S4 hatch lid on an S3?

[davevr6car]

Who gives a sh*t, its his car and let him do what he wants to it, and we shouldn't be so pass remarkable about other peoples ideas etc!

[Sparky]

I beg to differ. It's about heritage, not aesthetics. Too many of these cars get butchered, then people bitch that they don't appreciate as much as the competition.  There's a reason Ferraris reach multiples of their value only a handful of years ago.

[Chillidoggy]

And it's certainly not because someone has tried to fit a 250 GTO lid to a different model.

I cannot speak for anyone else, however were I in the market for another Esprit, I would be looking for an original, not a modified one.

 

[davevr6car]

 

so you wouldn't buy your own car?

[Chillidoggy]

3 hours ago, davevr6car said:

 

so you wouldn't buy your own car?

 

Why would I do that? I already own it.

[silverfrost]

The later type tailgate does by no means suit the early angular design of a G car. 

I have altered the look of my silver esprits tailgate and used perspex lourves, looked nice but bugger to keep clean as I have always ran an open engine bay on that car. 

If your after the look of a later style design but keeping the angular aesthetics give lotus bits a call as he had a car with a pretty decent converted turbo tailgate with the louvres removed and flatted and vented. 

That is the only converted one I have seen that suits a g shaped car.

[Andyww]

On 11/06/2016 at 20:23, monkey man said:

Hi decree

I believe it was a turbo s3 hatch with the Louvres removed and the glass bonded on and a lot of filler it weighed a ton.

Doing that would cause the engine to overheat as the whole airflow through the engine bay would be blocked.

[Andyww]

On 08/06/2016 at 02:04, deecee said:

The "mongrel" was the stock Esprit that came from the factory with virtually every part, short of the body, stolen from someone else's parts bin.

 

 

 

Nothing was "stolen from someone elses parts bin".

Lotus would have gone to a supplier, Wilmot Breeden in the case of locks, Girling for brake parts etc and asked them to supply suitable parts. The supplier would have offered to supply an existing suitable part to avoid the huge cost of designing and tooling-up for a custom part. Thats good design principle. If there is already something suitable there is no point in wasting money developing something else.

[Vanya]

Much like Lambo now steals from VW-groups parts bin....

I love "parts" cars - if the aesthetics work, why invest huge amounts of money in developing one's own parts - it's part of the reason why 90's and prior supercars were so unreliable! The door manufacturer test all their components, and their suppliers do likewise. That a car manufacturer takes that know-how and applies it to their end product is just fine.

What's less fine is when parts that stick out like a sore thumb are chosen... 

[deecee]

Forget the switching of the hatches, but the ears are going, and the mockup of teh 6 V8 taillights looks to cool to pass on.

As for stealing from parts bins...its one thing to call Girling to ask what will work, and quite another to use a part that was exclusive exclusively and esthetically made for Toyota...like the taillights.

If you remove the taillights from a S3 Turbo, and see what the factory did to make them fit, that to me is a butcher job.

[Vanya]

6 hours ago, deecee said:

If you remove the taillights from a S3 Turbo, and see what the factory did to make them fit, that to me is a butcher job.

Point taken.

Do you have any pics of the car? I'm actually quite curious about it now.

[ChrisJ]

@deecee +1 for pictures of the car.

 

[Andyww]

8 hours ago, deecee said:

 

As for stealing from parts bins...its one thing to call Girling to ask what will work, and quite another to use a part that was exclusive exclusively and esthetically made for Toyota...like the taillights.

If you remove the taillights from a S3 Turbo, and see what the factory did to make them fit, that to me is a butcher job.

The lights were same as Rover SD1 but nothing wrong with that. I am not sure what you mean by "butcher job". The lights are mounted into the rear spoiler unit and a perfectly neat mounting.

Some Lotus owners seem to hate Lotus cars. I was chatting to the owner of a very nice car at the recent Brooklands day, and he spend the whole 15 mins slagging off Lotus and their cars. In fact there is far more wrong with the design and build of the Ferrari 308 than any Esprit (I could make a list if interested) but owners dont go around slagging them off all the time.

[Escape]

39 minutes ago, Andyww said:

The lights were same as Rover SD1 but nothing wrong with that. I am not sure what you mean by "butcher job". The lights are mounted into the rear spoiler unit and a perfectly neat mounting.

Indeed, I actually prefer the SD1 lights like on the S3 to the later Toyota items. I remember reading somewhere that those lights were actually a constraint for the Stevens design of the rearend.

 

[deecee]

Tailights are all in, and molds for light enclosures will be in tomorrow.

I'll post a picture of the car with the vette lights before they get chopped off and put on EBay.

The rear hatch louvers I can live with, but I'm not happy with the design of the side scoops that replaced the ears.

Anyone have any design thoughs on integrating the rear hatch louvre design into the side scoops?

[1981esprit2.2]

On 08/06/2016 at 11:04, deecee said:

The "mongrel" was the stock Esprit that came from the factory with virtually every part, short of the body, stolen from someone else's parts bin.

 

 

 

Oh, god, you've upset the Anorak Brigade now! 🤣🤣🤣

[Bibs]

At least they've had 5 years to get over it!