frb
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Posts posted by frb
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Hello everyone.
When going through some old family photos I found one from approx. 1970 taken by an uncle of mine somewhere in Austria.
Shown is a Mk 2 Ford Cortina Lotus. Photo quality is a bit blurry but on close inspection the number plate can be deciphered to be UAH 861G.
Sadly I don´t know the circumstances of the picture as my uncle has already passed away and cannot be asked any more.
A quick internet search revealed that the car survived, was sold at auction in 2016 and apparently now has been exported (to Japan?).
Just out of interest it would be lovely to know more about the recent fate of the car.
Would someone possibly know any details or perhaps even its current whereabouts?
Thanks in advance and Greetings from Austria
Georg
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Hello Lutz.
This is the factory original front pinstripe layout of my 1978 Esprit S2:
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Hello Steve ((also from the Esprit side as I plan this conversion as well in the near future...)) .
By no means am I an expert on Lotus Europa but from looking at the wiring diagrams at least the Europa S1 & S2 seem to take power for oil pressure, water temp and amp meter gauge through a voltage stabiliser. It seems logical as many of the "electrical" Smiths instruments were usually designed to run on 10V as far as I could find out.
But please check back with Europa experts who will surely post here very soon.
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Hello Tony (and Steve).
Tony, the very modification you suggest has been done before by someone with a S2 or S2.2 on this forum (sadly, I don´t remember who it was). Inspired by that owner I tried this solution as well after I had terminal failure of both mounts simultaneously on my S2 . Two years after fitting the modified engine mounts function as they should, hold up well and have not caused any problems.
For EACH mount I used 6 countersunk screws ( i.e. 3 on the upside, 3 on the downside arranged in a regular 60 degree pattern ) and also added an industrial quality adhesive sealant (Innotec Adheseal) into the drilling holes before screwing the screws in. The engine mounts available today seem to be a little bit higher than the original mounts as specified by Lotus and also often lack a little "locating tab" to prevent the mounts from twisting. As a solution against twisting I added an additional little screw (NOT countersunk !) where the locating tabs should be.
Renn Ortenburger described a similar modification on his blog, which could be found here:
http://www.lotusespritrestoration.com/2010/05/preparing-lotus-esprit-s1-engine-mounts.html
I´d love to post some pictures but they sadly seem to have been lost during a computer crash
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Hope these experiences are at least of some help to you.
Greetings from Austria,
Georg
UPDATE: Found the post:
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Happy Birthday, Tony !
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Happy Birthday from Austria, Mike. 🎂
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A couple of years ago boot boards were discussed in another thread:
It´s for an early domestic-spec S2 but may be of help in some sort here (as S1 and early S2 were often quite similar) .
The height of my original boot boards (early S2) is approx. 25 cm with the recess for the tailgate latch mechanism being 5 cm "deep" (i.e. total height there is approx. 20 cm).
Split fuel tank board sections seem to be common on domestic / ROW spec cars from at least S2 on (possibly earlier) . The parts list shows several parts revisions but is otherwise unclear in this respect (as I´m sure you´ve noticed already 🙂 ). Maybe the federal cars needed different boards for crash regulations or the split boards were introduced for production / service reasons?
As for the painted flank side section - could that have something to do with whether wooden "sideboards" were fitted behind the rear wheelarches or the change from gelcoat to nitrocellulose paint?
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A couple of years back ( around 2013 ) there were several articles about the restoration of a Lotus 907 prototype engine ( I think no. 907 / 007, i.e. the 7th engine) on a website "www.annteak.com" . Sadly it seems this site is now completely down.
IIRC the owner of that engine ( could his first name be Andy ? ) also owned RAH 713F in roadworthy condition fitted with its original Vauxhall engine but was going to fit the restored 907 into the Viva (?) .
LEW apparently has a bit of backstory on the Viva on their page: http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EHistory/900EngineDevelopment.html
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Thank you Richard, that is very kind of you.
( Wouldn´t say no to yours either
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Glad I was able to help
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Thank you, Graz in Summer is indeed lovely - as is Vancouver (been there some years ago) !
Going by your posts you really did quite an extensive tour of Austria.
It´s a pity your time was too short for a meeting up but perhaps we manage in the future either here or in Canada. Would be nice.Nowadays it seems (sometimes) it´s sadly rather some drivers who are exotic on the road, not the cars anymore . Different times, I agree...
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A Happy Birthday from Austria , Mike 🎂 !
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Hello Steve.
Could this be the picture you were looking for?
It´s out of "Lotus Esprit. Mid engined S1, S2, S2.2, S3 & turbo" by Jeremy Walton from 1982.
