Stefan Ertler

John For all details, please contact Garry Kemp, UK who built my engine garrykemp@lineone.net Ramspott & Brand, Germany who did the integration into my car steffen@ramspott-brandt.de Best stefan

Hiya John Wow, that's a surprise. Someone actually asking about the Babe :-) I finished it and she got sold to a real enthusiast in Belgium who will finish where I have left off. Once we had our second daughter, I hardly drove her and also due the my workload in the company my days behind the wheel were counted. If you PM me, I can send you the email of the buyer so you can follow up It is really hard to combine work and pleasure if you are self employed with a family so eventually there was only one car left that could do it all. Dropping the kids off at school and then switch to DYNAMIC

I don't have a nickname but when asked about it, I call her my " English Patient" due to the many mods I had done so far :-)

I want the spirit back, the marque had in the 70s when the Esprit came out Exotic, rare and potent. Combine that with a superb build quality aka Audi and you got a winner again. No more Go Karts !!

After all the mods I have done, and the ones which I need to do yet, I only refer to her as The English Patient

They should add empire green yet and let's not forget the tasty norfolk mustard yellow for the Esprit

Speed limits produce bad cars Speed limits produce bad drivers Speed limits will not increase safety Speeding fines are a firm part of every community's annual budget to help compensate for incompetent monetary management ...and worst of all : These waylayers are not seen in front of schools or Kindergardens where it is necessary NO, they ambush us during shift changeovers alongside dual carriage ways when we rush homewards after a long workday.

Well, maybe Lotus wants to leave some room for future developements Never shoot all you bullets on a new product.

If HWA is one of the obstetricians of this new engine, it's going to be a success. It was the most important thing left for Lotus to become a serious car manufacturer with a secured future. Can't wait to test drive the new Esprit

Old wine - young women - fast cars : The 3 essentials in life If you have a G car in mind to tune, it's even easier. If you are lucky you can obtain a H plaque which is reserved for historic cars, older than 25 years I believe

Absolutely right Günter Concentrate on the "inner values" when you tune your Esprit, as the outside is spectacular enough And besides, I guess all of us here are far away from pubescent hot hatch teenagers

Nic Since the Esprit is a rather exotic model amongst all the registered super car models here in Germany, the TÜV can't really verify if your car is modified or not. Lotus has not even required about a so called "Fahrzeugchlüssel" ( model key code ) when applying for a ABE ( Type approval ) here in Germany The TÜV has generally nothing to compare your car with due to the rarity of the model. One could try to have all engine mods blessed by the TÜV but this could take ages here in Germany, if at all. Besides there are TÜV sections which are more donnish than others. I just had the problem of getting my Sport 350 magnesium wheels certified for the S4. They are larger than the original rims. In conjunction with my chosen tyre sizes the TÜV Hessen in Wiesbaden did not want to to it. But the TÜV Saarland had no problem as long as I provided a certificate that my speedo is calibrated to compensate for the now larger wheel diameter. It all boils down to the TÜV inspector thas sees your car. As long as all the specs listed in your "Fahrzeugschein" (vehicle registration document) are verifiable, you get your TÜV and I have never seen a TÜV office that has dynoed a car just to see whether it has the HP listed or not. Especially no Esprit. This car is, by numbers alone, a closed book to them. Hope this helped Stefan

At last, I have finally found a company that is caspable and willing to dyno my car properly. They develop, manufacture and sell their dynos to tuning firms exclusively. Normally they do not accept end user requests for dynoing. But the owner likes the Esprit so much that he invited my to a session, using their latest development. Here is a link to GRIP, a german online car magazine which uses this dyno on various plus 700 hp super cars. My Esprit will be used in another promo video of the company. Feeling very lucky, indeed I shall post my results here immediately after I have the readout. Stay tuned Cheers Stefan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxXqRL5gK8 company link http://www.chassisdyno.com/ cheers Stefan

Good PR but the bloke drives the Evora like a stinking Caprice Classic. Not the full monty in my opinion

If you want a real result that's profound and professional then buy your treatment here. http://www.nobelclean.com/index.php?lang=EN&page= I use it since 5 years on my S4 and it is simply fantastic Cheers Stefan

Mark I think this lies in the fact that many people are waiting for the return of the Esprit. I predict a figure of around 100 sold here in Germany, once it has entered the market. Even though the Evora is a brilliant car, it is still in the wake of the Elise/Exige design. So not really a alternative for people anticipating a true Lotus super car and who are not really attracted by the spartan models

Toby Don't really know why the 2 Fezza Models are listed ? Maybe they were just not registered so far at all and someone bought it and put a licence plate on it. Here is the link to the sport auto, if you fancy you can look at the other ranks (all with pictures of the cars)Just click on >weiter< located on the right top corner of the lambo photo http://www.sportauto...es-3291067.html Just found another interesting article The readers of Sport Auto voted on the sportiest car of the year in various categories defined by type and price for 2010. Lotus did exceptionally well! For instance the category Sport Coupes up to 50000€ was won by the Exige S with 34% of the votes In the same category for cars up to 100.000 €, the Evora came 2nd with 12,8% of the votes. The Elise came in first in the category Sport Cabrios with 29 % of the votes. Same category for cars up to 60.000 €, the Elise SC came in 3rd. Lotus sponsored a Evora for first prize raffeled off amongst all readers who entered the pollIt shows me that in Germany Lotus as a brand and it's cars are well set in peoples perception

