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Hello all, first post as it’s my first lotus. I have wanted to get back in a decent car for a while, recently injured my knee and can’t do anything I usually would so thought now is the time to explore the UK in something a bit special. So decided to borderline bankrupt myself and buy an Exige 420 Final edition. Forgot I was 6ft3 with one operational knee but I make it work. If anyone could recommend some decent roads around Manchester I would appreciate it. Anyways…

Took the Essex out for a spin yesterday and got a parking spot right outside Costa coffee. As soon as I got out of the car there were a couple of baristas drooling all over it. Both were self confessed petrol heads who insisted I couldn't pay for my coffee as I'd made their day simply by parking outside. You've gotta love the reaction that these cars get.

I've had the Sunbeam Lotus for 22 years, but now its been joined by a fully fledged Lotus.

A quick spin in the Evora this evening. Needed to pick up some dinner supplies from the supermarket 1 mile away so made it a 30mi round trip. 😀 If the weather holds I might commute to Aberdeenshire over Glenshee at the end of the week and see if I can recreate Doug’s photo. 😜

Pictures of my S1 XPE396S taken in 1980 in its original Viper green. Notice the late s1 (now rare) front valance. Matt

She's getting closer to home, my guy collected her yesterday and is storing her till my garage floor paint has dried and more importantly once I've plucked up the courage to tell my wife.

Just finished a good clean after run out.

I accidentally booked an extra day off work for Easter, but rather than cancel, decided to treat myself to a wee run. 😎 Shouldn’t have bothered - traffic everywhere as usual. 😉 I even had to dub birdsong and “hot things cooling gently ping pang” into the video to drown out the roar from all the other road users…..

Passing Hethel on Good Friday.

Factory visit August 1995

The Evora S SR held its own on a recent tour of the north. The Supercar owners were impressed with its speed on the B roads and it’s comfortable interior.

Arrived back to me today. Over the moon with her....

First time out in '22. What a car Excel are:

The 50000th Lotus out for the first time in 2022:

Evora in a sea of Ferraris at Goodwood Supercar Sunday

As promised, a quick re-creation of Doug's photo on the commute home last night... ... and another photo a few miles later at a call of nature, since the lay-by in the first photo had a couple of camper vans just out of shot.

A few pictures from my Eclat's recent trip back to Hethel, en route to the launch of the Eletre. Plus a bonus pic which I think came And then a couple of pics from a recent quick shakedown drive. I'll post both colour and filtered version, but I'm quite partial to the B&W one. I quite like the fact that inside the car the "LOTUS" on the steering wheel is in the sun with the rest in shade. I wish I could say that was by artistic design!

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Some pics from our recent tour of Scotland looking for a wedding venue. As a nice by-product, I drove the Evora on some stunning roads. This isn't why I suggested getting married in Scotland, honestly.... Also, 1,200 miles on the clock over Easter weekend and not a peep in the 'Spotted' thread, where were you all? 😉

Totally agree, that they serve a purpose. We sold an Evoque through them pre pandemic for a better price than I could have got privately and I guess the service differs from different staff members as the guy we had claimed we needed a front end respray despite it being pretty much unmarked. These days car wow and a couple of other platforms offer dealers the chance to bid which I think would probably give a more competetive offer. Another 200 miles done in mid Wales around some of the best roads in the UK in the Evora certainly doesn't make me want to part with it 😊.

It was leading all the time it was on the track... what more do you want?

How’s this for a bodge! I started cleaning and stripping the driveshafts and here’s what I found.. The UJ had been packed with four US quarters from 1966, 1980, 1985 and 1987, I’m a dollar up 😁 What next I keep asking myself 🤭

A leisurely sunny bank holiday Monday demands a pint in a beer garden at a country pub - half of me thought “don’t be a wa**ker and park by the entrance” and the other half thought “but you’ll be able to keep an eye on it”😂

A few pics taken on the recent Absolute Lotus Magazine Scottish Highland Tour. Picture credit to Absolute Lotus Magazine & Classic Car Tours.

Copied over from the "other" forum....... Pre-prod cars in real-world testing?

