dave excell

Certainly not. Cancer is something no one can predict. But you can do things that aggravate its onset. Smoking cigarettes at 40 a day wont help.

I have just retired at 75 and don't regret it. I have worked with people on the electricity supply industry take early retirement on a full 50% final salary pension and laugh at me. I am sad to say most have sat on their backsides and done nothing at all but go to the pub watch telly and sleep. Most are now dead from either heart attacks or cancer. What ever the choice just keep active, keep the brain working, (my brother in law suffers from Alzheimer's and he is still in his sixties). The choice is yours and yours only, just make the most of life while you can.

The Toyota W58 has/is used in many competition cars and conversions and will take the 350bhp OK. I have talked to many people to make sure. To be honest it looks a lot more robust than the Renault UN1 it had in the Esprit. The car is to be used as a GT car traveling through Europe and wont be subjected to 7000rpm dropping the clutch getaways. Again the diff is more than adequate being Toyota but will have to be changed anyway for the gearing. Which means the driveshafts will also change. The conversion has been thought through as best as possible. Brakes are already changed to 320mm discs

The turbos will stay, I will fabricate new manifolds in stainless to ensure they fit. I have tried a block and it looks as if there is room. I will need a few weeks of fiddling under the car and probably a few wasted stainless tubes. it took 2 attempts to make the gearbox adapter plate and a scrapped alloy plate (£60.00 down the drain). First looks put the turbo outlets too close to the body. I think I have the gearing problem solved by changing the diff. I will list all mods as I go.

As of a couple of weeks ago I decided to stop working and retire. At 75 I thought it was about time. I have now started the long awaited mods to my Excel. I have now made an adapter plate that mates the Toyota W58 (Excel) gearbox to the lotus 918 V8engine. it will use the twin plate AP clutch with the friction plates made to take the Toyota spline. i will keep the topic updated as I go. Picture below

Thanks guys. I wasn't aware of a better grade set of cam belts. They will be on my shopping list from now on. Forum is great to spread knowledge. By the way I retire on Friday at 75. 10 years later than expected,and I have already started manufacturing an adapter plate to connect the V8 bell housing to the W58 Excel gearbox. By the end of this year both my Lotuses will be Lotus V8 powered!

Cant hlep agreeing with Kimders on this. I have worked in the Nuclear industry for close on 50 years and am looking to retirig before I reach my 76th birthday. To get the power needed for all those green 'all electric' homes as well as charging millions of electric vehicles nuclear is the only option for GB. has any one thought of what battery pack is needed to power a 40 ton electric HGV. Dont get me wrong, I have driven electric vehicles and the perform extremely well, but the 'greeniies' havent thought things through properly yet. A store for used batteries? yes the obvious place Sellafi

Try Mike Taylor at http://www.lotusbits.com

As point 3. Yes its a bad design. You always get leaks over the exhaust. I swapped mine for the later carriers/covers which eliminates the problem.

I dont know if its the same Catalina but this is shots of my son Steve Excell, and his friend (the pilot) Matt Dearden. Matt is one of the owners. I hope to have a flight some day.

Hope to see you and Kim again next year. Have a good one

Loks good to me. My names added. 1. Chris W 2. Mike Sekinger (for stock) 3. Alex Adamou 4. Paull Colclough 5. Dave Excell 6. 7. 8. 9. Sacha Gyte 10. Andy Blackman ??

Happy birthday Mike from Dave and Ann Excell

It disengages the aircon compressor clutch so no loss of power driving thr pump. Hence better fuel economy.

I sent my titanium Seko back for a new face. What came back was a new watch of the same model with my old strap fitted. They must have just binned the old one and sent a new one in its place as the serial number was different. Cheaper to replace than repair I guess.