saggitarius

Thanks

Hello everybody in the Europa community I'm normally in the Esprit section, but now I have come over (and bought) a Europa body that seems to have a somewhat difficult past :-) It seems to be a TC Special from the US, without documentation (title) or chassis plate. But since the VIN is engraved in both doors I have a feeling that it should be possible to find out at least something about it. The VIN reads 2715 R, and the body style is clearly of the TC varity - which should translate into 74/2715R? I have understood from another list that the letter R says that it's a federal (US) version. Which makes sense since I bought it from Florida. I've managed to find kind of a list of specs for Europas that have VINs close to mine at the lotus-europa.com website (and that says 1972 model year), but my car / VIN specifically is not included. And the web site also seems to be a little bit abandoned for the time being. So what I'm wondering is if anyone here can point me in the right direction where to start for a spec list? Is the Lotus factory a possibility? Any registrars for a club? Best regards Geir

It will be well isolated and with both floors heated by a water-to-water "heat pump". And there is more than enough space on the plot to build a separate garage for 3-5 cars and the tractor and equipment. Thinking that this might be a good starting point for Lotus owners from abroad who plan to go sports car touring in Norway. Our region has very spectacular roads – so watch this space :-) But don't hold your breath as it will probably take a couple of years – and in the mean time I won't be able to work much on the Lotus. However some evenings is used to find solutions and to get the parts needed for the build. The downside is that with the budget we have we have to do most of the building ourselves. So after buying the place, I bought an old Volvo BM tractor with a back hoe, but this will be sold as soon as the project is finished. For snow clearing and other local transport needs I also bought a small International Harvester tractor and a dump trailer that I intend to keep. Now I'm digging deep around the perimeter of the building to make the concrete foundation for new isolated walls and new concrete basement floor. It will be well isolated and with both floors heated by a water-to-water "heat pump". And there is more than enough space on the plot to build a separate garage for 3-5 cars and the tractor and equipment. Thinking that this might be a good starting point for Lotus owners from abroad who plan to go sports car touring in Norway. Our region has very spectacular roads – so watch this space :-) But don't hold your breath as it will probably take a couple of years – and in the mean time I won't be able to work much on the Lotus. However some evenings is used to find solutions and to get the parts needed for the build.

Don't know if I should post our housing project as part of my Esprit build log, but in a way it IS part of the build! I see elsewhere on this forum that there is a discussion about in- and outdoors parking space on your own land, and space to go on with the Esprit and other projects has been an important part of our discussions before going into this build. We have today a place with a nice house, a separate garage / workshop of around 70 square meters and driveway parking for two cars – three in a squeeze. But since I'm constantly working on and restoring cars and lately also motorcycles, space is still at a premium. When you disassemble a car it takes lots of space suddenly... I've been searching for some time for a place where there is more space for this hobby that I'm not going to give up in a hurry. A year ago we found a large plot with only an old 130 square meter two floor barn on it - and me and my wife both agreed that that place was very good. It's in the outskirts of our home town, above and overlooking part of the water way of Telemark. We got permission to convert the barn to a combined house and workshop / garage, with the living quarters upstairs and 130 square meters of "motor space" downstairs – plus a 40 square meters of "motor cycle basement".

Yes - this looks awesome! Looking forward to see the rest of the story

Thanks again. As you understand, I'm at the lookout for Esprit projects with big engines - to gather information for this part of my own project

I have wonderes for a long time why some car manufacturers choose to hang a heater matrix down from the ceiling in a string - and then build the entire car around it. This is a service item after all, and it is NOT neccessary to do it like that. My first "real" car many years ago was an Opel Ascona A 19SR, that was five years old when I bought it, and I had to change the matrix after a couple of years. The job was done in less than 20 minutes with a single screwdriver: unscrewing three screws and removing a lid on top of the bulkhead in the engine bay. Under the lid was the matrix, held by a couple of screws and two hose clips - everything easily accessible. Many years later I helped a friend to replace the matrix in a Lancia Thema. As far as i remember we unhooked a couple of clips on the bulkhead, and had to slide a plate to one side and draw the matrix out on a pair of runners - like a drawer - and unscrew the hose clips. On the other hand - a month ago I dismantled a BMW five-series E39 and sent the "tub" to the recycler. In the process I saved lots of parts, and also TRIED to save the matrix. After removing the entire interior, dashboard, instuments, all wires, air bags, everything, I still was unable to get the matrix out without destroying it. IMO this is not only unneccessary from the manufacturer. I think its done to MAKE it difficult/impossible for even a well equipped home mecanic to do, and to secure a steady supply of work for the dealer network. ON a car like the BMW, a leaking heater matrix will be the death of the car. To have a dealer to perform the operation cost more than the value of the car itself, even in Norway with the prices we have on cars. But maybe it's me getting cynical and grumpy

Thank you! I was first trying to figure out the angle of the picture, but it seems that I'm looking at bolted frame parts (crossmember?) and a Bosch oil filter with its bracket in there.

