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Arregueti

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Everything posted by Arregueti

  1. Hi Filip, Thanks again for hosting this. I am closer to you and I will most likely only be able to make it for one day and back in the same day, so please go ahead with whichever day suits you and most of your more distant guests better.
  2. Thanks for the pictures, @jep. Excuse my ignorance, but what car is it in the last picture?
  3. The cars look great but that lift… hard to judge from the picture but isn’t it a bit “home made”??
  4. I thought Andy and me were over stretching your kindness but a TLF day in Leuven sounds good to me! I just need to find a suitable car to join the party now. I don’t think Luxembourg’s beer can compete with yours either. 😀
  5. That is very kind. I may well abuse your hospitality. I would love to learn to do some basic mechanic stuff in an older car and, as stated above, yours post are inspiring to get into those dark arts. I did try to do some basic mechanical training in Luxembourg but did not find anything. I did consider the Matra, further to our exchange of posts, but I would not have any where to store it, and these days it would not see much use with me, being realistic. Maybe, if you struggle to sell it, we can discuss next year, in time for my 50th birthday. 😉
  6. Wow. From strength to strength. You will soon need a work planner for your workshop. 😁 From previous posts I thought the Bagheera was yours as an in-kind recognition for your assistance when freeing that warehouse/garage. That says even more about you, if you spent all that time on someone else’s car. Thanks for your thoughts on the car’s abilities, too.
  7. Oh, so you moved the Bagheera on, already. I thought you still had work to do on it. Will it stay in Belgium or is it heading back to France?
  8. I do not want to derail the thread, but that sounds like a win-win, if you manage to have some fun sorting the cars and relocating them among your friends/contacts. This is a great thread, by the way, and shows the affinity between Lotus and other brands of cars developed against all odds. I can see myself identified with some of the options of the op. An Elan +2, a Bagheera, an Elise S1, S3, a Mazda Rx-8 or an original Mini could fill my garage one day. Trouble is, I can’t decide! To try to stay on topic, I know someone in the French Lotus club, working in a high position for a very large manufacturer who says that if he had to keep one car it would be the Elan… (he owns an Elise S1, two Elans and has driven/owned a load of hot cars)
  9. Your posts are as useful and informative as always and I sense you are warming to the Bagheera and Matras more generally, Filip @Escape. 🙂
  10. So, Filip, where are the pictures of the event and your impressions of how it drives? 😁
  11. Arregueti

    Emira GT4

    Doesn’t look like Spa
  12. @Seb Sorry to read about your misfortunes. I think it is too easy to blame it on reckless drivers and Internet mythology and legends. Personally I have driven almost 500,000 Kms. on the four cars I currently own and the only one that has needed three clutches and a rebuild of the gearbox is the Evora at just over 67,000 Kms. Just for curiosity and future reference, did you fix your car in Slovenia?
  13. …how many times did they write “available”?
  14. Thanks @steamdriven I did have my forks/selectors replaced in 2017, after one failed (there is a thread about it on here). Komotec installed the reinforced ones at the time (or so I was told) and a new OEM clutch that disintegrated this summer... My gear changes have actually become more precise with the new clutch, but I have to admit I am super careful and the noise-vibration (which was already there) has also become more intense with the new clutch. I just hope I am not facing another engine out job shortly. I do not know whether it is better to pray or cross my fingers...
  15. I have some of that, too, and it is a bit more present now, after my recent clutch "upgrade". I would be grateful if you could share any conclusions / guess on this as you progress on your car.
  16. I think I agree with you. 1100 kgs are a good thing. I haven’t driven any Emira yet (despite some offers from the local dealer) but I test drove an A110S a couple of weeks ago and I liked it quite a lot. Steering feeling aside, I doubt the Lotus can be worth “30,000 euros more fun” than the Alpine. It is going to be a hard sell at that price point. Alpine will have to reduce output as from mid next year, so maybe now is the time to jump onboard before they start increasing the price. And, as you said, one could still afford an Elise or an Opel Speedster for the days when you miss the steering feeling…
  17. I was wondering recently how your “situation” had developed. Happy to read that you solved it. That does not look pretty…
  18. Weird. Their contact details should be easily accesible through the Net even if Lotus’ site is outdated. Hope you will be able to fix your car in due course.
  19. Where in France are you? You can try Theobald in Nancy (apparently the biggest dealer in France now, though I have no experience with them) or Arnold Kontz in Luxembourg (they are expensive but the lead mechanic is knowledgeable) if you are close to Switzerland next week. You also have Garage Ph. Guelat in the border between CH and FR (I think they also sell and service new Lotus but don’t have direct experience with them. Some acquaintances in the French club recommend them). You also have Komotec next to Koblenz (long lead times lately but this may have changed now). There is another dealer close to Frankfurt Mainz but I have no references with them. If the problem is with sourcing parts from Lotus, it may be more complicated, though…
  20. Me, when I go for a week or more with the car. Started doing it after I saw a group of surfers desperately looking for the only copy of their VW van’s key in a sandy beach in Northern Spain. They did look pretty stupid… …and desperate. The clue is, you don’t leave the spare copy in the car.
  21. You don’t want to know…The hourly rate of my local dealer for mechanic work is eye-watering… Actually, I just sourced the clutch kit from Komotec this time (the car already got a new standard clutch in 2017, installed by Komotec). They could only take my car in two months’ time so I had to consider my alternatives… My car was scheduled for service anyway on a Friday with the Lotus dealer in Luxembourg and the clutch broke the evening before… It arrived for the service on a flatbed… When the local dealer told me they could not source a clutch anywhere I just called Komotec and ran… to secure the last one. Edited to add: I was charged around 28 hours of work which is consistent with the number I was charged first time by Komotec. Seems to be the “standard” time foreseen by Lotus. Maybe it can be cut down in later cars, as is the case for the Exige. The initial quote from the dealer was lower… then he called to justify the additional work… I hope this helps.
  22. Hi Reiner, I do feel for you, as I have been there just recently (also with only 20,000 kms. on the clutch). I am not sure if it is bad luck, but Komotec told me recently they had never had an issue with the clutch for the 4xx, unlike for the standard kit for the Evora/Evora S. I got their last kit, apparently (sorry!), but maybe they can give you some headers on availability/timing. Otherwise, you could try Lotus Oostende (Thierry Verhiest) in Belgium, who has a good reputation among owners here in Luxembourg or Lotus Nancy (Theobald Lotus), which seems to be the bigger dealer in France now, so maybe they have a larger stock of parts. I don't have any affiliation or direct knowledge with either as I have never taken my car there, but I refer to what I heard from other owners around Luxembourg. I can only see this going into scarcer availability, so maybe we should try to "sponsor" some sort of badge production for our future piece of mind... Good luck with the hunt!
  23. My woes with the car go on. The cynical in me is tempted to say that the poll should now refer to "which clutch do you change to"... My Evora's clutch has given up... Under my ownership it was changed back in 2017 to the original spec part for Evora/Evora S, according to DeRoure and part numbers, when I had to replace the fork/selector for 4/5th gear. I have done slightly above 20,000 kms. on this clutch over six years and I am not driving the car that hard... My dealer made a quote including the same part number but I am dubious to go with the same part again... What clutch would you go for as a replacement? Is the Evora 400 upgraded enough? Is it worth going for the Komotec part? Any input/experience from you would be extremely appreciated.
  24. I do not think it is a blonde moment, Filip. You were wise to take the car out to test if it was fit for purpose before the long haul. It is learning by doing and you will know your car inside out from all this testing and "trial and error". Your check list will simply get longer over time. 🙂 Have fun and please post pictures of your adventures.
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