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If you have some Esprit News, email us at news@lotusespritworld.com

June 2005

  

Carbon Fibre Dash Mask & Aluminium Header Tank
Esprit Eningeering are following up there Carbon Fibre Pod Surrounds with two new upgrades for Esprit owners. Firstly an SE twin header tanks made from aluminium that won't rust and looks great for £285.00, which doesn't sound expensive compared with £330.00 from Lotus for an original steel version. LEW actually paid this for one 3 years ago!

Also in development is a Carbon Fibre Dash Masks for the MY88-MY92 turbo and SE. Replaces replaces the wood and plastic masks, as the wood version have been know to split and need replacing. Costs estimated to be around £250.00 for the 3 piece set once available. More news here as we get it.

Esprit Engineering will consider manufacturing other replacement parts on demand so please do email us with any requirements you may have.

Call us on 07973 404930 or email us at geoff@espritengineering.co.uk.

For all other spares on offer by Esprit Engineering go to www.espritengineering.co.uk

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Last Minute Track Day Offers

Hullavington 1st July, Places Available for £99 Full Day; £60 Half Day, am or pm
&
Keevil 4th July, Places Available for £89 Full Day; £50 Half Day, am or pm

Last minute places are available at these extremely popular venues hosting a wonderful 2.4 mile circuit and 1.5 mile circuit respectively with excellent mixes of corners to test any driver from the novice to the experienced. These are the perfect environments in which to learn your and your car's limits with massive run offs and a very good surface.

We will be running our usual open pit lane format (at least 2.5 hours of track time is possible) and have our team of highly experienced instructors on hand to offer in car instruction and at £25 it offers great value for money.

There is a 100dB(A) noise limit in operation at these venues.

For further details or to book a place call us on 0870 787 2116 or 07855 482953,
it will be a case of first come first served!

Motorsport Events Limited
Tel: 0870 787 2116
trackdays@motorsport-events.com
www.motorsport-events.com

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LEW/Yahoo! Oxford Meeting
21st August 2005

This years annual LEW/Yahoo! Oxford Meeting will be held on Sunday 21st August 2005. Starting from around 10am in the Talk House carpark. The route and final destination will be different from last years events. Lotus have been invited to send down a representative, which hopefully will be accepted. More news here on the meet as we get it.

See detail of the last meeting here:

www.lotusespritworld.com/EOtherstuff/26Sept04_run.html

For directions to the Talk House use the route finder on www.theaa.com and for a map of it's where abouts use www.streetmap.co.uk entering the postcode.

Please email Dermot to confirm you are attending.

The Talk House
Wheatley Road,
Stanton St. John
Oxford,
OX33 1EX

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Turbo Esprit Info Website
The Turbo Esprit Fact Registry is a repository of information useful for the 81-87 Lotus Turbo Esprits (and it's sibling the S3.) This website is set up as a wiki to allow submission by any user. They invite you to add/change information on this site. If you are unfamiliar with wikis, feel free to browse the Tips For Editing for a brief overview of how to contribute to this site. Worth a look it you have a Turbo Esprit!

We've added it to our links page, which there's a link to at the bottom of 99% of the pages.

http://esprit.driestone.com/

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Email Virus
We are receiving emails from The Lotusespritworld Support Team using the email Service@lotusespritworld.co.uk and administration@ (see below) which doesn't exist and is some form of virus that isn't coming from us or on our computers. Please delete any emails from them and do not open any attachments. Currently LEW only uses 3 email addresses. admin@, orders@ and kato@.

Dear Lotusespritworld Member,
Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online service.
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership.
Virtually yours,
The Lotusespritworld Support Team

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Wife sells Lotus Esprit for 50p
The Sun Newspaper
RADIO DJ Tim Shaw’s wife sold his £25,000 sports car on eBay for just 50p after he flirted with Jodie Marsh on air. Hayley, 27, offered the “buy it now” deal on the Lotus Esprit while Tim, 31, was still presenting his Kerrang 105.2 show. He had just announced he’d leave her and their two kids for model Jodie, 26. Hayley, of Birmingham, said it was the last straw, sold the car — and is kicking him out.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2192&item=4556985749&rd=1

£25,000 revenge of DJ's wife
By Georgina Littlejohn, Metro, 21st June 2005
It's one thing cutting up your errant husband's clothes and chucking them out on the street. Selling his £25,000 sports car on the Internet for just 50p is another matter entirely. But that's just what the scorned wife of a controversial DJ did.

During a live interview with Jodie Marsh, Kerrang 105.2's Tim Shaw told the glamour model he was prepared to leave his wife and their two children for her. Wife Hayley was listening and said her husband's flirtatious interview was the 'last straw' in their relationship.
After having a few drinks and while her husband was still in the studio presenting his show, she posted an advert on eBay for the Lotus Esprit Turbo with a 'Buy It Now' option of 50p.

