Lotus Esprit S2 and S3 Side Mirrors

[Andyww 940]

These mirrors were made by a Japanese company and sold as aftermarket kits so they would not have been used on any mass market car, only prototypes and low volume. I guess Lotus must have bought them from an auto factors.

[rjwooll 72]

I've been wondering a bit more about this. First, are the mirrors actually 'Autosafe?' I can find no such markings on mine, but I do recall the name of a Japanese manufacturer (can't remember which) on the inside of the casing.

Also, electric mirrors weren't very common in 1975 when these were fitted to the Princess 2200 prototype. Nobody (to my knowledge) has ever found another vehicle that used them. Maybe BL had a batch produced (or bought a batch) in anticipation of the Princess prototype going ahead. Lotus and other small volume manufacturers were members of a purchasing group that bought such surplus or obsolete parts from volume manufacturers, so maybe Lotus bought the stock for the Esprit, Elite and Eclat S2 models. This would explain why they were replaced later on in the Esprit production, and of course the Elite/Eclat were replaced by the Eclat Excel using a different mirror entirely.

Interesting carcheology!

Richard

[Andyww 940]

This is the manufacturer of these mirrors:

http://www.koito.co.jp/english/

You can tell by the way they were wired into the car and fed via an inline fuse that they were a complete aftermarket kit. None of the wiring matches any of the other in the car and none is integrated into the cars harnesses.

Some Aston Martins also used them. Low volume again.

The company probably started as an accessory manufacturer in those days but now seems to be a big supplier of automotive lighting.

 

[C43 30]

nice spot! Think I will pop along to the British Motor Museum with my spanners.

Seriously this is a right pain, be really interested if anyone has a solution. 

C43

[Andyww 940]

Had a look and some people on Aston Martin forums have the same pain!

[rjwooll 72]

Great info about the DBS.

The plastic bezel on my divers door mirror flew off in a tunnel in Austria earlier this year - anyone got a spare?