Suddabym

The tiger print headrests were all my own idea. In fact, I’ve kept them, and all the crap hanging from the rearview. Makes it classy, and goes with the wheels. You should have seen the other guy

Did the wheels give it away? So, they asked for 2 classic cars of a certain colour range and style, and the movie motor company found Nigel and me. Filmed in East London and it was all good fun; long day mind, and the girls worked their absolute socks off. Real professionals and it was mid January so also Baltic. The shame for me was that the cars were static; I’d have liked to have driven it about a bit. What I did love was that I drove 4 hours in Jan, in the early ours, through central London, forty odd starts to move the car, and then 4 hours back late at night and the car was faultless. But basically good fun, eye opening and great to get the car out in January and let a new generation wonder what it is. Taste in music aside, I think it’s brilliant that an Esprit is out there, being cool, up in the faces of a whole new generation, keeping the car current and relevant.

The white finished car does look like Nick’s old car but he doesn’t own it now and wouldn’t sell via UK Sportcars in any case. If it is then it’s a lovely car - I’ve driven it. Looks well priced too for a throughly sorted car. Personnally, if I were looking for an S1, I’d snap that 25k car up right now. The mechanicals look great, and it seems to just need a coat of paint. Looks like a bargain to me, with modernisations to make it more usable.

yes. I have one and it rocks

have I done this? my brain is too small to keep that information...

It was indeed me. Seeing a stealth grey Evora GT on my local roads was such a shock I forgot to wave (I see so few other lotuses out and about these days). Loved the car, it looked fantastic. Good job, Danny. I was headed over to Norfolk for the weekend, where I saw exactly one other Lotus: that’s how rare they are these days. Impressed that you caught sight of an Essex in the wild. A red letter day if that had been me. The car was stunning as it cruise missile’d towards me on those rolling country roads. A beautiful sight.

Awesome fun TLF meet up; we need to do more. My, those books sure do look like interesting reads... 😆

Looking forward to it

Totally we can. You spoken to Barry? I know a guy with an Evora - I’ll speak to him. But ideally, just us so we can geek out.

That sounds like an excellent idea. My car just went in for a service, but assuming that I have it back by then, I’m in. I’ll gee it along. Thanks, Robin. Brilliant idea. Looking forward to it 😊

Henry - you are correct. I wanted to put the main speakers in the A pillars - loads of room - but I must have been talked out of it. So, just tweeters there and two speakers at the base of each seat in the bulkhead. The sounds works well, and keeps the doors clean.

New sun visors 😎 Been asked about the rear lights and didn't realise that I hadn't put up these behind the scenes pictures. Cover your eyes if you're sensitive to rear light cluster abuse.

Great vid. Fantastic to see the production line, to understand the challenges and for Matt to be so forthcoming. Really impressed. More cars sold between Goodwoods than the previous SIX years. Amazing. And that’s the issue - in a good way - too many orders. Plus global supply chain pressures, etc. Feel much better for Lotus now, having watched that. Scaling up has been hard, logistics a nightmare, inflation, pandemic, war, China lockdowns, Brexit, personnel, the literal works. Meanwhile, they’re training up the second shift and doing their damdest to catch up. Suspect that Matt was a tad too optimistic in his business plan, but lesson learned as they grown the business. Oh, and the cars look mint.

Love it. Great colour scheme and why not leverage such a golden nugget of Lotus history? What do we know about total sales? Has the 1340 been met? And, when are they going to deliver any? I see the Emira is about to hit the streets, so it would be nice to see the Evija in the wild too.

I'm certainly up for this if others are. I saw it on FB, moved from 10 to 25 Sep. Could be a bit of fun to round off the season.

I have Protechs. They got wound and wound due to chasing the wheel size issue, but eventually, we undid them and the ride is so much better. Works best on the softer side, I would agree. You could try others but I think that's the point - they don't need much clever sophistication. The Esprit just works. I have noticed the need to get the wheels (fronts) re-aligned when replacing the tyres. They seem to loose their setup, but that could just be mine. The steering is so sensitive that you can tell from within the cabin. Yes, M100's are epic cars, so underrated.

Personal view only of course - the M100 Elan is a such a forgiving car to drive, great handling, poise and roadholding. Loved it so much I owned 4. All the others were a real handful (in all weather conditions), particularly the early Elise and the Europa. And even the Evoras can get tail happy and eat their own tyres. This - weirdly - is the best of the lot. It's lazier to put the power down, sure, but best grip, best manners and roadholding of any Lotus I have owned. Including in the wet. But it won't win a race against any of the others (maybe the Elans), although I see this as a GT more than an out and out sports car. I also recently drove it back to back against a stock S2 and mine has a softer, more compliant ride, goes way quicker, is louder, and handles better, noting that this is a restomod, of course. I was expecting an old Esprit to be way more rubbish than my last Evora - not to compare at all - and sure it's not as quick, but it is so much more a car I can push with real confidence. With my Evoras I was always wary of the back end stepping out. So yeah, I do think it's the best handling (not the quickest) car I have ever owned and driven.

Patience is a shit virtue. Although my car was four years in the bits on the floor phase. It isn't very good for finding hair, no. Good for checking out my 410 rear LEDs, though.

Thank you. That mirror is mostly for finding my hair, but also for checking out my awesome rear lights (which I can't otherwise do). Yep, so I borrowed a mate's GoPro and thought I'd give it a whirl. Been trying to get someone to do a dynamic for a while, but no takers. So it's a bit Jack and Jill - I'm no YouTuber - but I'm learning. Had to teach myself many new things. Luckily, iMovie is for idiots. Plus, there are a lot (I mean, a lot) of videos of esprits in pieces spread around the south of England, but very few actually being driven, out, in the world.

I made a video - about my car. It's on YouTube.

😆 I have people for the oily bits. Yeah, epoxy paint. Lovely stuff, just so much fun to work with 😶. Well, I used to have matts because I was worried about that and the tyres pulling up the paint, but that hasn't proven to be an issue, so I removed the matts and repainted the floor, where the matts were. The gravel is too big to get into the tread. Time will tell if I am indeed a genius. I suspect that I am. I also assume a certain amount of maintenance. Repaint every three years type thing. White being such a sensible colour to paint a garage floor with etc.

Decided my garage needed some love. Am sharing that love. Love my garage / gazebo / summer room / garden thingy. Awesome.

sweet

not any day of any week 😂 Just had these send through, so had to share - rude not to. for the Twingo article, you'll have to actually buy the mag! 😆

It's a mag, relatively new, and covers cars from all over the shop. Including (in the most recent edition), a gold S2, in gold! A resto and modded car, apparently. The owner looks like a proper Lotus hero. Car's quite nice too. It's in the shops right now. Link is: https://classicretromodern.com/product/pre-order-issue-12-retail-shop-cover-edition-now-on-sale-in-the-shops-on-1st-june-2022-free-pp-uk-only/ Cool.