Wyn Edwards' 1976

My Esprit, chassis No. 0169G has been undergoing a ground up restoration with SJ Sportscars since March 2003 and the interior retrimmed to original specification using original materials by Nick Fulcher Coachtrimmers of Norwich. Nick worked in the Lotus Trim Shop in the 70s and worked for three weeks at pinewood studios preparing the Lotus Esprit that starred in the Spy Who Love Me. My car should be completed by spring 2007.

purchased my esprit S1 privately from Ystrad Mynach in South Wales, not too far down the road from Aberystwyth. My son and I picked the car up and drove it home in pouring rain over the Breacon Beacons without a wiper, it stopped in the upright position as soon as we left Ystrad Mynach (quite a daunting experience).

The previous owner found the car in somebody's garden under tarpolin in quite a sorry state and as a result, quite a bit of work was done to the car to get it to a reasonable condition

After a couple of days looking at the car i decided the car was not to the condition i was happy with and decided to have a ground up restoration done to as new condition. I phoned Steve Roberts at SJ Sportscars and 2 days later a transporter came and took it down to Devon for the start of the restoration.

Having stripped the car down, the chassis was bead blasted and then painted, fortunately the chassis was in good condition needing no repair work. As can be seen from the photographs it has been rebuilt using mainly new parts.

The body was completely stripped and sanded back to the gel coat, again Steve told me that there was no major damage to the fibre glass needing only minimal repairs.

The car was not painted in the original orange when i purchased it so a match from a piece of the original colour found on the underside of the body was carried out. Unfortunately Lotus did not have a paint code available from its archives for this particular orange. The car was then completely resprayed in the original colour.

When i purchased the car it was fitted with a Lotus eclat engine but fortunately I was given the original engine as well so SJ Sportscars completely stripped and rebuilt the engine and had the carbs. refurbished to as new condition and had the can covers crackle finished. The interior was completely stripped out and taken up to Nick Fulcher Coachtrimmers in Norwich to have every component refurbished i.e seats, dashboard, door panels, centre console.

I was very fortunate to have found Nick as he had all the original materials i.e tartan cloth (The tartan is called Huntington menzies) the orange carpet and the original red thread used to sew the panels. The green material which is 100% polyester twill i had re-made from a new piece of the original cloth and was made up and dyed to original colour by Marston Mills, SJ Sportscars has now got this new cloth in stock.

Nick Fulcher also gave me the information on the grey suede paint that was used on the top of the dashboard, around the gear leaver, the binnacle and the steering cowling, it is called Nextel Suede paint code S153 and this now is also available from SJ Sportscars.

This is basically the story so far, the car is due to go up to Nick Fulcher coachtrimmers mid September for the fitting and completing of interior work.

Update
January 2007
Later than planned, the car was eventually transported up from S.J.Sportscars in Devon to Nick Fultcher Coachtrimmers in Norwich late Novermber and was at Nick's for approx two weeks for the completion of the interior trim.

    

The car was retrimmed using all new original material (carpets, tartan material etc.) which Nick had in stock for approx 30 years and at last being put to good use.

I returned to Nick's at the beginning of December and as you can see from the photographs, he and his son Steve had done a fantastic job of the interior down to the last detail.

      

While I was there Nick had arranged for Roger Becker who drove the Esprit in the Spy Who Loved Me to come down and meet me and spent some time with myself and the car and had some insight into the development of the Esprit S1 and interesting stories of when he was involved with the filming of the Spy Who Loved Me, thanks Roger!

    

The car is now back with Steve Roberts and co at S.J. Sportscars for its final fettling and will be ready to be picked up at the end of Feburary. Cant wait!

danycoed@hotmail.com