Jacques

They are original seats and runners. As far as I understood, the copies are pretty good, possibly apart from the runners, which is maybe not totally correct. But hat can be remedied. They are okay tight for the hips, so if one is a little bigger around the hips, they may not suit. Apart from that, they are actually quite comfortable, well, not in the ordinary sense, but it's no problem for me to drive far. I wouldn't mind driving across Europe in them, which I intend to do, once my parking brakes are in place and the bans because of the virussituation are lifted enough to be possible to actually do the trip. They really keep you seated and support well. Highly recommended. I always advocate for them, because I find them to be far better than many other sportscars seating. Kind regards, Jacques.

Now, it's double of that where I live. Kind regards, Jacques

Thanks, I am working on it. Meanwhile, I am also working on something a bit more interesting for the car. But there's a HUGE line of people waiting to have this company do something to their car og speedboat or whatever. More later. Kind regards, Jacques

So, having these parts in hand, the steering wheels themselves, are interchangable, but the horn button and it's subassembly, are not. So there, a little bit of creativity is needed. Now working on that. Kind regards, Jacques

HI all, I am looking into possibly installing a later type non airbag Nardi steering wheel and it's adaptor on to my 1990 Esprit Turbo SE. So, apart from the horn function, would it fit my car? (thinking of steering column etc.). I think it's the same on S4, S4s and Sport300? The one I am looking at, is similar looking to a sport300 except for the covering which is not alcantara, but normal leather. The center pad is similar. Kind regards, Jacques

Interesting read. I'm advocating for that - a bit faster spooling turbo that won't run out of breath on the top. Meanwhile, I did install a rebuilt Sp300 turbo and despite being bigger that the stock SE item from 1990 model, it spools faster and does not run out of breath (with an added pump and fpr plus the right Sp300 ecu. Then I read all sorts of things with the modern scroll ceramic ball bearing turbos. Now, I want to point out that I have no personal experience with them, so it's just readings, of which one should be a little cautious. Anyway, the modern turbos are so fast, allegedly, that the GM ecu item cannot work with that speed. Hence a new ecu setup. I know there are many contributing factors, but that was the sum of some of the readings I found. Was that some of the same findings you did Erik? Kind regards, Jacques

Tom, I can promise you, that they are very comfortable indeed, and does exactly avoid giving me backpain etc. Remember the Recaro C8 in the porsche 911 gt3rs? Equally comfortable. Kind regards, Jacques

Varta and Bosch silver would be my suggestions. 7 -10 years of light use. Never had a glitch. And my c-tek did not destroy them. Kind regards, Jacques

Sitting in the Evora, coming from your Esprit, will probably make you feel like you're in a lorry. And once you are done playing with the infotainment, the race mode button and tired of choosing little carbon parts for it, chequered floormats with 8 toned stitching, because it looks silly, even getting to the (sad) point where you will miss other people saying: "Hey, nice ferrari", you will want another car. Then you go look at the marketplaces, attend even more cars and coffee's, buy the odd mag, spending nights on searching on the web looking for a suitable replacement for the Evora, and after say ½ a year where you wife haven't had the chance to see you unless it's one of those aforementioned places, you get the ultimate idea! An Esprit.

Wise words!

Likewise. Those audi had up to 350hp against those other cars. And look what an impact 4wd had on all those other cars. They never stood a chance. And note how one of the other cars knocked over the Esprit. What a terrible idea. Anyway, someone else must have been on to the same idea, as I've got an Airfix model of another rallycross Esprit. Another bad idea Kind regards, Jacques

What ferrari?

Oooohhh! First drive this year. And on a sunny day too. Not shabby. Actually very nice feeling and it surely feels enormously fast after 6 months in the stable. Already got some positive comments. And after that I went for another drive in my Corrado G60 today, which btw. also feels pretty fast and fun, and surprise, that got some positive comments too. Hmm. which one to sell? I haven't found a suitable garage yet and it's getting really tight in the small one I have. Anyway, it was nice to let Little Red Riding Hood loose a bit. Now, I've caught some heavy cold and got to take care of that. Oh well, next week - more driving Now, if only those spareparts would show up, so I can finish up some of the projects on Little Red Riding Hood. That would surely fit the bill. Extraordinary patience seems to be a keyword if one depends on spares from the UK. Sometimes I think they not only cut the link to the ec (good on them for doing so), but maybe even cut the ties to their customerbase on mainland Europe, by mistake of course... We'll see. Rabdare, rabdare... Cheers, Jacques A nice place to be, when the going gets tough and the though gets going:

Arh, it's a bit annoying when I cannot edit the post after an hour or so, if I spot a spelling error. But never mind. Anyway, Little Red Riding Hood is still Little Red Riding Hood, and soon to be let loose on the back roads With license to overtake Kind regards, Jacques

