50% of them changing over for another selection on the Sunday, must admit Wendy does about 99% of the organising now. So for LotusRescue 2020, it's going to be busy. The White S1 will at last be gone. A new project will be starting which a few of you will have seen, the Lotus Ekup. A donor has been sourced for all the parts, colour for the paint job has been decided, replacement seat's purchased and all being well it will be stunning. The fate of the Yellow S1 will have been decided and either being restored or sold on. The Steel Blue Excel of Wendy's will be completed at last and then I will have breathing space for other projects. So 2020. Bring it on as I have a few other surprises for the beginning of the year. Watch this space.

car arrived back this morning, cant wait until the good weather to sort the brakes and get her on the road. Once again thanks to David for the excellent work as well as the other jobs that he did just because they were there.and needed doing. car looks awesome the pics do not do it justice all the best Arrival pics

Any thoughts on using greenhouse heater tubes under esprit in my damp garage? I have ordered 2 x 6ft.

Spotted an hour ago, car sounded epic! Enjoy your trip to Bruges!

Deeply love the plum crazy car @Trevleg inspired choice! Looking forward to seeing some more of it. 👍

December 9th will be a good day 😊

That’s the most insightful thing I’ve seen to date. Thanks for the link. That’s a pretty clear ‘sports cars only’ (for now). Surely with the next (affordable) car being as far away as 2021 (assuming no delays) they have to be considering some updates to the existing range?

https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/lotus-boss-reveals-more-details-about-new-car-to-be-built-at-hethel-1-6402471 Latest interview with Phil Popham. chipp

Yes, it could be done, but I wouldn't. But if you must, lock the cams well, hopefully the sprockets come off easily (I've had a couple of bad ones) and try hard not to damage the face on seal removal, and hope you get the new seals seated properly. There's precious little room to do the job properly. As you will have the belt off, why not use the opportunity to do it on the bench by removing the towers? And the bonus of a valve clearance check/adjust, reseal faces etc?

Surely the 430 is a higher spec...and they are still available in dealers showrooms!

Yes, but it's not a GT430! Either have a model specific thread or don't. My humble opinion would be to keep the GT430 stuff in one place, like with the GTE etc. The US Evora GT should have its own thread. Will just keep things simple for the years ahead.

A few may know that I bought a supercharged Caterham CSR in 2017. The original owner got fed up of spending money on it and was happy to get shot of it. It had a reputation for being unreliable and never delivering on its potential. Most in the Mag 7s race series took the view that running a 2.4 na Duratec was a much better option and faster at the end of the day too. It was always a big gamble taking it on but thanks to the Caterham geniuses at Boss Racing we really made some progress at Silverstone last week. Darren Burke is a very talented pro racer and brilliant driving coach. I made the mistake of letting him out on half decent tyres for once and he absolutely blitzed around the GP track in 2.09.97. It's quite possible that there is another car out there that could go even quicker but until that happens I think this is a legitimate claim to be the fastest ever lap around Silverstone GP in a Seven. Those of you who have driven Silverstone on track days will know that very few road cars get below 2.20. Just for reference the current Caterham 420R race car lap record is a 2.19. The outright Silverstone GP Lotus Cup lap record also in the 2.19's set by an Evora GT4. The fastest lap on Youtube of the £800+k, 800bhp McLaren Senna, driven by Chris Harris (who races a McLaren GT3 in British GT) was a 2.09.27. He'd have had Darren in his mirrors for the entire lap. Not bad going for a Lotus design from the 1950's!

The cast bellhousing has a nasty resonance at around 3500prm. It is worth replacing if you can find an allow one cheaply.

To answer your question , the weight distribution with no driver installed will be different , as a result the cars attitude will have changed very slightly.. ( not really that noticeable without measuring ) Not sure how the way you describe setting up your Esprit will get the desired results.. Firstly, you need to set the ride heights on level ground with all four wheel planted , this will ensure full weight is distributed when ride height is set .... doing it with a pivotal loading ( one end jacked up ) will give different figures. Secondly, you can not check corner weight/balance or adjust without the car being on scales.. Also when balanced the weights recorded on each corner will be different. Its the % at the balance point you are after.. Here is an example of cross balance set up i did on 300 sport .. Note the different recorded corner weights to gain the balance requirement. Lotus are very specific with their spec figure for compliance reasons... change one and they all react different.. What i mean here is, if you go off spec you really need to know what you are about or it will end up as scrambled egg. I always make sure the set up suits the application and use top engineers with very accurate equipment to finalise results. its just not possible without the correct equipment..