It's been over a year since I bought the Jag, so a bit of an update is due. I've covered over 9000km, so she's been put to good use. Mostly to and from the Workshop (to work on other cars, just to be clear 😉), a few classic car runs and a couple of longer trips. If the sun is out, Suzana has become my car of choice. Last weekend we took her to Reims. She did very well and the longer drive saw economy rise to 13-13.5km/100l (21mpg). I can certainly live with that given the smiles per gallon. 😁 The highlight of our trip was a visit to the old circuit of Gueux. Great to see the old buildings and fun to drive a lap on 'the circuit'. It is a public road, now as it was back in the days, but still sticks close to the original layout. I did expect a bit more of the V12 on the final straight... The musée d'automobile in Reims is nice as well, no real Lotus unfortunately, only a few scale models. I know you all want to see pictures, so here goes. With some Lotus content courtesy of a friend with his M100 in the same group. And some offroading when we went for a walk on the banks of the river Marne later that day. Then for the bad news. I knew regularly driving a V12 that had been very sparsely used for many years would not be without some issues. So on occasion I had to take the spanners to it. Nothing too bad luckily: the alternator failed the day I got my MOT, easy enough to get a rebuild one, not so easy to get to it down in the surprisingly narrow engine bay. The remainder of last year was limited to a few small niggles, some easily sorted (like the fuel sender), others I couldn't be bothered about. This year a few more significant issues, starting with a fuel leak (the fix was simple, unbodging a previous repair with new fuel hose, but the amount that was leaking meant it was safer to put her on the trailer rather than drive to the Workshop), then a water leak (water pump bearing was dead, I cut no corners and took off most of the front to be able to flush the radiator, repaint the cowling, replace hoses and the viscous fan) and the week before our trip to France she died little over halfway of a classic car run. Luckily a good friend was there with us, driving my Lotus Excel. With our other halves in the back seats (2+2 for the win!) we took the Lotus back to the Workshop, got the Range Rover and trailer, picked up the Jag and then went for a well deserved drink in the sunshine. Next day she was running again. Thanks to the reliability of the Lotus! Still very happy with my purchase! Filip

I was hugely privileged to enjoy several laps with ace development driver Dan Peck. It's amazing, the acceleration is ridiculous, grip levels were astounding and that Xtrac gearbox really does perform. The brakes were ridiculous, coming into the chicane after the back straight at what I'm guessing was over 150mph and feeling probably 3-4G of very heavy braking the car was incredibly composed. What was telling was that it felt almost comfortable, very little body roll and Dan made it look easy to push to it's limits and then some. One hell of an experience and I'd confidently say it's the quickest I've been around the track at Hethel. 40% of the car is base Emira still, you guys are in for quite a treat!

A good day for pictures.

More out with the old, in with the old I think. Good deal I reckon. https://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/paul-matty-sportscars-sold-classic-team-lotus

How about a "Nigel Mansell JPS Esprit" tribute Emira I4...?

I couldn't agree more with these two perspectives. Lotus could have solved nearly 100% of the issues that people have with their comms by simply creating a customer portal on the Lotus site. They are already capturing email addresses with the "send me info" sign-up process, they should have used the same process to create accounts on the site itself, with a profile view that customers could use to store configurations, access any current news or media, select a preferred local dealer if appropriate, update their marketing contact preferences (the GDPR compliant way!), and update any their own contact details if appropriate. Once a customer is confirmed as a depositor, expand their available options in the customer portal, so they can see a status record for their own order, including dealer of record (with contact information), currently-expected manufacturing and delivery timeline, and see their own historical or current customer service request tickets (or enter a new one). Sure, the dates can move or delays can happen, but just say that on the page. "Provisional build/delivery timeline only, subject to change at any time." People don't really care about exact timing, they just want to see on the screen that the order exists, it gives them confidence that real people somewhere have an intention to follow through on it. Without that basic systems-level feedback, modern consumers operate from a position of automatic doubt. So far, this ordering process feels like a Kickstarter campaign that might not deliver, and it absolutely shouldn't feel that way when purchasing a near-$100k product from a global brand.

As part of the Emira GT4 launch last week, we were treated to a tour of the new Classic Team Lotus workshops with the hugely knowledgeable and insightful @Guy Munday. I certainly learnt a lot more than I thought I knew and would strongly encourage anyone who hasn't been along to book up and enjoy the tour. Some of the most significant cars in Lotus, motorsport and F1's history right there for us all to enjoy.

Fantastic tour a few days ago. 499 miles in North Yorks Dales, Durham Dales, Northumberland and the Borders. Included a visit to the Jim Clark museum where we paid tribute with a couple of Lotuses on the driveway. Most importantly many miles of "roads for the drivers". Also, great to be part of a group actually using these cars properly!

