S2 Mirrors mystery

[Quicksilver]

Hi All - I've been a member for nearly a year, but not a regular poster, mostly down to the fact that I haven't got too serious about my Esprit S2 resto, however.....

I've noticed that S2 mirrors appear to be very hard to come by, but I've also seen one or two items posted on ebay recently which claim to be S2 mirrors, but actually don't look much like those fitted to my own car.

For example, advertised at the moment is a set which appear to have "hinged" chrome mounting brackets - whereas my own have straight metal castings, and are conistent with the pictures of every S2 that I've seen.

Is there a standard mirror shape for S2s or is there likely to be variability due to Lotus's infamous magpie part-selection/swapping techniques?

I'd be grateful to anyone who can shed some light on the issue, and/or post piccies of examples ( I'm also looking for a drivers-side mirror!)

Ta

[USAndretti42]

A bloody good question. One that has been asked by many down the years from father to son. Donor suspects include Jaguars, Ford Capris and London Taxis. Of these, I think the Jaguar is the most likely as I doubt the others had electric mirrors at the time but I also don't think the Jaguars used a solenoid type of movement so it's probably not that either.

I would love to know the answer to this one as my car has none original mirrors and I would like to put the proper ones, or something like them, on the car.

(P.S. I changed the title of the topic to make it clearer. At first I thought you were asking about Stevens cars.)

[matk]

I've seen photos of S2 cars with chrome mounting pillars and also in black. I don't know for certain but was told the chrome was an option from the factory. The mirrors though are the same. As Trevor said no certainty about where they came from though.

[Loose Cannon]

There was some chat about this a while back. They were made by an accessory company called Autosafe. A company of that name still exists selling baby seats and stuff, can't be certain if its the same one as they never answered any emails or enquiries.

Very Old Thread

[Quicksilver]

(P.S. I changed the title of the topic to make it clearer. At first I thought you were asking about Stevens cars.)

Thanks for that Trevor, and thanks for everyone's input.

So I think we've all agreed that apart from a chrome/black variant to the mount, the early S2 type shape is fairly consistent, and certainly doesn't include a hinged element on the mount!

(My own mirrors are exactly the same as the image on the right in the link to the earlier thread - so I'm convinced mine are original.)

However, I think we've also agreed that despite a great deal of speculation - there's no definitive answer on either a supplier or an alternative vehicle that might be fitted with the early-type (S2-only?) mirrors.

Perhaps it's worth approaching a firm to re-manufacture a batch from a good example - I guess it would boil down to the cost of tooling versus the batch quantity - we all seem to want them, but would that generate a sizeable enough demand to make it cost beneficial? I haven't even thought about the internals - selfishly I'm just thinking about those of us with originals that need a casing refurb.

Does anyone think there would be mileage in this?

P.S

Just to add my own speculation - I think the set advertised on ebay came off an old late 70's Aston Martin V8, and while they look similar to the S2 mirrors, they're not the same, and whoever buys them may have a problem fitting them.

[matk]

I bought the set off eBay and also bought another set since also of eBay. They are identical to each other. Looking closely at all the S2 pics I have on file with the chrome supports they look the same, so I'm pretty sure they're genuine. My camera is on the blink at the moment, but I'll upload some pics when I get a chance.

[Clark]

Here's a few shots of my S2's stock all black wing mirrors:

And here's an S3 that seems to have the same ones on it:

http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Lotus_Esprit_S3_White.jpg

If they are indeed are the same ones, (same electrics too) you can get the S3 ones from LotusBits:

http://www.lotuseliteparts.bravepages.com/...spritlbody.html

Hope this helps!

[GSimpson]

My mirrors have the chrome/hinged arrangement with the solenoid adjustment.

I believe they were Citroen origin.

Graeme

[matk]

Yes Graeme, that's exactly the same as the ones I got off eBay. I'm guessing they started with these and then went to the all black ones as they look a little cheaper to manufacture and therefore save costs. Who knows? I do know that I prefer the look of the chrome ones which is why I got them.