The item description read: 'I need to get rid of this car in the next two to three hours before my husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street.'

The car sold within five minutes.

On a previous occasion, the DJ upset Mrs Shaw, 27, when she was pregnant by ringing her sister live on air and saying he thought about her while having sex with his wife. Mrs Shaw said: 'When he said he would leave me and the kids for Jodie Marsh, that was it for me. I am sick of him disrespecting this family for the sake of his act.

'The car is his pride and joy but the idiot put my name on the log book so I just sold it. I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to get him back.' She added: 'There is no hope for a reconciliation.'

AKerrang 105.2 spokesperson said the DJ was 'absolutely gutted'. Mr Shaw was suspended from the station in February after he broke into programme director Andrew Jeffries' house during a live prank, damaged the property and wrote obscenities on the wall.

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Esprit DVD
Esprit: Addiction for Life has been release. You'll can read LEW's review and some comments from others who've seen it and see the cover and read the intro. The DVD is available to purchase from LEW, so order yours today for the E-Shop.

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Esprit Weekend
LEW's Esprit was busy this weekend. After passing it's long awaiting MoT, the rest of the weekend was spent fitting PNM's Big Rear Brake Kit. Bleeding the SE's System was quite a job, with over 18 points to run through, including bleeding 10 nipples! An installation guide will appear soon (along with a few others we're working on), as well as pricing, so you purchase the kit.

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Esprit Suspension Bushes
LEW is currently looking at the suspension bushes as we get quite a few enquires from Esprit owners. We are looking for Esprit owners who have fitted aftermarket bushes, either Poly or Nylon. We would like to hear about your experiences, which model you fitted the kit to, where it was from, the cost and the effect, if any. We are looking for your experiences (good or bad) of using Ployurethane bushes.

Email admin@lotusespritworld.com with as much info as you can. Hopefully we can gather enough information for a useful guide to undating the suspension bushes.

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Merritts Celebrate First Year
Merritts the Lotus dealership in Amersham and the local enthusiasts club are organising a Lotus gathering and informal concours at Merritts premises on the main high street in Amersham on 4th July 2005 at 8pm. Merritts are celebrating their first birthday and so as a great way of kicking off the first of various celebrations Martin the sales manager is supplying all the refreshments and the local Clublotus group are supplying lots of trophies.

There will be lots of different categories for both old and new cars and some less conventional ones so anyone turning up in a Lotus stands a chance of winning a trophy.

Details can be found at www.clublotusbboa.co.uk
Merritts website is www.newlotus.com

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Uxbridge Autoshow
Sunday July 17th 2005

Once again the local Lotus enthusiasts club take it upon themselves to organise the Lotus stand at the Uxbridge Autoshow . We would like to extend an invite to all the other Lotus groups and fellow enthusiasts to come and join us with their car.Various Lotus Esprit World members have attended in the past and enjoyed themselves.

The show takes place on Sunday July 17th 2005 at the Middlesex show ground just off the A40. This major event organised by the Rotary Club (with all proceeds going to charity) attracts several hundred cars and thousands of people. Last year we had a wonderful variety of vehicles from early Elans to Exiges and 340Rs and of corse various Esprits which attracted a large crowd all day. We have reserved a large area this year as we hope that other Lotus enthusiast clubs might take the opportunity to come and meet up there . Any Lotus or variant is welcome on the stand the car does not need to be concours as we have everything from "needing restoration" to Elises and Exiges straight out of the show room. One of our members is hoping to show off his 300BHP Exige which is currently being converted.

The show really is a spectacular event with classic displays of cars lorries motorbikes along side newer vehicles. There is a large autojumble, parts specialists and various displays in the arena all day. There are usually even a few flower and craft displays for those non car enthusiasts to look at. We usually receive the tickets a few weeks before so we can post them to you. The cost is £5.00 per ticket which admits car and all passengers. Normal price is £7.00 per person.

So if you want to attend or you know of any clubs or individuals that might wish to join us please email me (address below).

The shows website is www.uxbridge-autoshow.com/
Our club website is www.clublotusbboa.co.uk

Clive
cliveyboy@hotmail.com

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SPAM & Virus
Lots of SPAM & Virus going around at the moment, so don't open anything that looks like it came from LEW unless you've asked for something. We are currently receiving emails from The Lotusespritworld Support Team using the email address info@lotusespritworld.com. There is no 'Support Team' and this email address isn't used by us. This is a ghosted email, so just delete it without opening any attachments.