Okay, so as I've mentioned elsewhere, but rementioning here, for completeness sake, I couldn't start the car some time ago, so took out the right side fuel tank's pump and it's an uprated Bosch unit that delivers more fuel than the stock SE item. Suits the Sport300 trim I'm running. Looking for a replacement, I discovered to my horror, that it's sold out in most places. So, deciding for a Wallbro ditto, I then got scammed by the usual suspects from chine, pretending to be a legitimate Canadian (or american, I don't remember off the top of my head), company, but in reality showed to be a chinese company. Hmmm. So had to shut down my credit card, do all sorts of things to evade the pretenders, and while at that, I noticed at the small filter end of the Bosch fuel pump end, there's a small while nylon filter. On the inside, not outside, of that, was a few small thin green plastic threads inside it. So took it off, cleaned it out, and reinstalled it all. Voila, started at first turn of the key. All good now. Next up this last weekend, was some measely 14 hours taking off the rear brakes, remove some of it's parts, take out the drivers seat, remove old parking brake cables, drill out dead screws from the leading bracket for said cables under the car, and then undo the remaining screw bits, clean it up, clean up sealing rubbers both ends (under and inside of the car), install two new parking brake cables, and prepare the routing of those for the new modified rear brakes, which are hopefully soon to be ready. After this, I noticed that the underside seal of the engine cover, had some tears, so decided to press on a new seal. Phew! Pretty hard to press on, when new. And then took car of a few small spots of finishing spots. And finally improved my two homemade lifting blocks with anti skid material glued to the underside, for preventing the car to move about, when jacking it up. Works really well. Oh, and then changing the parking brake cables, it's a good idea to raise the handle a few clicks as it eases the installation of the ew cables Guess how I found out... As usual, Little Red Riding Point is shaking her head in a demonstration of the wish to outgun some heavy Stuttgart machinery. Kind regards, Jacques

So, spent a couple of hours, ar fairly many, to tighten up a few points that I have collected parts for, and that I finally had a chance to do. First of all, when I bought the car some near 8 years ago, it had both rear side lifting point plates. Now, years later, one flew off while driving, and the other dangling in one pop rivet. So I drilled that remaining one out, cleaned up the mounting holes and placed the new ones on, and riveted them in. so far, so good: fresh lifting points if need be. Then on to changing one of the ½ mounting frames in black plastic on the inner passenger door handle frame, as it was broken. I thought for years that it was nla, but to my surprise, it's right there to be bought so in it went. Next up was the head lamp finisher rings that have now been made. It kind of close up the gap between the headlamps themselves, and the surrounding fiber. Looks neater, but har to see when the light is on And then it was time to look at the metal finisher rings at the tank fillers, which had become not as nice any more. So a new set in stainless was bought and new screws in stainless, and installed. All nice little easy jobs for once Little Red Riding Hood is thrilled about the attention she got and looks and function improved and secured for years to come. So only 12 or 16 more jobs left before Little Red Riding Hood is ready to hunt down the bad wolves from Stuttgart, once more. Kind regards, Jacques

For example: out of how many articles, do the so-called journalists claim, that the Stevens Esprit is made of glassfiber (only)? Kind regards, Jacques

No, I was speaking about the other article with the mentioned cars. Cheers, Jacques

I would do the radius arm bushings while at it, as they are probably old. Depending on weather, they get some splash and dash and just become old and squishy. And the nuts as many are locking type. Then you can do a full geo yourself and have some shims ready for the radius arm setup. While under there, you can also have a look and check for tightness on all hose connections The advice from others about installing adjustable upper rear arms seems sound to me. I did the same. Off to do some handbrake cables myself Kind regards, Jacques

Same here. Never installed it, as it did not fit. Works perfectly without, and if it really came to that, one could argue that the installation is better without. Anyway, I have mine in the drawer as well, together with some of their experimentation of bracketry together with some other parts that did not fit and which also did not work. The manifold though, once corrected for it's imprecise welding, is superb. None of the high temperature K-nuts I installed ever left the building as Elvis would have it. Kind regards, Jacques

As usual these so-called journalists have many things wrong, such as weight, tire-dimensions and what not. On to the article in the same webpage, there's a comparison between a Testarossa, a 928S4, a Stevens Esprit Turbo SE, an Aston Vantage. Equally full of errors, making the usual dogmas. Sigh... Kind regards, Jacques

Note to self: If you so it yourself, Lotus uprated Lotac bushing programme: the radius arm bushing went from 7/16" to 12mm diameter through stud, and therefore need the other stud, nuts etc. And then you need to drill the tube inside the radius arm up to spec. Btw. the bracket that sit around the radius arm front mount shim-plates, also exists in stainless if one so cares. It's a little bit tedious to change it all, but then it's fresh and you can actually depend on what you measure and adjust to, rather than old worn bushings. Some people seem to use new 12mm bushing with old thinner stud, and that would not be a good idea... Kind regards, Jacques

I second that. Mine was incorrectly installed, and tramlined badly. After I took it all apart. All. I noticed that it was not correctly installed with shims etc. Then I installed as per procedure and I chose my own mix of SE, V8 and Sport300, because of wheels, tires etc, it steers very well, no problems. So, start with fresh bushings and inspect the arms that some people sometimes think they can lift the car on... And they often misinterpretate the installation of shims, hence they sit incorrectly. And btw. you can do a full geo yourself. Take your time, use a string and 4 stands, a ruler, a few thin plastic floor pieces to level the car with if need be, a pencil and a roll of painters tape, and angle measurement, or camber thingy, and a level floor. It takes some hours and a pot of tea, but then it's not that hard And you'll thank yourself. I did it myself last year, and the car never drove so well, as after that work. Well worth your time and effort. Have a set of shims for the front and rear ready beforehand. They come in stainless nowadays, if one so cares for. Kind regards, Jacques

Thanks. but my alunox is already in place. How often to change engine mounts? Kind regards, Jacques

I've also installed K-nuts on mine - the high temp grade, that is. Ver satisfied. No loosening etc. Kind regards, Jacques