Rolf

Bought me a genuine Lotus one. A116V0228F £44.91 + VAT etc

Had a S for 3 years and after driving a 410 on track was impressed by the sound and extra performance. Went the upgrade path with no regrets...

Would be great if somebody who has a headlamp out of the car could measure the dome position marked in the picture including the height.

The carbon seats have less padding thickness in the lower back area than the standards I had in my former exige s. Tried gel pad from motorcycle supply, does help a bit.

@lotus-62 Love that hillclimb too! Drove the St Tropez three years there. The driving picture of the St Tropez is from "The Loser Hillclimb". Give me a note when you go next. Better buy a finished St Tropez. It may be cheaper and a lot faster finally.

That was a great experience with the St Tropez in the alps. Its half an hour drive from my home to reach the first pass Add ons as the Elise 111R and later the Exige 410 did help to overcome the separation pain.

Don´t see the point here. The roof is foldable and fits in the rear luggage space. Just fetch it out when rainclouds appear.

39.000€

I always loved the look because it is so 80s! Yep, that was mine for 9 years. Its the car in Jeremy Waltons book. A friend of mine had seen it in Donington 2007 for sale and sent me some pictures. Took a flight the next weekend and bought it. Dealer fixed a couple of small items and two weeks later we drove it in two days to south Bavaria. It is an awesome experience to drive an Esprit open in summertime. The chassis is very stiff and there were reinforcements inside, e.g. in the sills and the A pillars, no flex flex flex I can assure you. In the pictures above the white TurboEsprit with the red stripes is a one off made by Kollinger in Germany. The red GHB 550V above is shown in two pictures, found not long ago in a backyard, overgrown, curious if somebody will rescue that one. The other pictures represent the two blue cars made. Overall I would say 6 or 7 cars were made. If you are interested have a look on my website in the link below

It is the first St Tropez made by PBB. Last time seen it advertised for sale around 2007 in a very sorry state. Looks like a decent made frame off restoration to me from the pictures. Also interior looks well made. Softtop will need a refresh. Conversion to LHD executed now. Sills would be helpful for the overall appearance. Curious for how much it will sell.

Fuel consumption economy is better in the 410, needs 10% less fuel than my former Exige S in comparison. Maybe an excuse for an upgrade in the future

Finally found the rattle culprit, it was idler pulley 17. The outer bearing race was spinning inside the idler. Bearing itself is still fine and spinning freely by hand motion. Looks like somebody made a to big hole inside the pulley.

Started the car and had around 5 loud mettalic "Klacks" in the first 10 seconds. Then rattle as usual. Would say Klacks came from the downwards belt area. Maybe drive belt tensioner had a hard time from something blocking / loosening / blocking etc. and knocked. Definetly something on the way out soon. @Kristof: Actuator rod from the supercharger pressure relief valve is not moving on idle, no influence. Results from stethoscope check: The compressor on multiple places is without any intermittent rattle, constant bearing noise. Screws #21 from pulleys 18 and 19 pinpointed from the backside: Normal bearing sound. Number #16 bracket assembly transfers the intermittent rattle clearly. Had the car driven over an hour. The intermittent rattle has now a new friend, a metalic grinding sound. Next step could be ordering pulleys #17 and #23 and try to change them during the drive belt exchange. Not clear to me is if they can be changed with the bracket assembly only loosened. There is only a small gap to remove the belt after removing a lot of brackets and disconnectiong the right engine mount. The bracket assembly #16 can not be removed out of the engine bay according to service notes, only with rear clam removal. Still not sure if that is the rattle culprit... What a PITA.

Thanks for the hint Kristof. The experienced mechanic checked it a while ago with a big screw driver and said he cannot locate it. I have a stethoscope around from my Esprit times, will give it a try myself. Main problem is awful accesability, and it is quite scary / dangerous near to the running belt.

The Stratton car is missing the Race Pack, no manual exhaust flap opening, I would miss it. Otherwise grear colour, same as mine. As I started the search for a V6 I also preffered the clean look of the roadster. At a certain point it flipped and now I would miss it. The roadster now looks empty to me on the back.