Just to clarify, Lotus Esprit World is Mac based and is clear of virus's. We have no control over ghosted emails and virus on other peoples PC's. Please be careful.

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Lotus Open Up Their V8
Lotus confirms that Hylomar 3400 (A918E0377V) is the correct product for the Lotus Esprit V8 Liner / Block sealing.
Following the ongoing discussions on the Lotus V8 Liner sealing issue Lotus have inspected their V8 engine in there Engineering vehicle for any signs of coolant loss into the crankcase. (carried out Wednesday 8th June 2005).

The engine was a production built unit using Hylomar 3400. The liner assembly procedure was as per the build instructions detailed in section ED of the Lotus Esprit Service Notes and Service Bulletin 2000/12 (June 2000).

The results and pictures can be seen at the bottom of this page.

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Uprated Gearbox Now Available
After two successful upgrades carried out on Esprit V8's, an improved version is now available for any Renault UN1 transmission based Esprit.

The upgrade addresses the three main weaknesses of the UN1.

1) the one piece heavy duty aerospace steel first motion (input) shaft is much stronger than the standard two piece shaft, both in torsion and bending especially at the vulnerable overhung 5th gear end. When the standard shaft fails it usually causes a lot of damage which needs an expensive repair before the gearbox can be upgraded (both upgraded Esprit boxes upgraded had suffered this failure ).

2) the upgrade includes raised ratio heavy duty 1st and 2nd gears. In particular the second gear is a stronger steel and has stronger synchro teeth as well, this combined with the reduce rev drop between 1st and 2nd gear helps reduce the schnook teeth breakage problem.

3) the vulnerable coupling between the clutch and first motion shaft in the standard gearbox can fail if a lot of vigorous standing starts are carried out, this coupling a and the reduce diameters of the shaft for the coupling is eliminated.

The kit includes all the modified parts needed to carry out the upgrade as well as the new shaft and close ratio 1st and 2nd gears. In addition, because of the small size of the Lotus version UN1 rear bearing, it is necessary to machine out the bore on the gearbox casing (which is cast with this in mind) so that the larger bearing used by all other versions of the UN1 can be fitted. It is hoped that an exchange gearbox casing service can be offered if there is the demand.

Prices:  
UN1 upgrade kit, exchange price £2,250
UN1 upgrade kit outright price £2,750
Machining Esprit Casings £100
Cost of rebuilding Gearbox and fitting upgrade £500
Supply and fit ATB LSD £750

For further details contact Derek Bell
Tel : +44 (0)1594 826631
Fax : +44 (0)1594 826466
Mob : +44 (0)7799 888857
Email: derekbell1@bell-performance.co.uk
Web : www.bell-performance.co.uk

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EFF Gets New Look!
The Esprit Factfile has a new look. Pay the original Esprit site a visit.

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Tyres & Suspension at Hethel
LEW has news from Lotus that they are currently looking into the Good Year Eagle Tyres which have gone out of production. (215/50ZR15 & 245/50ZR16). The fronts are very difficult to get and the rear is not far behind. The front is also common to the Lotus Excel. The big problem is that this size (215/50ZR15) is now a non preferred size and is no longer produced. Lotus will be looking into possibilities to keep us on the road.

Their damper programme is also in full swing. Seems the V8 testing as been completed and they are now starting on the Esprit Turbo. More info on this will be published as we get it.

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Locking Wheel Nuts
LEW been having a few issues with it's Esprit. On attempting to fit the new PNM Rear Brake Upgrade our locking wheel nut socket was damaged trying to remove the near-side rear wheel. Both the nut and socket were damaged under the forces required to turn the nut loose. This is particular annoying as we always torque out wheel nuts to the recommended poundage supplied by Lotus. The locking wheel nut at each wheel is torqued much less. We also apply copperslip to the nuts to stop this happening.

The Off-side nuts where all fine and required minimal strength to remove. All the nuts on the near-side where very stiff, although not a problem to remove with a normal socket. So LEW's Esprit is currently stuck with both near-side wheels unable to be removed. We did try a few things, but as the nuts are deep inside the S4 alloys and the locking wheel nuts are almost round and still requiring high poundage to turn, nothing really worked. We'll be looking to take our Esprit to a local garage to have the nuts removed. Hopefully then we can get the brake kit on for some testing.

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Gumball 3000
If you didn't know an Esprit S4 (bought from the LEW Used Car Centre) was entered in this years Gumball Rally. More information can be found at their website. Not sure if it's fully up-to-date, as I'm sure they were having too much fun to keep it updated while on the run. We did hear a rumour than PNM was call out to Prague to fit a new clutch for them and on Monday they were in first place all the way to Hungary!

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News from May 2005

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