Hi All, I'm new to the forum, recently bought this S2 in Australia (one night after one too many G&T's). It's pretty shabby, but still an absolute show stopper on Sydney streets. Now its time to get it reliable so I can actually use it. Seems the gears on the flywheel have been eaten. Any advice on removing/replacing a flywheel in the easiest way would be appreciated! Cheers Spoon nb/ the below pics are when I tried to drive it home on a 40deg day in rural NSW. Blew a coolant pipe and broke down. I'm thinking the $30K will turn into $60K pretty quickly 😐

For those that have been waiting and waiting……Verdant Green👍

Castle Combe 2022:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... so time for play. I dusted off the old photo gear & headed out for a sunset shoot up in the mountains just outside of town earlier this week. Mother nature put on a pretty good show. I like this angle (above). Haven't seen too many pictures from this perspective - it makes the car look low, wide, and very angular. Cool. I love how the rear suspension is visible from behind the car. A friend following me once said that he was transfixed by the moving suspension arms.

I have a 430CUP and a 675LT. To answer your first question my 430CUP has cost me nothing more than services, around £300pa, and that's it. I did buy a warranty this time as I thought my cats had gone, and they had, so that was £800. But that's all I have spent on my 430CUP in 3 years. The 675LT is exactly the same, owned 2.5 years and its cost me £1k pa for a service and £5k pa for a warranty. I have needed nothing else in 8k miles. So in terms of running costs you are really looking at the warranty for a McLaren. Around £3kpa for a sports series and £5kpa for a super series. So the warranty cost is the only real difference. However there are a few good independents now and reliability on the McLarens has settled down. I have only had a broken coolant hose on mine. So you can use 'V' Engineering and probably average £2-3kpa. I only have a warranty so I sleep easy but might pass next time (I just bought 2 years for £9,600) If you can budget for the warranty or an extra £2-3k pa over and above a 430CUP into a slush fund that should do it. In terms of driving my 675LT is from another universe compared to the 430CUP and many other cars, its is so quick, totally planted & stable with very good interior quality. The 430CUP would not know which way it went. However that's not the full story, the Exige has the manual box and offers equal levels of engagement and even more reward for less than half the cost. They feel similar in ethos but on the road are very different. They compliment each other very well but are not competitors. That's why I can justify both and adore them equally, To answer your second question there are 3 types of supercar owners. The ones who want the latest toy and own for 12 months. The ones who want to 'tick a box' and own one once in their life for a year or two and The ones who are enthusiasts and generally buy the cars they like and keep them long term. There are plenty of McLaren owners in the enthusiast camp but by the time they have bought them they have usually been through the initial trinket owner, the second trinket owner and then a tick box owner. So by the time the first enthusiast buys one they are around 3-5 years old with as many owners. This is standard across most supercar brands. Lotus are mostly enthusiast cars from day one, you have to be a single minded fan to buy one, its not a golf club / spa hotel / Sloan street cruiser. If you have the additional £3k pa to run a McLaren on top of the outlay then you won't get a faster or more rewarding car but if you can't justify the extra expenditure over the Exige then I wouldn't be too despondent and just revel in the glory that is the Exige.

@Toqcars - that’s without driver and about 75% fuel (60l tank though so guess as to how much that is). My car is an early car so will always weigh a bit more than a 430 etc. A couple of snaps from C&M

Well that drive was... errr... exciting. Car is running fine again; no misfire and boost all accounted for and then some. You were right about it being more lively @cweeden! Seems the cat was already partially blocked for some time before the exhaust was done because my adjustments of the wastegate actuator are now well off. I was seeing 0.91bar of boost on only ~50% throttle, so I think I need to back out my previous adjustments 😆

Goodwood Supercar Breakfast meet 2022:

https://www.thelotusforums.com/latest-news/lotus-cars-news/lotus-mayfair-landmark-london-location-for-first-ever-global-store-and-digital-showroom/

Oh and there is only £200 difference in insurance (Mc being the more expensive one) and the McLaren uses slightly less petrol (36mpg on the m-way 'v' 32mpg for the Exige)! And it can use 95 E10 in it, if you want, but I only do in emergencies. The Tax on the 430 is slightly less, around £100 or so. You will need a tracker on a Mac, around £200pa subscription. And any tradesperson that comes to your house to quote for work will add 50% supercar tax onto your bill as they think they can get away with it! That's why I drive a 26 year old MX5 and 16 year old Subaru Forester as dailies and that's all you will see on my drive.

First run in a while. Thought even I could manage that. 😁

Well it’s almost a year now since I purchased my Evora 400 Hethel edition my insurance renewal valued mine more than I paid for it last year lol 😂. again thank you all for helping me buy the beauty last year when it came up on the for sale page .