ajb1967

Guys, This is probably an easy one i think. Drove home last night and within sight of the house i put my foot on the gas and the cable suddenly broke ! Cable has broken in the engine bay at the end so could have been worse i suppose. How easy is installing a new throttle cable and are there any "tricks" to doing it easily ? Thanks for the advice in advance Adrian

Hey Rooster, I have now done more than 20K miles in my Exige and it has not let me down yet.I would class it as reliable as any other car out there. Engine is a Toyota engine which is just about indestructible ;-) Great car ! Adrian

Guys, Came down this morning and every single car in the garage (i have enclosed parking under the new apartment where i live with a security door) had been thieved.Window(s) smashed and anything of value had been taken.20 cars in one go ! Luckily i had parked my Exige out on the street but my beloved Esprit had received the same treatment as the rest of the cars.Smashed passenger window and my whole AV system stolen out of it !! Why can't people just leave other peoples cars and stuff alone !!!! (RANT) We all do our best to keep our cars in perfect order and looking good and these sort of people have no respect for even a car like the Esprit. It breaks my heart Anyway,i am insured and they have ordered a new window so no real damage done except the inconvenience of it. Adrian P.S The police could not even be bothered to come and just said the we all had to individually file a complaint with them at the station house. This really makes me lose any faith i have in what the police do for you .

Hi Guys, Well,here's a breakdown for Holland Road Tax and MOT : 45 UKP p/a Insurance Comprehensive : 1100 UKP p/a Petrol : 1.25 UKP Per litre !!!!!! General Maintenance : Averaging 2000 UKP per year Anyway,as you can see our petrol costs are astronomic !! Adrian

After my last post in which i said the Exige S2 was a noisy car i thought i may as well go one better, and since it was noisy anyway,get the dealer to fit the Level 2 exhaust kit to the car.This is the exhaust kit which is an option on the Cup260 version which has standard the Level 1 exhaust kit fitted.It has a decat bypass pipe. They delivered the car back to me yesterday afternoon and it has gone from "noisy" to downright "deafening". HAHAHAHA Forget the radio or even talking to a passenger once the revs get above 3500 rpm.It sounds like the boot and engine bay are acting as a resonance box and you can hear the car coming from 500 yards away :-) Hmmm,amusing experiment but will have to decide whether i will be keeping this kit on it.I love the sound it makes but in practical terms i cannot imagine myself doing a few hundred km's in it with that noise.I suppose the route to then go is to buy one of the rally communication sets with headphones ;-) That being said,one of the major drawbacks to owning Lotus cars is that i think you can be safely qualified as a sort of masochist ;-) Either you punish yourself with work or your wallet,or both in many cases :-) :-) Have a good weekend guys

Hiya, Just wanted to add my bit about the guys at the factory.I have never met a load of people who are so impassioned about what they do and are so involved in getting the care "just right". The enthusiasm they have for what they do is infectious and i think that many other car factory's can take a leaf out of Lotus's book when it comes to how people treat their customers. My car had a lot doen to it there and the level of service i received was above and beyond what you could have expected. I have nothing but praise for the guys at Sport's and their dedication to detail :-) Adrian P.S On topic : Yep,the car is "luxury" on the inside but i loved the alliteration to a "whore's slipper" :-) Soft on the inside,wicked on the outside with a depraved centre ;-)

Hiya, Lucky escape for me yesterday ;-) Was driving home from the office and really pushed the car and was doing 180 km/h.I always check the mirrors often to watch out for our loyal force in blue and suddenly left and richt of me there were 2 police motorbikes.Where the heel did they come from ? Oops,the guy pulls alongside and i wound the window down and doing 120 km/h by this time he was shoudting at me from his bike "Do you want to keep your license etc etc etc " His final words were,its a pity we are in a hurry but i have taken your license plate and i am going to check you out " Lucky escape since even over here in the Netherlands 180km/h is a certainty of handing in your license for 10 days and a massive fine. God was smiling and watching over me this time :-) Adrian

Hiya, If all other gears are shifting fine then i would think it is the synchro's which are worn.I had my gearbox refurbed at the factory and that synchro was gone also.Apparently this happens when you do a very fast shift at high revs from first to second.I have a feeling your mechanic might have done this and not taken into account that the shafts do need some time.If you dont give them any time you are liable to break something. Anyway,just my 2 cents worth but if the slave cylinder is OK and levels are fine then the culprit is the box. Adrian

Hiya Bibs, The roads in some places were very very bad with lots of holes (deep one's !!) and the car handled really well.I was charging it round the twisty roads and it felt like the car was on a railtrack so i must conclude that the new suspension under these sorts of conditions is worth every Euro it cost me ;-) It has a very neutral feeling to the steering with no real over or understeer and that makes driving it a fun experience. My only reservation when driving this car under these conditions is that it is hard work with no power steering ;-) By the end of the 2nd stage on the saturday which was 200+ miles i was really feeling it. The Exige is much lighter on the steering and it does not have power steering either but OK,they are 2 completely different sorts of cars :-) Adrian

Hey guys, Will post some pics later this week but had a great rally at the weekend through the Dutch and Belgian Ardenne forests.The car performed great after its 3 month winter hibernation with zero problems despite the very bad roads which were a challenge for car and driver :-) I had taken both the Esprit and the Exige down for the rally with the Exige being driven by friends of mine. There was one other Esprit entered (S3) in the rally but it was a poorly maintained car and they broke down on the first evening stage on the Friday which was bad luck for them.There again,thats what happens when you dont spend time on keeping the car in good condition ;-) Pics to follow Adrian

Well,after 3 months of not being driven i started up the beast again yesterday.Batery was flat of course so swapped it out for a new one.Turned the key and it started immediately :-) Now on to the MOT and then a rally coming weekend. Now i just hope that it does not develop any issues at the weekend HAHAHAHA rgds Adrian

Yep,i have an Exige next to the Esprit and thought i may as well share some thoughts on the subject. I use the Exige as a daily car to the office etc and it is a great car ! Apart from the handling it is fast and in the paint set-up i have on it it turns heads. As with anything the car does have some disadvantage ;-) 1. Fitting winter/snow tyres does the handling no good at all and you need to watch out when it is icy since the grip is very bad. 2.It is very very noisy and if you are on a long run then it gets irritating HAHAHA 3. It has no room and is not really practical but OK,i knew that when i bought it Apart from the above it is reliable,good on fuel and just fun ! rgds Adrian

Just my 2 cents worth. Once you have done the set up it will look like the car is riding very high and it will be off by probably 20-25mm. This is just because everything needs to bed in. This takes a couple of weeks to settle before you will get to the normal ride height. rgds Adrian

Hiya all, Just thought i would share this with you.Next to the Esprit i have an Exige S which i use daily (yes,even in the winter ! :-) ) and noticed one of the headlamp bulbs had gone. Could not see how to change it so decided to look it up in the manual HAHAHAHAHA The procedure is hilarious (or not if you have to do it ! ) Take off wheel.Take off wheel arch liner partially.Try not to drop the clips inside.Fiddle around with a torch and try and get bulb unit out,Try and put the new one back in same position with one hand and connect.Put back on wheel and hope light is pointing in the right direction ! HAHAHAHA,i ended up taking the bloody car back to the dealer to get it doen since i really could not be bothered to go through all of the above. yeah yeah,i am a techno wimp ;-) Adrian

I dont know if it was me you were meaning but my box was full and has been emptied now ;-) Sorry Adrian