Don't feel sorry, you are not amongst the usual Germanic begrudging crowd. We all enjoy the pictures of your garage and at least I can tell you that I am happy for you lucky bugga

Yes, It is very interesting to see how strong Aston Martin has become here in this country. I am sure the fact that Dr. Bez (former Porsche) has control over the company and the quality of the cars played a major role in the acceptance here in Germany. And looking at the Rapide sales, there really is a market for a Lotus Eterne !People are willing to pay for quality, indeed, but it must be proven. (and this takes time)With all the specialist staff Lotus has employed recently, I think they have a excellent chance to successfully place their new cars on the German market.Of course you will never really chase off the top dogs like Porsche and Mercedes, Lotus can at least nick sales from Aston and Ferrari, who are surprisingly high in the sales ranks. Whaddaya think ?? Stefan PS Ian, I also wouldn't want a R8, nice machine but too many around these days

Found this on the website of the German Sport Auto magazine Thought I share it with you as it has some very astonishing facts In 2010 the German car registration office recorded 2.92 million new cars 46305 of them were sports cars.(as defined by the office) This is a increase of 22 % in this segment and 1.6% of all new registered cars Below are some selected models with ranking and numbers of cars registered i.e. sold as new last year Don't really have to emphasise that I was gobsmacked on the one or other figure. Never thought we'd have that many posh people in this country Nevertheless it's a good indication of where Lotus can be, providing they hit the right nerve with the new models as the money is there. Rank 49, Chrysler Crossfire 1 carRank 48, Ferrar F 550/ F575 Maranello 1 car eachRank 46, Dodge Viper 2 carsRank 44, Lotus Europa 4 cars (who would have guessed)Rank 43, Morgan Aero 8 8 carsRank 41 Ferrari 612 11 carsRank 40, Lamborghini Murciellago 13 cars (WOW)Rank 38 Lotus Evora 20 carsRank 36 Ferrari 599 29 carsRank 35 Ford Mustang 36 carsRank 33 Lotus Exige 38 carsRank 32, Aston Martin Vantage V12 46 carsRank 29, Ferrari 599 GTB 47 carsRank 28, Aston Martin DBS 69 carsRank 27, Aston Martin Rapide 71 carsRank 26, Ferrari F 430 73 carsRank 25, Aston Martin DB9 83 carsRank 24, Lotus Elise 84 carsRank 23 Lamborghini Gallardo 86 carsRank 20, Morgan 4/4 109 carsRank 18, Aston Martin Vantage V8 168 carsRank 17, Ferrari 458 230 cars (this really knocked me out)Rank 16, Maserati Granturismo 243 carsRank 15, Ferrari California 271 carsRank 11, Audi R8 693 carsRank 10, Mercedes SLS AMG 709 carsRank 6, Porsche Boxter / Cayman 2135 carsRank 3, Porsche 911 5778 cars (still the backbone )Rank 2, BMW Z4 6178 carsRank 1, Mercedes E class coupe 13298 cars (don't really think this should be in here)

Dragi What a installation, gongrats mate, BUT..............for heaven's sake, what is this pony piss doing in your fridge ??????? Maybe I should reconsider visiting this summer then

Simon V8 does not neccessarily mean BIG. How about a tasty 2.8 to 3.2L V8, twin turbo garnished with all the other tech goodies of today ? There you'll have power, lightness and probably a very beasty power plant that is far from the consumption you are fearing

Even though being a full blooded, bull headed kraut, I never liked Porsches as I also consider them a "flattened Beetle" design wise. (no wonder, both got the same midwife) I must say though that they deserve where they are, due to their perseverance and their strictly followed company philosophy. I don't know of any other car maker which is able to make just one model always look different yet exciting and still keep the traditional design path. Same goes for the engines. 6 Cylinder flat NA or Turbo. ( remember, all other experiments were not really successull, see 928) Such always pays !! For Lotus the same is true. They need to stick to their philosophy and their heritage Don't try to become somebody who you can't be and who your friends and fans don't want you to be. There is no need for mega displacements and a gazillion cylinders. Just make it a Lotus, that is all it takes Stefan

When I saw the new Esprit, I knew I'd be one of the first to order one. And with the perspective, it will come with a Lotus own power plant I am even more convinced about my decision. Lotus is capable of designing reliable engines. As said in one post before, they just never had the funds to do it properly. In terms of gear box I hope Lotus enters a partnership with ZF as they are the most innovative people on the market for this. Don't care too much for the no of cylinders or displacement. Guess this is just important for all the US stick-in-the-mud bigger is better minds. I am sure Danny Bahar and his new team of engineers will produce a result which is future geared, innovative that we all will appreciate Staying curious Stefan

It's great to hear how Lotus' effort in raising quality workmanship is already appearing in a current car. They waisted no time, Bravo. Looking at my 95 Esprit S4 with a levelling plate here and 4 different clearences there, I really appreciate this news. Finally they show that they are dead serious about their products. I am sure it will also add to the overall reputation here in Germany where we are a nation of "millimeter peters". Lotus' reputation here is like a 2 edged blade, thumbs up for legendary driving performance - thumbs down for quality. Until now !! Stefan PS : I still would not trade my Esprit for anything but a Esprit