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Well after waiting over 4 years with my deposit down for a new TVR and no car in sight I started to look around, and eventually settled on an Evora. looking forward to it arriving on Thursday.

The old man came round and demanded a picture while I was cleaning the car. He was chatting about it all and how he signed off every stage personally and how he cocked up because he doesn't have a single picture of him with the design team and engineers who did the car from start to finish. he considers it a total Team effort but secretly I think he considers it his swansong from the Motor Industry he loved so much and all the designs he has either personally been involved in or that he instigated/oversaw. And didn't he do well. It's a stunning car with amazing engineering from top to bottom. Very proud to own something so personal to him. Also interesting to note that he considers both McLaren and Ferrari to have used the design for the basis of their cars. true when you look at them!

A few years ago a young frizzy haired chap called @Barrykearley asked on here where he might find a set of carpets for his S3. Being a domestic carpet supplier/fitter with a wife who's a wizard with leather, I thought, we can do that, offered my help, and armed with a roll of paper and some carpet samples headed off to Worcestershire. The rest is history. Things have come a long way...Barry no longer has his S3, or any hair, and tomorrow morning our 50th set of carpets will be shipped off to the USA. So a huge thanks to all those people who have recommended, supported, and helped us get our little cottage industry off the ground.

900 miles at the weekend, mainly based around the NC500 route in Scotland. Excellently organised by the team at Rev. Limits. Some pictures of my car from the event.

And some drone ones

Car is now cleaned again and tucked away safely under the TLF cover. I also received my new helmet (Bell GP3) which I got painted by KSD Custom Paint. He managed to turn it around in less than a week and it's absolutely stunning. I'm really happy with the design I did, nice and simple, and the black is Lotus Motorsport Black, so has a bit of flake in it.

Finally!! And the S1 started first time and didn’t miss a beat after 4 months hibernating. The Essex on the other hand......paging GST - incoming!

Collected my first Esprit today. Anyone know this car? The guy a bought it from claims it is the only GT3 in Nautilus Blue. Anyone know differently? And another couple.

Today, 15 May 2019, is the 45th birthday of the Elite, launched on 15 May 1974 - also a Wednesday. Happy birthday Elite!

Some I took this morning. I had some black vinyl added under the doors from the scoops. I think it really finishes off the car

Today I woke up super early and drove to North Wales. Loving the stance on the car now!

First time I've ever had a car professionally photographed... i'm looking forward to receiving the hi-rez images over the next week (I'll post them in due course...).

The Stormtrooper has finally graduated to become Vader...… 400 Hethel Edition in motorsport black...collected today......love it !

TA DAAA! My super duper supercharged Elise S! I worked on the theory that, supposedly, if you buy something like a 134bhp CR, then in a year or so you'll want a few more bhp, and we all know that selling/buying a car loses a few £grand, so I talked myself into spending a bit(!) extra and going for something that already has ~220bhp*! Tragically the rain today meant I couldn't really unleash all those horses (I'm new to this "amusing" power/weight ratio world, remember!) but I am certainly looking forward to having some fun in this soon! (How many exclamation marks have I used in today's posts?!!!!!!!!!! Anyone would've thought I'm kinda excited!!!!) *Yes, yes, I know...you're going to say that this time next year I'll be sniffing around some crazy-bhp Exiges.......!

First trans-pennine run on 2019. Westerdale area of North Yorkshire

New owner and member as of this weekend

Pulled the S4 out of the garage and cleaned off the layer of winter dirt and grime.

Mine are now on a plane

The TR is that little bit closer to being race ready once more. Last rallied 39 years ago progress on the engine is now heading in the right direction .

Brenner Pass (Austria - Italy), returning from Hockenheim Historic 2019 Jim Clark Revival with Club Lotus Italia (+40 Lotus cars from Italy)

I think you get a compulsory 2 day ban, and sit in a corner to consider your actions, for mentioning the b word.

A few months ago Bibs contacted me to ask if Mrs Bazza's Elise could be used for some filming to represent Lotus. The car was picked up and used for filming in Hertfordshire and then used on another day down in Beaulieu. It was pitted against a Porsche Boxter and the aim was to show how each car rescued its car company from bankruptcy. The programme will be aired at 8pm on Tuesday 21st May on ITV4. I've no idea how good it will be but it's probably worth watch.

