Chris J

Thanks Kalli, I picked up a slightly less pink seatbelt cover than the one I linked to which sits over the edge of the seat and is doing the job for me. All for the huge sum of £7...

I would have the 410 over an Exige given the opportunity, purely for the ease of getting in and out as I get older and less flexible. I've done the Elise thing and it was fabulous, but as I get older and less flexible it's not for me anymore.

It's very odd crawling down a jammed slip road onto an almost stationary dual carriageway to have the folks in the car next to you on the road beckoning and pretty much insisting that you pull on in front of them. Basically the reverse of what happens when my mate drives in his BMW, cars nose to bumper and everyone resolutely refusing eye contact...

Lovely. Works really well in yellow! What I would choose if I ever had the chance to buy new.

Looks good Andy, really nice!

Gave mine a good wash and polish yesterday and had the chance to take a couple of pictures. For me the metallic red doesn't do itself justice in pics unless the sun's out. The only downside was that polishing the front means I now know how many stone chips there are and there's now thoughts of a respray lurking in the back of my mind. Needs a front splitter though to finish off the look with the barge boards.

It's different over here. The dicks 6 inches behind your rear bumper on the motorway are generally driving leased (so less than 3 year old) German metal (and increasingly new Kia/Hyundai since they became blinged up and German look-a-like), typically with a low end diesel weighing down the front. Lots of shiny chrome and LED DRLs and big wheels, but sound like a tractor... Baffingly they often genuinely think they're sports cars (based on a sample of acquaintances who are perfectly reasonable people in day to day life yet drive like utter idiots when they slip behind the wheel of their 2 litre diesel Audi/BMW repmobile).

But it's top trumps motoring, isn't it? Big numbers that appeal to the masses. 99% of people that would buy the TTRS don't know that Lotus exists and the other 1% thinks they're plastic kit cars so I woud be amazed if Lotus loses a single Evora sale to the Audi. It will get rated in the reviews for the amazing interior, being fast in a straight line and being 'easy' to drive and the nominally good CO2 and mpg figures. They'll gloss over the lack of feel and that if you use the performance the mpg will be on a par with a larger N/A engine (I was surprised Harris mentioned that for the Boxster in this months TG mag). In typical Audi fashion by the time you've specced it with the 'essential for resale' options the price will be a damn site closer to the 400's.

Would be good to see photos when it's done! Incidentally my MY11 has the same split. I figure I will have the seats re-done at some point and get it sorted at that point. Probably be replacing a lot of the leather at the top of the door card as well as that is looking a bit rippled and stretched.

I have that gap too on the passenger side. Sorting out the inner door curtain (not stuck down correctly) and also silicone sealant around the base of item #14 ended the water running out on the door sills and into the footwell. I still get a lot of water running out of the base of the door when opening it but at least it is staying in the door and not getting inside the car!

Couldn't see the wood for the trees, thanks! Found the perfect thing... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cartoon-Shoulder-Protection-Sleeves-Various/dp/B00XZXU34C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1460102330&sr=8-2&keywords=seat+belt+sleeve

So, contrary to the popular outside opinion of Lotus's have cheap hard plastic, squeaking, rattling interiors, I have only one annoying noise in my Evora when driving. Unfortunately, it's the seat-belt rubbing on the leather on the shoulder of the seat, and it's producing an annoying squeak right behind my ear every four seconds or so on the bumpy roads round my way... Anyone else out there experience this, and do you have a cure? I could stick a patch of fabric on the seat where the belt rubs but I don't want to do that as it would stand out like a sore thumb on the oyster leather...

Ouch, you know things are bad when Perodua are held up as a better example than you...

Ha! My Elise split the plastic radiator end too, the only thing that went wrong in four years. Fortunately it let go on the MOT ramp and spat coolant all over the garage floor. New alloy rad sorted it.

Is there a factory reset option?

2008 was Toyota engines but it was also when the later design of dash came in with the Engine Start button. You have a Lotus dealer north east of Bristol (Williams, who also do Morgan) but I would say any independent who specializes in interesting sports cars will be fine for servicing, being Toyota or Rover the drive-train's not exactly exotic. I certainly had no problems using a local non-specialist garage near me in Exmouth (Tipton garage). Being a daily driver, in the winter you will get used to wiping condensation or scraping ice off the inside of the screen when you first start it up and sitting there with the engine running until there's warm enough air to keep the screen clear. Air-con may help with this, mine didn't have it. In the end I got fed up of it though, it put me off using it in winter and was one of the things that pushed me to changing to an Evora. Toyota engines - around 2008ish you have 3 types in the Elise, the 1zz 134hp S, 2zz 190hp R and the 2zz with supercharger 220hp SC. The Exige I think had the 190, 220 and a 260 as well. The R has a 2nd cam so around 6000rpm you get a kick in the back, below that it drives much the same as the 134hp S. I had a 134hp for four years (2008 S) and the only time I felt it lacked anything for speed was on track. Certainly on road up to about 80 it's fast enough!

