deanb

Love this! Thanks for posting 🙂👍

Glad you guys enjoyed it! Thank you so much for coming. It was a real pleasure. Dean (on behalf of the LitP organising team) Oh and by the way, it's looking like we raised close to £8500 for our supported charity Rainbows so thank you for your genorosity 😊 Dean

LotusFella if you don't have the email then it could be that mloc has the wrong email address for you? You can go to the mloc website as the pack is published on there. To answer your question about the Matlock Bath Run, the start point is Matlock Bath railway station car park (do not go to Matlock railway station by mistake!) and we ask people to be there by 6.50am although 7am would be perfectly fine. If you continue to have problems pm me on the mloc website (username DeanB). I will see you at Matlock Bath on Sunday 😊 Dean

It is safe to use the 195 width on the standard rims. I have the V105s on my 2003 s2 Elise and they are a good all-round tyre. Not the grippiest in the dry at high speed but still good in the winter when it's cold and in the wet.

I couldn't agree more. I thought this morning that the F Type might be more of a competitor. That's another good looking car. Lovely colour combination. My mate has a BRG Elise s2 with full tan leather and dark silver wheels and it looks beautiful. Not jealous....not jealous......not jealous Nope, it's not working. I am jealous!!

Anyone seen Andrew Frankel's review of the Emira in the new Motor Sport? It's good, but the praise at the end seems a little faint to me. It isn't quite a ringing endorsement. All the reviews I have read talk about the Cayman comparison, Frankel's included, which I get, but I think it is a little tedious and not as relevant as they seem to think. Not everyone that buys an Emira will have also considered a Cayman. The Cayman is obviously a very competent, well-engineered car and so on, but to my eyes is not a good-looking car. The Emira, in contrast, is a stunning looking thing. There will be a lot of people that buy one largely because it looks so very good, and those people would not entertain a Cayman. Just my opinion, obviously. I would put a deposit on an Emira in a second if I had the money. Maybe one day....

That's a shame! It would have been great to see you and your James Bond cutout! Well done for the award. Very well deserved.

If it's just a warped head then why not just get a good second hand head? There are plenty about. I swapped my Elise s2 Rover engine when it started blowing out big clouds of oil smoke at 107,000 miles. I suspect the rings had gone. I rang Dave Andrews, the Rover K series guru (see DVA Power website) and he said to fully rebuild it as a standard engine would be £3000 ish (iirc), more obviously if I wanted the head ported, bigger valves etc. He said I would be better off finding a good second hand engine, so that's what I did. I put a wanted ad on the seloc website and two days later a guy offered me a Lotus Sport 135 engine with Piper 633 cams and verniers for £850. It had done between 25000 and 30000 miles. I bought it and had it fitted and it has been brilliant. I realise I got lucky, but if I were you I would put some wanted ads on the various Lotus forums and perhaps MG forums (and facebook pages) for a good low mileage engine. Also talk to people who do Honda and Duratec swaps as they may have some Rover engines that they removed from customer's cars. MGF breakers might have something too. If you find one, fit a new head gasket, cam belt and water pump when it is on the bench. In my opinion the Rover K is a good engine if you fit the later multi-layer steel gasket and don't let it overheat (turn it off in traffic, sometimes bring the revs up to 2000 from idle to push more coolant round and so on). It really suits the Elise because it is so light. The 120 bhp engine is a bit weedy though. You could fit a ported and flowed head with big valves, better cams and verniers and an emerald ecu if you have money to spend. Or just second hand MG 135 cams for £150 will get you to 135 bhp on existing ecu and make it rev better at the top end. Be careful if you are going to 160 bhp and above because the pistons fail - you need the MGF Trophy 160 pistons instead (or forged pistons if it's 190+ bhp). A vvc engine is a great thing - 156 bhp out of the box and still with low-down torque, but I am not sure what you have to do to wiring looms and so on. Someone that knows more thsn me will help you with advice I'm sure! Good luck with it. Dean

Fabian it would be absolutely tremendous if you could bring one - or both! - of your Esprits to Lotus in the Peak at Chatsworth in July. The punters - we have 266 Lotuses booked on already - would go absolutely mad for it!

Update - 266 cars now booked and paid for this event! It will be, by far, the biggest LitP yet. Also, we have more prizes for the raffle - a £100 voucher from MyLotusParts.com (who have taken on 'Junks' Phil Peek's old stock) and a £75 voucher from Car Service Packs, another specialist business owned by a Lotus owner and racer. Both of those businesses will be at Chatsworth on the day - thank you guys. By the way, if the runs fill up then you can still attend at Chatsworth - we would prefer if you pay online in advance of the event (simply because it makes it easier for the volunteer organisers) but you will be able to pay on the gate. All profits go to our chosen charity Rainbows Hospice for children and young people so there are two good reasons to buy plenty of raffle tickets! Hope to see you there 🙂 Midlandslotus.co.uk

So the weekend was a great success. We had close to 200 cars at our picnic at Rowsley, and well over 130 in the procession! I think everyone had a good time. Thank you to all that attended. Those of you on facebook might want to check out the photos and posts on the Lotus in the Peak page. Until next year! Dean

Yes, dogs are welcome!

Looking forward to seeing those Esprits. Hope the weather improves though! If anyone else wants to join in please remember midnight this Sunday night (16th June) is the deadline for booking the runs and the LitP picnic, however you can still turn up at Peak Rail Rowsley and pay on the gate and all are welcome to come to the Charles Cotton for the Friday night do. Thanks Dean

Great to have you along Hopo! Looking forward to seeing the Esprit. Which run are you booked on to? We have a shorter, gentler 'Classic' run now which may suit you better.