Well it's been a bit of a while since the last update. The 410 went in for its first service but despite having a look I've still got one last rattle to get sorted. Oakmeres thought they had it but looks like we need another go. Im struggling to find time to get over. Other than that everything has been fine we are up to just under 5000 miles now which is a lot for me to cover in my own car as im usually tooling about in the van. It continues to impress. As previously detailed it genuinely outclassed the GT4 I was quite surprised. The next car was always going to be a 991 gt3 but I don't think that for me the steering will be good enough assuming it's the same as the GT4. Its epas and I just don't think it works. Recently I had chance to have a go in a surprising contender for the Evora in the shape of a McLaren 570. A chance call into the Manchester branch for a quick drool and it's amazing the deals they are offering on these things. You can be in a new one for about the retail on a 430. They seem very keen to shift stock which is no surprise in the current climate. I went over to the Leeds dealership. I really like these guys. Nick is ex Lotus some may well have bought from him. The 570 is quite a thing. Brutally quick. Super chassis and ride. Again for me that old thing of the steering comes back in and for all its other attributes I would still maintain that for a drivers car our humble Evora has it by a point. May be one to revisit but the stronger Lotus residuals are appealing plus the Mac running costs are truly next level. No Lotus have the best car on the market for it's price that's for sure.

Well I have nearly got the second tank in on the real one. I want this finished fir the summer so will be going fir it after the next two weeks. Second tank is nearly in, so I'm back to where I was before. Gearbox figured out how to remove the reverse gear and spindal, just undo the bolt on the outside of the case that pins it in and slide it out! Very easy, I wish I. Knew that before the aquablasting! Now need to get this case aquablasted and then the gearbox can be reassembled. I have a spring balance for shim calibration and a new half shaft with new bearing from PNM. Should take too long to put back together, maybe a day of two if there are problems. The new gear wheel is waiting to go in with new synchro. O have just purchased a 12 volt blue tooth FM transmitter for £10. What is that you say? Well you plug it into the cigarette lighter. It links via blue tooth with your iPhone and converts the audio signals into an FM signal you can tune in in your cockpit stereo. Hands free telephone and iPhone music with no Wires! Sounds to good to be true, maybe the sound quality will be awful, but worth a try for £10. Downside I now have to wire in both cigarette lighters! My seats are finished, so just have to pick them up from Mr Fulcher in Norfolk and install them. The fun part of this project! All new Hyde from Andrew Muirhead and the original James Bond Colour, Lotus Gold. An incredible effort of months of work, but worth it - 1981 were back good as new!

At a multi-club breakfast meet yesterday, I give you "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" - with the latter closest to the camera of course, . In the 'My rear wing is bigger than yours' contest, the winner is.................. OK, OK - the Supra has it, but mine is much prettier! For 8½ years old, and 70k miles (112k km) on the clock, she (oops, am I allowed to say that?) still scrubs-up quite well I think.

Both of the children back at home after winter hibernation!

I can confirm that the Sparkletives package is very good value for money,. In fact I swear by it. The complete kit covers a range of jobs, including wiper motor replacement (always a favourite, that), and rear hub lower link replacement.

My new Evora

Little bit of a noise from the front left. Decided to have a look. The anti roll bar bolt had undone! I can't blame anyone as I built it! Still torqued back up, both front wheel bearings adjusted and I made it to Newlands corner. Engine needs tuning constantly, else the shutdown backfire comes back! Running real,well with a small leak from the cam shaft cover! A young lad was telling his dad how he had that car at home. I laughed to myself, I remember being in that situation in July 1977 - but no longer!

And again

Upgrade to gold membership - and get a provenance cert from the factory as part of the deal. That’ll show you

I also recently had the TVS 1900 conversion done to my 2015 Evora S sr at Hofmanns at the end of April while I had the car in the UK for its annual service and MOT. It was my first visit to Hofmanns, and I found the guys were great to deal with throughout, and did a great job all round. So Why? I’ve greatly enjoyed my car since I bought it new from Hexagon in 2015, I was their first lotus customer!. I had thought about changing the car for a 400 at some point, but having tried a couple, decided I didn’t like it as much as the one I had. Until you get right up the rev range, there was also very little noticeable difference in the performance either. I use the car very much as a daily and GT, I’ve never tracked it and have no intention of doing so in the future. I did like the idea for more power though, to be more precise, more torque. Having looked at all the options, I decided the simplest way forward, and most straight forward for me was the TVS1900 route. I picked up the car from Hoffmans mid morning on the 1st May. Visually, there is no change as the bigger blower fits nicely under the engine cover, a point I rather like. I then drove directly to the Tunnel and on to Ghent for the night. The following morning I drove down to Heidelberg, which was the enjoyable bit once on the unrestricted autobahns. It really is a worthwhile conversion, the increase in performance really transforms the car, it pulls hard throughout the rev range and is as smooth, if not smoother than the original setup. It really is very easy to cruise at speeds of double the UK limit and more, without any drama. The most noticeable difference is the way the car accelerates, at pretty much any speed, when you put your foot down. I don’t know exactly what the BHP figure is, I’m told 410/420, but the greatly increased torque makes it a very much quicker car than before. The supercharger makes slightly more noise than the OEM unit, but it’s never intrusive, unlike the Mad Max soundtrack from the Jackson Racing blower on my Honda S1 Elise. After a night in Heidlebfrg, in a hotel built into a brewery!..which was fun, I had another rapid cruise down to Luzern. At low speeds, around town and in heavy traffic, the car is quiet and smooth as any other Evora, in fact, you wouldn’t know the difference. From Luzern, over the Ghothard pass and onto Italy and back home to Tuscany. The car ran perfectly all the way, and interestingly, seemed to run a bit cooler than before, it certainly didn’t smell as hot when stopped for an Autostrada services stop. So, all in all, I’m impressed, and very happy with the conversion. Thanks to all at Hofmanns for your good work and excellent service. I’m a very happy customer.