Got my bike license when I was 20 and had a couple of seasons on an old Suzuki GT380 stroker. Sold it when family life took a firm hold. But have had thoughts of jumping in there again, only now I kind of like classics on two wheels as well as four. The 1979 Esprit project got company in the garage a couple of years ago by a red blooded Italian - a Guzzi LeMans 1000 from 1985 with an unusual fairing. Bought it in the Netherlands, flew down there and got in the saddle of an MC for the first time in over 30 years. Had a gorgeous ride the 1000 kms back home on the European motorway network, and the old lady didn't miss a beat the whole trip Have also bought myself a commuter in the shape of a Yamaha TT600, about half the weight of the Guzzi and better suited to heavy city traffic, and no road toll.

Love this Do you have a build thread for it somewhere? I'd like to know a bit more about something you mention earlier in this thread, about cross member and "packaging" in the engine bay. And especially one item of packaging: Exhaust manifolds and system...

Brakes update I have wondered for some time about how to install the right brakes to this Lotus. As said before I've promised the authorities to use the brake setup from an S350. And the four calipers I've bought are all original front items off a TVR Cerbera 4.2 which incidentally are the same AP part number as the front S350 ones. They will be lightly ground in my old Beaver mill to remove the TVR logos and installed Lotus ones. But when it comes to discs I've been thinking: The S350 har special made bells and rotors from AP Racing, with the Lotus specific bolt pattern for the wheels and a spcially ordered bolt pattern for the bell to rotor mounting. This means that they (AP or Lotus) can charge "what they want" for replacement parts. Since I had to buy complete discs - and make caliper brackets - anyway I first investigated into other cars that had the same wheel bolt pattern and disc size, and bought a pair of Jaguar S-type R-spec discs to measure. They did fit the bearing, but the centre hole was too large (easily fixed with an alu ring) and there was no provision for the disc retaining bolts. These are not really necessary as the disc will be clamped between the bearing and the wheel, but I wanted to have it for extra "protection" anyway. So the solution to all this was to ask a brake specialist in the UK to make me a set of bells/hats made from top grade aluminium and with the following specs: Standard Lotus fitment to the wheel/hub Standard AP Racing fitment to the *("medium" sized) rotor. This means that when the time comes to replace worn or warped rotors they can be bought off the shelf from any company that deals in AP products. When at it I also bought a set of rotors from the same company - that they made themselves - at considerable less money than the AP ones. If they show up to be lower quality they can be replaced with standard AP items with no problem. With the Beaver mill I have it would have been possible to make the bells myself, but I see that these critical items bay be good for peace of mind to have done in a secure way by experts. As I've written before: this project seems to be dragging out for a long time - I'm now in the process of building a new home, with 170 square meters of workshop in the ground floor - but it will NEVER stop. That's a promise

Hi Antonio A beautiful car that is coming back into sparkling life I have a question about the petrol tanks though: Petrol these days is mixed with ethanol. Minimum 5 % and meant to increase the coming years to 10 % and maybe 15 % and above. At the same time I'm told that normal aluminium "doesn't like" ethanol and is reacting with the stuff in a corrosive way. I have installed an aluminium tank in an old car I have, but was adviced to treat it with some kind of tank sealer - which I did. Just wanted to let you know. Maybe there is less ethanol in Australia... Any way - good luck further with your beauty. Geir

@ Simon Yes it IS a bit frustrating. But on the other hand, some of the projects that are keeping me from working on the Lotus are interesting also :-) Building a Honda XR500R cafe racer / street fighter is the most fun. And it's working like this: When I discover that I need some parts for the Lotus, I can do something on the Honda. And the other way around. The MC engine needed a lot more parts than anticipated, since I found there was missing a tooth from the primary drive, one from the kick drive and five from the clutch... And since I'm using a 1984 engine on a 1981 frame I needed to make my own engine mountings... But to me the construction and "investigation" to find solutions are part of the fun with projects like these. But even so, I wouldn't mind a faster progress