esprit gt3 nickbassett

Thanks Neil. Hi Barrie, re Southsea; are you saying that you are in Southsea, or that you remember or know that I am? Anyway, yes I'm in PO5 just behind Albert Road, near the Kings Theatre. Are you Southsea too?

Thanks Bibs, I've had a look around but there's no quick fix for the garage for tomorrow. Still left wondering: does the car have any OBD socket at all?

Hi, 1998 Esprit GT3 has just received an Advisory on its MOT: Engine management light on According to the MOTing garage, this is amber. However, in 14 years of ownership I have never ever had the engine management light illuminate. Garage has asked if the car is fitted with an OBD socket for them to plug in to. Can anyone offer advice and assistance, please? If it does not have an OBD socket, what would you do? There is a Hendy Lotus in Southampton that advertises being able to "fix almost any fault on your Lotus". I bet they've not dealt with anything pre-Elise, though. Does it need a proper Lotus specialist? Any help and assistance is appreciated. TIA. Nick.

Hi, 1998 Esprit GT3 has received two Minor Defects on its MOT: Nearside Front Upper Suspension arm ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (5.3.4 (b) (i)) Offside Front Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt insecure (2.1.3 (g) (i)) I'd like to have them done but know nothing about it. Is this something that the incumbent MOT garage should be able to do? Or is it for a Lotus Specialist? Can anyone advise a ball-park likely figure of cost, roughly? TIA. Nick.

1998 Esprit GT3. First MOT failure in 14 years (since ownership). Nearside Front Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.1.2 (c)) Offside Front Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.1.2 (c)) Offside Front Position lamp not working (4.2.1 (a) (ii)) The MOT centre says that the light beam is scattered everywhere. No sign of this last year. He says that the back of the lights (presumably he means the reflectors) have gone black. What is the fix for this, please? New reflectors? New headlamp units? Repair the reflectors? It is a small garage with no spare space so they want the car out of there asap. Due to an issue out of my control (another garage), the road tax is expired too (it followed the MOT date) so the car is SORN, which rules out driving it anywhere. Any idea how or why this has happened? Any help greatly appreciated. TIA.

Saw it for the first time tonight (07/04/2024 during the C4 coverage of the Japanese F1 Grand Prix. Karen spotted it in fact. It's very brief... Hard to freeze the frame! We identfied the location as UK even though there is an American car on the other side of thr road. But the cars are driving on the left and there's a London Taxi cab behind the Esprit. The Esprit has no front number plate though... The traffic signs and street signs are English style.

Hi Bazza, yes, I did wonder if it was returning from Goodwood. Wish I could have been there myself, so much. Hope you had a great time.

Sun 10/09/2023 Poorly Giugiaro type on the hard shoulder, silver, westbound A27 Havant c1530. Two guys keeping their spirits up (I asked if they were both okay). Professional help was in attendance. Weather had turned for the worse; raining. Hope you two guys are alright? Was in my wife's navy blue MB E-Class Cabriolet. Hope you didn't mind me taking a quick photo.

Sat 09/09/2023 Bright red Esprit northbound M3/A34 between Eastleigh - Newbury between 6pm-7pm. Looked like a Stevens model.

@Bibs My 1998 GT3 Esprit keys bear no resemblance to the keys in the photos. The GT3 keys are long and slim with square/rectangular ends, not wide, pointed ends. Will they work? Also regarding the "early" and "late" "lighted" and "unlighted" versions, I have two original Lotus keys from the car at sale; one has a LED light in the key fob, the other does not. This was standard at the time. This was not a product of a "early" or "later" key. @Escape unfortunately, experience has just shown me that two brand-new Cobra transmitter fobs from 7 years ago that have just sat in a draw, have completely failed, imploded, broken, fallen-apart.

The one and only Touch Key that came with the car has been lost. I want to obtain two replacements; I understand that I cannot do this myself? I am wary about buying from the net as I suspect I'll be left with Touch Keys that then require programming, that I cannot do. What do I do? Ask a Lotus dealer to supply two and programme them for me? Presumably they'll need the car with them when they programme the two new Touch Keys? Will this process affect the operation of the two existing Cobra Transmission Key Fobs? TIA.

Looks perfect, Bibs, thank you. I presume these are known to work properly ie there is no risk being taken in purchasing one? I'm not over-sold on its styling, but it'll be better than the existing originals. I've just had to throw-away not one, but two sets of Cobra transmission cases. On one of them the buttons just imploded through material degradation, and the other one, the rubber that connects the transmitter to the keyring just fell apart. Also, the transmitter cases are prone to breaking apart where the aperture is to house the rubber piece.

Sky-blue Lotus Elan filling-up in petrol station on Hayling Island approx. 1:05pm Sunday 12/03/2023. Looked absolutely lovely.