.........removing the rust from, then repainting, the mesh grilles. Talk about losing the will to live, . Worth it in the end though, as they now look a million times better than they did this morning and with the show season just about to kick off, I wouldn't want to give the Porker fan-boys anything to slag. By saturating a cloth in plastic trim restorer solution and attaching it to the end of a long flexible rod which was inserted from the engine bay, I even managed to get the ducts behind the 'shoulder' scoops restored back to pretty much as-new condition. I've now rewarded myself with a nice cold bottle of American hard cider which is going down a treat as I contemplate tomorrow's plan of action to deal with the literally hundreds of stone chips on the front bumper - don't know why that's the only bit of the car that didn't have protective film applied to it. What a great way to spend a couple of days off work but at least the weather makes it very pleasant to spend hours outdoors.

Good day, just joined the forum. I’ve had a lot of different cars over the years, particularly British marques. I’m really enjoying the Evora, my first Lotus. cheers, Darryl

Sun? Who needs sun? Nikon Speedlights into a home-made softbox and a bit of Photoshop...

Hi Guys, Sol Bell & Colvill delivered my new toy on Saturday, thanks guys, great service have to say it just looks epic, I normally wouldn't choose this colour as I normally go more lary but it really does suit it. Hopefully after the stitch up that was the 380 Cup(that really did leave a bad taste and nearly moved me away from Lotus) that this will be a keeper, I'm hoping it's title as the fastest Lotus Production car will stand as the last of this analogue era before the Hybrid models kick in next, as I would guess this is the way Lotus will head with any new models. Now I just need to give it a spin Cheers, Paul.

Couple of pictures from a nice run out after meeting the lovely LEGS folks for brekkie at the Anglers Inn in Guildtown, Perthshire. I needed to leave early to support my wife who was doing a cycling event but managed to get parked up in some nice spots

Some JPS goodness......

Super strong these Eclats!!

After 5 weeks, I finally got my car back yesterday! So as mentioned above, whilst it's been away it's had: - New track rod ends due to wear - 3 way Nitron Dampers Rebuilt as one of them had seized adjustors - Front springs changed from 550lbs to 750lbs - Front uprights machined to allow for 2 degrees of camber - New Cup 2 tyres - 215/45/17 & 285/30/18 I got the car back and at first thought "what the hell have I done". The car was all over the place over bumps, tram lining badly, and just not pleasant on the brilliant Surrey roads... This morning I went for a drive and stopped a few times to adjust the dampers and got things to be really nice. To give reference, it was set as 10 clicks of rebound all round, and 8 clicks each for both high speed and low speed compression. I have only adjusted the compression as I need to jack the car up to do rebound, but I changed the high speed compression to 16 all round (so softened a lot, which gives more compliance over bumps in the road), then on low speed compression I did 5 clicks on the front and 8 clicks on the rear(so stiffer on the front for compression in cornering). My reason for stiffening up the front was in an attempt to change the balance of the car to get more grip on the rear. With 2 degrees of camber the turn in is absolutely insane, so the back comes round quite readily. I feel like softening up the rebound (more so on the rear) will make the car feel even better still on the road. Being honest, the stiffer front springs, plus more front camber, do make the car worse on the road, meaning it follows bumps in the road more and has less ability to absorb bumps. I knew this was likely to be the case, and on track I believe the car is going to feel a lot better now. Of course, I can't make a judgement on this until I've done a trackday. For track (depending on track and conditions), I will stiffen the dampers up a load and learn what settings work best. Overall, I'm really happy with the changes, the car feels more "alive" and sharper, so I have no doubt that on smooth roads, and on track, it's an improvement and I think it will make me faster on track. Still got an annoying rattle coming from the front of the car which will be investigated next week. One of the joys of having a higher milage car I guess. I try to replace bits when needed and over service it to sort problems before the occur. I'm a regular at Back on Track!

After rainy Easter, things are looking brighter! . My Esprit still needs lots of small details to be completed, but im still enjoying the process after almost 7 years!

spot the odd one out!

Excellent progress today - sunning and drinking in the garden in glorious weather. Sod the GT3.