 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
May 2003
Design Student Meeting with Lotus Neil White's vision of the new Esprit has caught the eye at Lotus. He has been asked along to tour the factory and meet with Russell Carr. Neil has asked for Lotus Esprit World users comments on his current design and other aspects of what the new Esprit should aspire to. Neil wants to make the most of his time with the Lotus Design team, and your views could help. Check out more of the new CAD images (silver Esprit) on his concept page. You'll find his email address there. So mail him.
BRG Classics is run by John Hazzard in Hemel Hempstead. John doesn't claim to be an Esprit Expert, but having raced 3 different Esprit built by himself, the current one being a V8 with a G50 gearbox. He knows enough to work on your Esprit. John's done work on Lotus Esprit World's SE and is recommended. BRG have fitted my S4 wheels and will be fitting my suspension in the next few weeks. John has recently been doing work on a few V8's. Replacing their cracked heatshields amoung other things, without major work and cost. He won't do work that's not needed (unlike a few other people in the trade) and will tell you straight. Just what Esprit owners are looking for. Need something doing. Give BRG Classics a call. See John's SE Racer here.
A German Tuning Company, specialising in the Esprit. Developing exciting new parts for the Esprit. They Test and develop using their own Esprit Racecar. Their site is in German only at present, but will be in English by the end of the year. They can answer any email questions or queries in English. So take a look at what's on there site and if you're interested in any of their products, just email them for details. Lotus Esprit World hopes to be working with Ramspott & Brandt in the near future to offer you great Esprit products at discounted prices.
Giugairo Stainless Steel Door Sills Alan Paterson is now taking orders for the first batch of Giugairo Stainless Steel Door Sills, which are now in stock. For more information see the here. Brakes & Turbo Timer Brake conversion has already run into a few problems. The rear discs I ordered don't exsist. EBC don't make them! So I've got some new pads coming. The AP conversion I'm looking at for the front has also hit a smail problem. They need the front quarter of my car to make up the mountings and make sure it all fits. They need a wheel, hub, disc, caliper and suspension for a week to make up the kit! I'm looking into removing it and sending it off. Turbo Timer is finally installed and working. Install guide, review and special offer are all on the modifications page. Hope you enjoy it, and a few of you think enough of my views to purchase one. Turbo Timer & Castle Combe Lotus Esprit World has at last fitted the Turbo Timer to it's Esprit! Guide and review will follow and details of how to get a discount on one! Lotus Esprit World also attended the Lotus Track Day @ Castle Combe yesterday (24th May). An article will soon be on the site. Brake conversion will be taking place soon. Rear discs and pads have been ordered, with the fronts being chosen this week (hopefully). New suspension will be fitted in the next month. Castle Combe Don't forget that Club Lotus' Track day at Castle Combe is this Saturday (24th May). Should be the largest gathering of Lotus' in the country. It's free to just turn up and have a good day out. Track space is normally fully booked, so you won't be able to take to the track, but come along and have a chat and check out all the Esprits. I'll be there (at the moment), so come up and say hello.
Paintwork all done! Got my Esprit back from AutoTech in Milton Keynes (01908 502638). They've done a great job on the offside rear wing and rear hatch. The holes left from my wing removal have been filled and painted. You'd never know they were there. I also had the back of my Sport 300 seat painted body colour. The finished on that is also perfect. I'll be taking it down to Lotus this week to be trimmed. The last piece of bodywork painted was the numberplate surround. Originally a horrible grey bumper plastic colour, I removed the chargecooler logo and had it painted to match the rest of the Esprit. Looks so much better, you don't notice it any more. Looks as it should have done. Turbo Timer
Due to the poor weather this weekend I didn't manage to fit the turbo timer. I have decided on where the display will go and also checked over the details of the install. Doesn't look half as bad as I'd thought. I will be ringing the suppliers on Monday to confirm the wiring, once this is done. I will only need to attach 4 wires and run the boost hose through the Esprit.
