Andyww

I think we all know he would have hated it. And not the only one. Gordon Murray has said that car design has been going backwards over the past 20 years owing to the rise of the SUV. Its so blatantly obvious that anything which needs to start and stop and go round corners should be small and light. The Japanese understand this perfectly. Their cities are not full of SUVs, they have small, light cars, encouraged by the Kei Car class with big tax incentives. They have an entire car industry sector which produces for the domestic market only. Here in London ULEZ has backed massive SUVs as its based on NOx and doesnt care about the huge CO2 emissions from SUVs. I own an imported 660cc Kei car which is not ULEZ compliant! So I have to pay £12.50 every time I take it out of the garage whereas my neigbour with his huge Discovery, all black with blacked-out windows (why do people like this look?) pays nothing. Why didnt they implement the same system as in Japan which rewards small, well engineered cars? The people in power here have no clue. If they really wanted to curb emissions, including tyre and brake particulates, and CO2, they would tax cars by weight and size as in Japan. On a more general note about societal changes, we are getting this from the USA. The further you go East, things are pretty much as they used to be here. In some ways Japan is a backward country, stuck in the 70's if you really get to know it, but I would not want to live there. I would aim for the countries of SE Asia. They still have many of the attributes we have lost and also have good future potential with little or no debts for taxpayers to fund, self-sufficient in food and power, and manufacturing moving there from China. BYD are opening a plant in Thailand next year. The war on the car in the UK and gets worse by the year simply does not exist in these countries, they are driving heaven by comparison.

My 82 car didnt have the spacers when I investigated, although the bolts and plates are there. I cured all the creaks by adjusting the doors and also placing strips of 1mm foam on the rear window glass at the point where the bulkhead trim edge was contacting it. That was the source of endless creaking right next to ears! After weeks of work and dismantling the binnacle 3 times I got rid of all noises on mine, apart from a few leather-against-leather sounds which are acceptable. I should make a list....

There were at least 3 different types on G cars. I think the final motorised version is still available, used on certain other cars. First version not available, nor the solenoid clunky one on late S2/early Turbo. That one was an aftermarket kit which Lotus bought from Halfords or somewhere. The parts were made by Koito in Japan which is a big supplier of car parts to Honda, Toyota etc but a Japanese owner tried to track some down with no success. I would think it was used on some 80's Japan-only car.

I find unless you tighten the filter a bit more than by hand, the oil cooler sandwich plate seal leaks. This is held on by the filter. TBH this solution is less than ideal for an original installation, they are intended for aftermarket.

They likely rarely need replacement I would think, the joint is running pretty much straight most of the time apart from a small suspension movement unlike a front wheel drive application where they are often running at tight angles.

I use a slightly longer belt for exactly the reason you mention.

A judder under braking on early Turbo / S3 can be caused by the anti roll bar to lower link nuts coming loose.

I would avoid any RTV product, which Threebond is. Wellseal is great. Loctite 518 needs great care that its not life-expired (check date) as it simply doesnt work if it is expired. I have wasted so many hours before discovering that. Wellseal keeps for ever and is amazingly sticky but despite that is not that difficult to remove if necessary as it stays a bit soft.

Not sure they do know what they are doing. They have been following every other large Chinese company heading into the forthcoming abyss which is the evaporation of the Chinese market. Most of the unfolding disaster in the Chinese economy is masked by false reporting. The EV market in the rest of Asia is also disappearing, after an initial flourish. There has been huge publicity about buyers who feel ripped off as they were sold an EV on the basis it would be cheap to run but they are actually far more expensive to run in many Asian countries which have their own oil supply, hence cheap oil, and dont have any government incentives for EV. The Japanese on the other hand, DO know what they are doing in Asia and they have in the main announced they are continuing ICE production in full, for the Asia market.

That looks perfect for the Esprit. Unlikely to be available in the UK I think though.

The SJ shocks are good for ride and performance. Only factor I cant comment on yet is durability as I have still done very few miles on them.

Yes, it must have been a lot of design work to fit AC onto a wet sump which took a while. Different aux housing, alternator, mounting brackets, cooling system plumbing etc etc. Dry sump was easy as the compressor could go where the sump would have been.

On UK G cars we can only dream of having a fuse #21

I have recently been investigating a problem with fuse blowing (3 times in several years) of the fuse which supplies the interior fans and the AC. Unfortunately this fuse also supplies the otter switch so if it blows there are no rad fans. (82 UK car, might be different on US cars) I could not find anything wrong. I have separated the otter switch now, onto its own fuse. But, the loading of the blower fans is 8 amps each ( I tested them) and the compressor clutch is 5 amps. You could double that for initial inductive-load startup peak. So my theory is, if the AC is already in the on setting, then you turn on the blower switch to full, all three items start at the same time which blows the fuse (sometimes).

Although I dont like poly bushes I have those on mine, from previous owner. The only issue I have ever had with them is a loud squeak when going over speed bumps for the first mile or so but that was cured by lubricating the ARB with silicone grease.