Given it happened today, it must be something to do with the switch to BST, if the time is not right then it will struggle to find satellites and make sense of any signals it does lock on to as the satellite ephemeris (orbit details) it downloads will tell it they are in the wrong place. I would check what part of the world the system settings think it is in, make sure it thinks it is in the UK and the time is right and then restart it.

It's ironic, round about 15 months ago I was in the States for work and saw one of the F1 races on an American TV channel. The advertiser buttressing each side of the ad breaks through the race was Lotus, advertising the Evora, which I recall round about then I read in the UK press was being withdrawn from sale in the USA until the next model year...

One problem is that you, like me and most of the rest of us here, are an extremely rare creature - you already own a Lotus, and an Evora at that! You are the exception rather than the rule.You and I might not want all the toys on the car, but they need to be available for those that do, preferably to buy in hugely overpriced packs, giving the ability to add £10k to the bottom line for probably about a grand's worth of electronics. Otherwise I agree with you completely that marketing is a massive problem, along with the sparse dealer network (which I know JMG is improving). How many people are prepared to drive 100+ miles to the nearest dealership, with the same trip needed for servicing or to sort any problems, when there is a Porsche OPC or independent in every town? It's a crying shame Lotus are associated with Proton, possibly the only independent manufacturer with a lower profile in the UK than Lotus, as with any other owner you could have a Lotus corner in every (Toyota/Ford/A.N.other?) dealership adding a halo to their range and then people would actually see the cars(!) Having said that I'm been surprised by how much goodwill the Lotus brand does have among friends and acquaintances I thought knew or cared nothing about cars and I suspect something semi-practical like a Lotus GT86 style in association with another manufacturer would sell reasonably well, subject to 2 caveats - that it can outdrag a diesel Golf (or the media and pistonheads forums will crucify it) and that people know it exists and that you can buy it and have it serviced within a half hour drive of home! Incidentally I think the SUV is a fine idea, as long as this first attempt stays tucked away in China far, far away from the prying eyes of the UK media. It's going to be a big learning curve to do their first 'proper' family car and can you imagine how the likes of Evo would treat it, no mercy, hold it up against the Macan and Discovery and damn it with condescending faint praise. Maybe they'll be able to bring version 2 or 3 to Europe, but keep attempt #1 a long long way away...

On my local bumpy twisty country roads the Elise was an absolute hoot to drive, just skittering and bouncing a little, letting you know it's alive and talking. I can feel the Evora is massively more composed and sure-footed even 10 miles an hour faster up at my own self-imposed sensible speed limit so I really can't see that I would get anything more out of something a step up again on the road. So in the event of a lottery win and being able to indulge a 3 car garage, it would probably be another Elise for the very rare occasion I can just go for a drive and keep the Evora (though if Lotus were to figure out how to put the Lexus V8 in the back of the Evora...)

Before the Evora I had a 2008 Elise S I picked up in 2012 (I started looking for a small hatchback for the missus and got distracted). Then in 2015 a baby turned up and my fun car needed a touch of practicality as there's no time any more to just got for a drive without a legit reason tacked on, so I traded the Elise in for Kalli's Evora in December 2015. Next? Even with the mythical lottery win I struggle to think what I would replace it with. I saw a Mclaren 650S the other day (in just a slightly deeper shade of red than mine) which was lovely, but unless I was regularly going to be on track at the likes of Spa and Silverstone then it would be wasted for me and I'd rather have something I can push a bit on the road without it getting silly. So periodic re-trims and one of Jim's manifolds are probably in my future...

After having the doors apart again, after the last week's wind and rain I've had the unusual experience of dry door sills with no white furry growth! I ended up putting more sealant round the base of the cheater seals (parts 14 & 15 here https://www.deroure.com/diagrams.asp?TBL=6690&MAK=1&MDL=20&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=&SC=0 ), it seems the water was running out of the base of this, down the inside of the door and then because of the slight slope the car is parked on, down to the back of the door sill. Not sure how the water to the inside of the cheater seals, presumably making it's way past the window seals at the front corner and down the inside of the window. Hadn't seen this mode of ingress mentioned before so thought it might be of interest/ help to someone out there...

Marketing needs to shout louder!

I do like it, I can't afford it though so anything I say is irrelevant but it does seem a bit of a half-hearted effort really. I think if they'd put an extra £10k on the price and gone all out with carbon roof etc (body-work using the new 311 composite?) and 450bhp then there would be fewer detractors and people would sit up and take a lot more notice. As for the Exige or stripped out Evora question, I've had an Elise and while it was sublime on track, now I'm starting to knock on into middle age I much prefer the relative comfort of the Evora, being able to get in and out more easily with the seat slid back, being able to get a perfect driving position as the wheel moves, not being accused of touching up the passenger's knee when I change to 2nd etc so I would go for the stripped Evora over an Exige.

Thanks all. Colin, the only other thread I found was this one: which talks about the back pressure with the valve closed, but it is in relation to Evora S / Exige S so maybe only applicable to supercharged engines, I don't know enough to say? I might have to talk to Jim about how he's getting on with his bolt-on mini-silencers as there's no way I can sneak a track backbox past the missus for the forseeable future...