No, first looks OK with both boxes tbh, shouldn't be an issue. Here's the speeds in each gear with the 2 boxes I have a choice off. All speeds at 7krpm- E30 -1st 44mph 2nd 78mph 3rd 122mph 4th 171mph 5th 212mph E36- 1st 41mph 2nd 70mph 3rd 106mph 4th 145mph 5th 177mph Yeah both boxes are very similar in size and design, which is handy. I'm looking to use the stronger Jag shafts which means I will probably have to use the Jag hubs and therfore the Jag bottom arms. I'm probably looking to make a custom trailing arm with a bit of adjustability in it to allow for toe changes via the Jag bottom arms (shims on diff mounting).

Dan E .... thank you for the invite . Gin is the one thing that I can do 🤗 🍸 Path

That's the standard V8 alloy bellhousing. The early cast ones were mostly replaced under warranty as part of the 'free' twin-plate clutch upgrade.

Makis, What kind of Gearbox bell housing is that? did you upgrade the gearbox looks nice and clean. Andy

Enjoyable read. Sounds like your being hard on your lap times, seems bloody quick to me 2.12 wow @The Pits.

Nice one, and great to see it finished. Well done.

FTFY

Yes, a c*nt of the highest order. Well said sir.

At least one.... the first one to be delivered will be to the chairman of geely!!

This London Bridge stuff!! Good on the British Public for stopping him and the Police for shooting the fecker!!

I am a big fan of mine!

Brilliant video - keep positive guys.......until we know everything about what Lotus’ plans are......we know nothing👍

Glimmer of hope to be found here. Best thing I've seen on Evija to date.

Commanding a higher price is impossible without a strong brand. This is how Porsche can stick their badge on a VW SUV and charge 30% more. How this hasn't irreparably tarnished their brand as a sports car maker is another story but they didn't build their brand making SUVs. They built it with fast, durable sports and racing cars. I don't think Lotus should copy McLaren's business model but I'd rather they took inspiration from it and stayed committed to sports cars, offering something more like a McLaren at a lower price point (£50k-£150k). That said, I see no reason why Lotus shouldn't compete with McLaren further down the track. The Evija if successful will sit above anything McLaren makes currently. McLaren and Alpine seem to be doing well out of taking inspiration from Lotus. Alpine A110 is outselling Cayman currently. I just want Lotus themselves to go forward with some confidence about their values and principles which are as valid and compelling now as they ever were. So much they could and should be doing long before the first new model comes out.

From volume car maker's point of view selling 2000 cars is utter failure. So the tendency is to write off the current Lotus range, chuck them all in the bin and start again, copying other cars that sell in greater numbers. From my point of view selling 2000 Lotus cars is a minor miracle with the resources they have and given the well resourced competition they face. It's proof for me that there is an interest in something different. Not everyone wants bigger, heavier, easier, tech acronym filled sports cars. I don't believe that anyone wants a Norfolk built Cayman with the current association for Norfolk build quality. So just making a Lotus easier to get in and out of won't change a great deal on its own. The Evora is already easier to get in and out of but the Exige outsells it. Evora was also the closest thing yet to a Norfolk built Porsche 911, again didn't help sales much. Absolutely adore my Evora of course and no fan of the 911 but I think there was an element of building the car they thought they should make more than the car they really wanted to build. It never got close to the ambition of 5000 cars a year whereas the uncompromising Exige has sold better than expectations. After all, there's nothing else like it. Totally accept that things have to change but I think a bit more understanding and appreciation is needed of the strengths and stand out qualities of the current cars. I personally believe that Lotus could be a success without resorting to SUVs and would rather Lotus took inspiration from McLaren than Porsche. There's a lot that needs to be preserved, built on and carried forward into the future. All hope is on the brilliant Lotus lifers that are still there, finding a way to do it. If all we get is empty soundbites about 'Lotus DNA' in an SUV that would be tragic. They need to be investing in the brand now if an SUV is going to work further down the line.

Couple pics of mine. Nearly two months ownership and nearly 2000 miles later - loving it!

The chrome surround is for the rear side marker lamp ( I think federal car only) Fits may classics.

The company car scheme has improved a lot since the Proton days! I wonder if they'll pass it on to the dealer network after 6 months at a massive discount?