Giugairo Stainless Steel Door Sills Lotus Esprit World is happy to announce that Alan Patersons' will soon be producing Stainless Steel door sills for the Giugairo Esprit's. These will fit all G Esprit's from S1's upto Turbo Esprit HC. They will be as the steven's sills, but carry a Giugario Esprit Logo and of course be redesigned to fit the narrower sills of the earlier Esprits. Orders will be taken in the near future, so keep an eye on Lotus Esprit World for the release date. Lotus Esprit World Running Costs Here is a list of the bills I have had from my service provider. This is the total cost of running the site so far (hosting only) £337.37. As you can see the bill have been inceasing over the months as more people have used the site. I've only started breaking my bandwidth since December. With over 2,000 people using the site a week, it's not surprising! £
138.50* (08.05.2002) Busy Weekend (hopefully) With my Esprit due back in my arms on Saturdy morning, plans are already a-foot to catch-up with some of the pending work (with only the F.A. Cup in the way). With a shiny new o/s rearwing and holeless rear hatch all done, there's still plenty to do. The turbo timer is ready to fit, but this is looking quite a job (wish someone had already done an install guide). I've my new gearstick gaitor to go on (not an easy job either from what I've heard). My leather holes to fix (leather fixing kit arrived yesterday). I'm going to hand paint my front mesh to match the rear, as it's not really possible to spray it. My new ALDL cable will hopefully get a play with Freescan and all those chips. I've also got my Sport 300 Seat to post off to Lotus to be trimmed and my Esprit is also due a visit to Mr Hazzard's BRG Garage to get my front hubs skimmed to get my GT3 front alloys on. All in all a busy weekend, with most stuff properly not getting done. Especially if the sun's shining! No further news on the braking front, although the information I have gathered will of no doubt be of interest to some users. I have had some interesting news on the suspension front. I may have secured some springs and dampers for my Esprit. More news on this as it happens (well a couple of days after). Turbo Timer (again)
Picked the Turbo Timer up today (Sunday). I got a black one as I think it will match the interior better than the silver one. I've had a read of the instructions and looked at the parts (no Esprit to look at yet!). The installation doesn't look that simple. Sounds like I'm going to need a harness, as it says sold separatly on the instructions. So I'll find out about that tomorrow. Thinks it's only if you want to use it to keep the car running to cool the turbo down. I think I should be able to fit it without too much trouble, but I think the guide will help everyone. Should be fitting it next weekend and will try to get the install and review on early in the week. FreeScan I've now got my ALDL cable from Alan Rae (thanks!). So I'll be doing a lot more to the Freescan page, I'll do a guide on how to use it and what it tells you. Will also be collecting data from those who have run it on their Esprits. With the help of Dermot, we can analyse the data and help fix a few Esprit problems. Good news for all those with 4 cylinder fuel injected Esprits. Checkout the Freescan page here. General Update Turbo Timer has turned up! But as usual in Esprit Ownership, there are a few complications. Firstly Esprit Guru Dermot informs me that the boost hose supplied with the kit is too short to fit the Esprit (Mid engine's a bit more of a stretch than front engined). Luckily found I could get the 3mm boost hose from Demon Tweeks, as it's used in their water injection kit (thanks Justin). So with that sorted, I was ready to go, once I'd picked up the turbo timer from the post office and gone to DT for the hose (if they have any!). Second problem, I called the paintshop to arrange pick up of my Esprit. NOT READY, maybe Sunday, if not Monday or Tuesday. So now I've no Esprit to work on! Third problem, I have to work Saturday anyhow! So if it's not ready on Sunday, then another Espritless weekend will pass. The works building up for my Esprit. Front Alloys to go on, after hubs are skimmed. Turbo Timer to fit. Gearknob Gaiter to replace, replacement side indicators, digital dials to look into, wheels centre to fit (I know 30 second job, but I can't get any at the moment), chips to test, leather holes to fix, AP-22 to install, more testing. Sport 300 seat to send off to Lotus and then fit. And of course the ongoing brake and suspension upgrade. I'm waiting for a brake report from Lotus' Braking department on what set-ups can be run on the SE and possible parts from the US. Suspension, is again delayed by waiting for my info. I've got a few possibilities at the moment, but with so few Esprit running on non-Lotus suspension. It looks like my Esprit will be something of a test bed for whatever I choose. So plenty in the pipeline, and with all the work to go on the site. My Esprit is taking up quite a bit of my time. I will also be doing a few other piece for the site soon, including a John Hazzard special! Phil's Sport 350 Brake upgrade and anything Dermot gets up to. And of course anything any of my wonderful users send to me. So expect Lotus Esprit World to get bigger and better. Thanks to my iBook (which was donated by Lotus Esprit World users) I can get everything on to the site.
