GTK

I'll weigh it if I can on Friday, but next week at the latest. Sorry just never got around to it. My shell still has the sound deadening attached, the bit that lies at the end of the chassis tunnel as it meets the engine bay. That stuff is heavy enough to effect the weight, but regardless as has been said four people is more than enough to lift a body, in fact when I realised how light mine is I gave it a go with one other guy, for the laugh. We lifted it easily. Just a dead lift mind, I wouldn't try lifting it off the chassis with just two. As I said before I'd estimate around 200kg / 450lbs, maybe less. The book is open if anyone wants to have a guess. Will weigh asap. One thing; the body needs to be slightly elevated to from the rear, and teased just a little forward as you lift, as it can hook on to the front of the chassis and catch. If you watch us lift the body off mine you'll see it catch momentarily.

Just plain old HSS router bits. I even chipped that one when routing a piece of ply some time back. I chipped it with a screwdriver trying to free it from the chuck. Luckily not on the part of the face that creates the radius.

So far so good and just in the nick of time Bit of a chassis win in this one...

I think you're right and the Lotus branded ones were an '80's unit, but they look identical save for having the extra band, designated 'U' rather than 'FM'. To be honest I doubt the tape orientation would have been a consideration. Yours is definitely of the same family of radio cassette's as the later FM unit with 'Lotus' on the fascia, so likely the fabled LT551 or LT558.

Hi Matt, thanks for all the info. Bottom left of the photo above looks like a Motorola unit of the family that the "LT" units seem to have been. It would be interesting to know the model number on that one. I also got my car with a Sharp unit fitted [RG9150] but Andy Graham wrote that the build record for it shows a Motorola unit being fitted at the factory. I made the jump to it being Lotus branded it seems, but maybe the one you have is a factory fitted Motorola!?

Latest episode!

Not to go against what you're saying, you're right 100%, but you only have to have one disc let go to learn the lesson about putting even a tiny amount of lateral twist on one. I'm fearful of the grinder so I treat it with respect and concentrate so intently on how I'm using it that I sweat [and don't notice I'm setting myself on fire]. I cut straight lines in well supported thin sheet, using high quality discs. I always wear a mask and goggles and touch wood it's been years since I pinched a disc in the metal, or twisted one so it came apart. I'm moving to pneumatic now anyway so it's moot, smaller thicker discs, but I hear you man

What and miss the warmth around my midriff?? Be nice if I could lure a workwear label onboard Getting a spin in my first Lotus is almost my sole motivation in life now! Thanks for the kind words

Hi all, I've been neglecting TLF for too long but I've been back to work on the Esprit and from now on, it's Lotus all the way until I get my first drive

There's nothing at the front of the chassis strong enough to take the stresses of the car being towed. You could mount an eye on a spreader plate to the ARB support frame but I personally wouldn't use one for anything more than a gentle winch onto a recovery truck or trailer. A good recovery guy will have J hooks that can be used on the bottom arms. As Dave said reverse onto a trailer seems best, not least for trailer nose weight too, being a mid engined car.

Hi Jon, just catching up on your project and saw the post about this switch panel. It's a mid to late '80's Range Rover panel of switches likely bought by your PO for spares. hth Good luck with the build George

Don't know! Mine had an RG-9150. I had a quick look and found it in Argos catalog No.24 from Autumn 1985 so I doubt it could have been original to my car. 1985/1986 seems to have been a turning point for my car. As far as I can make out it was when it was resprayed white and had it's interior retrimmed. Whoever owned it then was probably not concerned with originality.

Hi gents, Not sure how but I missed the notifications that there had been any activity on this topic, until now. Thought I'd let you know that I eventually made a video about my S2 Esprit that includes footage of the Sports Motors dealership building as it is now, as well as some shots of the original sales documentation for my car. The Sports Motors logo on top of the bill of sale is one of the coolest if you ask me, and i'm having it reproduced in sticker form to go on my car once the restoration is finished. Anyway you can see the video here, and just fyi it's not a dedicated Sports Motors video, far from it. Thanks for the messages above and all the best, George

Great news on the wheel, I'm still looking for a boss but I'm sure one will turn up eventually. The Esprit project is in lockdown essentially, I don't want to start back on it until things get a little more settled. I'm hoping I'll be back on the project full time with no distractions by the end of summer. Thanks and enjoy the JPS!

Just a thought for anyone looking for a suitable tablet to use with their drone. We have a DJI Mavic 2 and a Mavic Mini here and were looking for a economical tablet to use with them. The internet is vague on whether a Samsung Tab A [2019] will be compatible with the DJI Fly app, but the 8" version of the tablet seemed a good price, for a reasonable tablet. I can confirm that the DJI Fly app has to be sideloaded, but does work on the Tab A8 [model SM-T290]. DJI Go 4 loads directly from the app store and also works fine.* *haven't actually flown either drone using the tablet yet because of persistent wind, but grounded testing doesn't produce any issues.

The manuals can turn up on eBay, I got two. One (yellow) for the domestic market in tatty condition with a fold out dealer map of the UK and the other (pale blue) a near perfect Federal one. I found a sleeve for same too. The tool roll is a canvas type thing with tie strings. This might be reference; https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/97610-s2-tool-set/ Did you get a steering wheel and boss Simon?

snort!

cue the '70's wah pedal guitar music, because that's pure porno

Looks great, nice to hear too. Does your car have a turbo engine, or is it just an anomaly that makes it sound like there's a wastegate working?

He loves fish heads!

I massively suspicious. There's def some computer aided stuff going on there.

All this practice is only making me more nervous about the Esprit you know

bare feet in a car video. Put some socks on! I don't know whats coming but it feels like it's going to be weird

They could have at least gotten a louvred rear visor, not having done so is quite rude.