I have just had to commission the last of four new Cobra key fobs that I bought within the last 8 years. Three Cobra key fobs have disintegrated in the last five years. Just disintegrated. The fob buttons, the rubber connection; all disintegrated, with NO attributable wear and tear. Total mileage last four whole years = 34 miles! They just degenerate and disintegrate. Is there a better housing I can purchase? How about even a new housing for the key that will also accommodate the internal electronics of the Cobra key fob? Somebody somewhere must have produced one, surely? I do NOT want to get in to re-programming stuff or fitting new electronics anywhere. Just want a newer, robust, stylish key fob to replace the crappy Cobra alarm fob and ideally a new key/fob to replace not just the Cobra fob but also to accommodate the original key as well, like a 'modern' car (like from the last 30 years!). Car concerned is a 1998 GT3. TIA.

Yes I agree with all you wrote, thank you. In regards to the car in front that the Esprit hit, the wrath I have to face is that of my wife, for it was her Mercedes, but it was not damaged. Her rear bumper faired excellently, whereas the Esprit's front bumper took all the impact damage. So, at least only one car involved on our side of the claim.

"Sorry mate, my foot slipped off the clutch and I just shot forward", the driver of a Peugeot Expert van said to me. My mint GT3 was parked outside my home when it was shunted from behind by a van driver who was attempting to park. The brakes were off of the GT3 and it was propelled forwards in to the car in front. The black plastic 'spoiler' (?) that hangs underneath the rear bumper was broken-off. The front bumper has a horizontal split in it about 12 inches long. I've uploaded photos. My insurance company, Admiral, have been good so far. They gave me the option of going through themselves or being dealt with by a company, 'Auxilis', who only deal with non-fault claims. I instinctively felt I should stick with just them, but my £500 excess would then be taken from me upon completion of the repair, although they would be "...fairly certain of reclaiming it back from the other party as the circumstances are so straight-forward". In the end, I chose to go through their 'Auxilis' partner, whereupon I will never have the excess deducted at all. They will compensate me for time off work when I drop-off the car or collect it, and provide a courtesy car for the duration. So far, so good. They listened to me when I said there are probably only half a dozen places in southern England (I'm in Southsea, Hampshire) who can properly make the repair. They took on board my comments regarding composite construction and the non-availability of COTS parts. They first asked me to take it to SJ Sportscars in Devon when I said it has been there before for mechanical work. I have only half a day's leave available from work (until 1st July) so that was out of the question. They came back to me requesting me to take it to Hendy Accident Repair in Poole instead. I was instantly mortified at the thought. I imagine it will be less than five minutes before I receive a call from them asking me how to un-latch the bonnet and how to release the hand-brake. I asked them to quiz Hendy regarding their experience. They came back to me saying "Hendy say they have repaired many Lotus, including ones as old as the Elan, and that they are experienced with "fibreglass bodywork" and composite construction." I'd like to ask the Forum for their views. Should I instead ask that the car is low-loaded-away instead of me driving it there? Should I insist on a garage that we would recognise as a Lotus repairer? Does anyone have any experience of Hendy Accident Repair in Poole (in regard to their Lotus)? What repair solution should I be expecting/requesting ie should I be expecting new bumpers to be made/procured, painted and fitted, or should I expect that they will repair the existing ones, prepare and re-paint? TIA. Kind regards, Nick.

Pretty sure I caught the GT3 decals on the lower door sills as we flashed past each other on opposing carriageways. Looked very nice.

Silver G Esprit reg B13BJB just parked-up in my sister-in-law's car park in vicinity of Curry Garden Restaurant in Eggington, Bucks. Anyone's?

I disconnect one of the terminals and leave the battery in situ. When I re-connect it, everything leaps in to life as if the car was brand new, even after many weeks. No probs.

Good evening, we're staying at Dunston Hall for 11 days and today upon returning we found a white Esprit Turbo in the car park reg "CD 40" I think. Anyone on here is that you or know who it is? Cheers, Nick & Karen Bassett

Ah glad we've made contact again Trevor. It was great to drive with you that afternoon. When you were preparing to exit M11, I thought I'll follow you because it looks like you're heading for services, and we'd been going non stop for a few hours from Southsea, so I thought we could introduce ourselves properly. So I stayed behind you, but then my wife Karen said "He's winding down his window" (to speak to us), so I pulled-out right, in to the next lane and accelerated to get alongside you, to be able to hear you say and gesticulate "Report of an accident", but just at that moment, the lanes separated and we were stuck on the M11. Any boy, were we STUCK! Anyway, blame my wife for that one. No that's unfair, she was trying to help. Just unlucky. We looked out for you on Saturday but never saw you! Anyway, hope you had a great weekend; we did. It was really nice to travel with you. Great looking car by the way. Karen was quite taken with it.

Was it a 2018 unusual green colour? We convoyed with a 2018 green GT430 Evora up the M11 towards A11 going to Lotus 70 Friday 28th Sep afternoon. Nice guy. Talked with each other when alongside. Reg LJ18... or LJ18.... He just had enough time to warn us of accident ahead, but we were by that time stuck on the M11.

I reckon this is the same black Exige that we convoyed with on the M25 after Lotus 70. Heading anti-clock, he peeled off somewhere around M3. Number plate was EX11GGE. Nice guy, waved at each other whilst alongside.

Ditto; ours is the blue Esprit right behind it!