Turbo Timer Update I've been told that the Turbo Timer should have come in yesterday (8.5.03) and I should have mine either today or tomorrow (9th or 10th). So hopefully I can get it fitted over the weekend and test it out. Remember, I have done a deal with a supplier to purchase one of these for a slightly reduced price (couldn't get a free one), which I will do an install guide (mornings work) and then review. Once this is done, I have secured a Special Offer for all Lotus Esprit World users. You'll be able to purchase one of these for £119.03 (including P&P) instead of a retail of £131.60. That's a 10% discount. I'll review the product honestly, as I'll be running it in my Esprit, and won't advise you to buy one if I'm not happy with mine, as I make no money from any further sales.
Get cheaper Lotus Parts! By the way, I order most of my parts from Bell & Colvill (I've also used SJ Sportscars). If you register with the South East Lotus Owners Club (www.seloc.org) - registration is free, you get 8% of all Lotus parts at Bell & Colvill, and up to 10% off parts from other Lotus dealership! Information from Richard Foster. Lotus Esprit World's Weekend After all the excitement of Mallory Park, the Bank holiday weekend has been a little Espritless! My baby's gone in for some paintwork. I'm having the rear wing resprayed, the holes filled from the wing removal and sprayed and the rear numberplate surround colour coded. They're also spraying my Sport 300 seat to body colour. I changed chips before dropping it off. I'm now running Chip #4 instead of #5. So expect some info on that soon. So after dropping it off Saturday morning, I've no Espriting to do, until I pick it up next Saturday. In the pipline are the following. New rubber gaitor for the gearknob (from underneath all the trim), Fitting and testing of the turbo timer (hoping to get that this or next week). Some more chip testing using a Race Technology AP-22 Performance Meter (more on that soon). Fitting of my Front S4 wheels. And of course the on-going brake, suspension & Sport 300 seat upgrades.
Lotus Esprit World @ Mallory Park Just spent the day at Mallory Park with John Hazzard and his daughter Liz. Got a few passenger laps in his 4 cylinder Esprit Racer. Chasing Ferrari's, Aston's and Vipers amoung others. Full report coming soon on Lotus Esprit World
Leather Problem The previous owner ("PO") told me the PO had installed the mobile phone holder that was in the car when I bought it. On removing it, I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty sight. Six holes in the leather! I've hidden it with an Air freshener over the past two years. Now its time to do something about it. I've been told that replacing the leather will be difficult for two reasons. Firstly it will be difficult to colour match. Secondly the dash will need removing to replace the section. This has been quoted at 10 hours labour (at £65 an hour). Not really an option. I've come up with two options. Firstly I can get a plastic plate made up with covered with leather and embroidered with a logo and fixed to the facia with invisible plastic rivets. Secondly I've thought about adding a Speedo there for the passenger. This will cover the holes (with one big hole) and give the passenger something to think about. If you can think of someway of covering/replacing this problem or have any views on my two options, please feel free to air your views at kato@lotusespritworld.com Good ideas so far... 1.
Fake air vent. |
|