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Hello Rob.
One additional "Yes" to the carpet clips. They were standard fitment from the factory.
All the bolts on the lower "B-post" section are painted over body colour from the factory. The repainter got that feature correct.
By the way, speakers in the rear bulkhead were first factory fitted on the turbo esprit and maybe some esprit S2.2 in 1980 AFAIK.
But it was not unusual that radios and speakers were fitted by the supplying dealer so might be "fitted from new" on your car.
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There are pictures of an ex-red Esprit S3 repainted in Triumph British Racing Green on top of the following web page:
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Well, it has had quite an active life before storage so maybe in the end a respray was the best option to make it look as good as it should again.
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Good question regarding KAH530V.
Lotus with a number plate KAH 5XXV were usually registered by Group Lotus themselves around 1980 (there are several Elite & Eclats and also some Esprits with this series of numberplates). 403G was a super early S2 from May 1978 and would rather have been registered with a "T" or even "S" plate ?
The database is unfortunately not fully complete. It used Lotus own factory "sales registry" book as main source and development and engineering cars (+ some regular cars ) were often not fully recorded in there. Especially on the very late S2 section many entries seem to be missing.
So KAH530V may be a late S2 ( has later style of door mirrors without chrome base and laminated rear 1/4 windows ) that simply wasn´t listed. Team Lotus briefly ran with Martini as sponsors around that time so "Martini green", at least to me, seems plausible.
It was also featured in a comparison test with a Porsche 924 in 1980 (I think "What car?" magazine).
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@GTK Anytime 🙂
AFAIK there was one domestic spec Esprit S1 in "Mint Green" (VIN 0366G) which may be the car on the cover (?) .
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8 hours ago, GTK said:
In fact the only one I've ever seen a picture of was on here and found by someone in a farm yard. That car was restored white, and I can't find the thread now. Have distinct memory of it having no rear running gear and being hoisted and towed by a tractor.
Hello George. You may have looked for the following thread :
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Hello Graeme. This relay is part of the lighting circuit and helps controlling the dipped / main beam operation from the stalk. It unfortunately is not shown on any wiring diagram.
Your relais appears to have the later style white connector ( was used on late esprit S2 and on early drysump turbo esprits - maybe even thereafter ). On my early S2 it is connected directly via spade connectors.
In the past I had similar troubles when I mistakenly disconnected the relay without recording the correct wiring but was able to reconstruct the right order, as discussed here:
I hope this might be helpful to you.
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Very saddened to hear about this.
Sincere Condolences to the Chapman family.
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In Jeremy Walton´s first Esprit book from the early 1980s it is mentioned that the OPW 654W plate was used on Don McLauchlan´s company car (together with a red "burglar protected" triangular sticker ) and the OPW 678W plate was used on a "blue engineering S3" which very likely must be that car.
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As far as I know:
The "Silver Car" was last reported in Giorgio Giugiaros private collection or at least Italdesign´s own museum.
https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/8162-original-silver-giugiaro/?ct=1617050306
The" Red Car" was last seen a couple of years ago and its current whereabouts are not further known (?).
https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/47429-esprit-red-car-prototype/
GEX 170N was converted into a rallycross race car after its career at Lotus Engineering by Dimis Mavropoulos and still appeared occasionally at events in the last years.
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They look like common Fiat items of the time as used e.g. in the 124 range.
The "Red Car" styling study and at least "GEX 170N" (the first "Ketteringham Hall" esprit prototype / Engineering car) used round vents of a similar design
but look like from a Mk 1 Ford Escort.
Early S1 production cars had a rectangular cover which was derived from Mk 1 Ford Cortinas iirc.
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Hello all.
Having quite often seen Essex 006 LHD back when she was in Austria with her previous owner I can 100% confirm that the chassis is as the car left the factory and as pictured in @Sparky ´s picture above and only touched up in a few minor places.
As seen on a couple of other very early Turbos as well it seems that these early galvanised chassis were not painted black but sprayed with the same "bitumastic compound" that was also used on the non-galvanised S1 /S2 Esprit and Elite/Eclat chassis. Unfortunately I don´t know if that coating was also used on the S2.2 car range in between but may well have been.
However, I´m aware that´s just another theory and as with all things "old Lotus" one can never be sure. Maybe MJK could know exactly?
Georg
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Lotus Cortina Mk 2 UAH 861G
in Carlton / Cortina / Sunbeam
Posted
Hello @jonwat - sorry for my very, very late reply, busy week...
Thank you for posting the information.
A medium would be a good idea. But if that classifies as "non-EU" call I don´t know if I could afford the "telephone" charges with today´s rates
...