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South West Lotus Centre
Tinhay Industrial Estate, Lifton, Devon PL16 0AH. Tel: 01566 784152
www.thelotuscentre.co.uk
Open Day, 30th September 2006


We attended South West Lotus Centre's OPEN DAY on 30th September 2006 for a couple of reasons. We'd been invited down the last couple of years, but had been a bit too lazy to make the journey, which is bad! But with SWLC sponsoring our newly launched ClubLEW earlier in the year, it was time to show them a little support after they'd backed our club. Also there was the little matter of them having our SE for the past 4 months!

You can read more about what SWLC got up to with our SE in the articles and guides on the site soon, but let's say they've showed us what they can do! And you can see our new engine below! They also looked after our G-Turbo that's now for sale here, so we've been working with them a little of late.

   

We'd been waiting to pick up our newly fetted motor for ages, but with us being lazy and the open day being pretty close to when our new beast was finished, we thought we'd kill two birds. Check out the Open Day, pick up our beauty and show it off in doing so! So here's how the day panned out:

  

SWLC had some great cars on display for the day. A couple of Esprit NA's were there for sale. A customers V8, which looked great alongside our SE. A 340R which you can see below, a lovely white Elan M100. A Westfield with a 2.0 litre zetec Ford engine. An Elise, a race prepared Elise, an original Elan and a Covette Stingray project car.

Racing Car Simulators

  

The racing car simulators with Lotus challange and Gran tourismo 4 was popular all day! Even the staff got in on the act. Niki even completed a lap! Kato declined from joining in to save the embarrassment of getting beaten by the girls!

   

This is the Race prepared Elise that you can buy for £25,000. Contact SWLC for more details if you're interested. Snap-on were there in case you wanted to purchase any tools. We kepted away, as we'd have max'd our card within seconds!

  

The girls fail in trying to look busy in the SWLC shop! A beautiful Elan was on display in the work shop along with a 1961 Covette Stingray they are doing a full chassis up renovation on, including engine and transmission.

  

There was an impressive display of tools and gadgets to help diagnose and fix Esprit and other Lotus cars. All official Lotus stuff which I'm guessing a lot of official dealers don't have. They really do have everything you need to deal with an Esprit!

     

The 340R was pretty cool, but a not very practical! Still wouldn't mind one in the garage for a few track days. There was also a race prepared Mark I Elise for sale, unfortunately we didn't get a picture of it, but it was priced at £25,000.

  

We had a few Esprit owners turned up during the day, which was good considering the weather and location. Here's a line up of a few of the owners cars on the day. Some nice models. Still love the Sport 350 alloys!

The Aston Martin

    

An Aston Martin DB9 was on show. I was lucky enough to get a ride in it! £110,000 with, plus the £15,000 worth of extras! A lot of car, but wouldn't swap it for an Esprit! Really.

The Esprit without an Exhaust!

   

A SWLC customer turned up with an exhaust issue early in the day! It sounded like a race car when it turned up. Not bad, just very loud. Once up on the ramp there wasn't an exhaust on it, which explained the noise! It was on there before he set out! So if you see an NA exhaust box in the road, drive around it! SWLC fitted a NA exhaust from Quicksilver, but had to do a spot of engineering to get it on, as the exhaust mounts where still with the old box and SWLC only had one in stock on the day. Rest assured the customer left with a slightly quieter exhaust than he came with. He'd owned the 89 NA since new and done 50,000 miles.

The SWLC Team

  

Phil's the Boss and Phil's Boss Kathy!

  

The lads, James, Ben and Matt

  

The Girls, Amber, Niki and Poppy!

Open Day Special Offers on TOYO tyres
on the day prices are:

TOYO T1-R Every day tyre

V8/S4S
235/40 17 RRP £96.95+VAT OUR PRICE £82.00+VAT
285/35 18 RRP £175.95+VAT OUR PRICE £150.00+VAT
295/35 18 RRP £179.95+VAT OUR PRICE £155.00+VAT

S4/GT3
215/40 17 RRP £79.95+VAT OUR PRICE £63.00+VAT
245/45 17 RRP £117.95+VAT OUR PRICE £105.00+VAT

TOYO R888 Road Legal Slicks

V8/S4S
235/40 17 RRP £153.18+VAT OUR PRICE £125.00+VAT
285/35 18 RRP £161.69+VAT OUR PRICE £140.00+VAT
295/35 18 RRP £187.69+VAT OUR PRICE £145.00+VAT

S4/GT3
215/45 17 RRP £126.80+VAT OUR PRICE £100.00+VAT
255/40 17 RRP £160.84+VAT OUR PRICE £130.00+VAT

SWLC have over 25 years Lotus experience and offer quality servicing, repairs and spare parts on all models. They can supply brand new OEM parts as well as value for money second hand parts, and offer a value for money when it comes to keeping this marque on the road.

If you need to contact SWLC there is Amber, Nikki and Kathy for all the office based support, ordering spare parts and delivery schedules. For technical help on spare parts and servicing you will need to talk to Phil, a wealth on information.

Phil Webb has 30 years experience on the marque and still enthusiastic about everything Lotus. Training for SWLC mechanics is on-going and thorough, as is their investment in modern technology.

LEW's Verdict

We had a great day at South West. Picking our SE up with all it's new bits and spending time with real Lotus people, who spend a lot of time helping and supporting Esprit owners. The Open Day it's self was very successful, with plenty to check out and lots to talk about. We had a few Esprit turn up which is pretty good considering the location. We'll look forward to next years event in 2007 and hope to see you there!

South West Lotus Centre • Tinhay Industrial Estate, Lifton, Devon PL16 0AH • Tel: 01566 784152 • www.thelotuscentre.co.uk

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