electro_boy

sorry to hear about the break in, hope the little ***** that did it get caught. I guess the usual advise of calling every dealer you can and tell them to keep a look out for you is going to be best bet to finding a new one. Follow the classifieds forum so you get an email when there is a new post. I work in St Albans so can go take a look at the white one posted by @auRouge if you are not local.

Assuming my S1 Evora with close ratio gearbox has similar ratios to the 400 then I’d say it’s a pretty good compromise for a road car. Getting a good 6th gear motorway cruising rpm puts a limitation on what you can use. So I think Lotus have got the balence about right.

I guess its not bad. But isn't the 2GR-FE getting on for over 8 years old now? How old is the Geely V6 engine? There must have been some advances in engine tech (apart from better turbos) that means a new V6 engine can push out more (not that any one is silly enough to launch a new naturally aspirated engine these days). Or have we learnt everything there is to NA engines and the only advancement is with forced induction systems?

OHHH I would love to see Lotus back in motorsport! I know they have their roots in F1 but these days I associate them with sports car racing so would prefer to see them in a GT* series not F1.

@trcm, are you talking about Hofmanns? Care to share your experience please?

Depends on which side of Herts you live. If on the west side then Hofmanns in Henley on Thames is not too far away. I haven't used them specifically for gear cable adjustment but their attention to detail and quality is highly regarded by me and others on the forum, so its likely they'd do a good job. Give them a call and have a chat with them.

Interesting thread. I find my S1 gearbox fine when just cruising but as soon as you start to push the car a bit the gearbox can get a bit frustrating especially baulking on downshifts. I've been wondering if there is any proper permanent solution for this? From the comments on this thread appears not really ? Has anyone tried an aftermarket shifter? Like this one? https://www.inokinetic.com/lotus/evora-shiftr111?category=Transmission

oh now I see it, like a laptop touch pad to control the mouse. Whats that all about?

Video description says its to be released in 2014, so there must be few secondhand ones kicking about on auto trader 😉 @ramjet I think thats just s a display not a touch screen? Well thats what I would hope so, as they've positioned it so far back I'm not sure my arms would reach that far?

hmm lovely looking things, the Ferrari and the Aston. If won the lottery I'd love to have a car of this style in the garage. I presume the Ferraris supposed to be a track day car as its so striped back with no wind shield etc? So why does it have so many buttons on the dash?

Wowza crikey! deforming splitter and active areo! I was expecting a bit of ply wood sellotaped to the front bumper. Thats some serious high level modding going on. What an interesting project please keep us informed with the progress, I certainly would love to know more about it.

I love to see Toyota bring back the MR2. What a great car, light, nippy and just enough (real world useable) grunt to make it fun. Maybe it could’ve done with a bit more? We need more light cars current crop are getting too flabby. I don’t care if you wack a big engine to keep the power to weight ratio similar. When it comes to handling there is no substitute for lightweight. So Toyota, what ever you create, don’t make it too heavy please! Regarding the SUV market. Yes it’s getting increasingly crowded but you could say that about the hot hatch market and saloon market, there’s loads of models to choose from. I think SUV are becoming (if not already) the defacto vehicle type to buy so I think there is space for new models. Also with leasing being very popular these days as opposed to buying the car outright via your own money or loans. People will be swapping cars every 3-5years so will want to go for the emperors new clothes, which hopefully will be a shiney new Lotus SUV! Hopefully this new interest in sports cars will make the case for Lotus to still carry on making great sports cars and not change the mould too much.

Oh Wow that looks amazing! I really like the way you have only used the laser blue on the uprights and kept the wing black. How hard is it to fit the wing? Apart from your rear light mod was there any modification required to fit it? Also as its a Lotus Motorsport part, I guess that generates downforce as apposed to just drag? Any ideas of how much downforce and if anything needs to be done to the front to keep the balance correct?

Yeah thats what I was told was the recommended time for the job. Did think it was quite a high but then my mechanical skills are very basic and I wasn't paying so I went along with it.

Dont know the cost of my repair as it was all handled by warranty but I called round a few lotus dealers just for curiosity and yep ~£4-5K at a Lotus service centre and ~£3-4K at an independent garage. I think the clutch self is something stupid like £180? Its just the 40+ hours of labour required to take the rear clam shell off and basically dissemble the whole back end and put it back together again.

Trim panel is quite easy to get off using a couple trim tools. Just get a lever behind and slowly prise it off. There are 4 clips to undo, circled in red on the attached photo. I had the radio replaced on my car and the radio fitters mashed the connector plug for the glove box switch back in the socket. One of the pins was bent out of shape and not making contact hence the switch did not work. Used some thin pliers to bend the pin back in shape and reconnected everything and clicked the trim panel back in place.

Yep what @Bravo73 says +1 There was a small batch of crappy clutches on the early cars (might have been S1 NA cars only?). But it’s common to find cars with 50k+ miles on first clutch and working fine. My S1 NA had done 48k and the clutch started slipping ever so tiny bit, couldn’t really tell unless you absolutely floored it. Luckily the dealer I got it from was happy to replace it on warranty for me.

thanks for the tips guys, think I know what I'm up to this weekend!

@21gg is this the product you used? https://www.hammerite.co.uk/product/direct-to-rust-metal-paint-satin-finish/ Does it cope with the heat from the radiators OK?

Thanks for posting that, it was an interesting read. Sounds like the Evora put up a good fight with lots of positives in the review. A bit worrying that it lacked in steering feel and communication, something that Lotus are very famous for. Certainly when comparing my S1 Na Evora to Porsches of its time, the steering feel of the Evora was better in my opinion. Shame they have lost their way a bit with the GT430. Overall I'm happy with the result of the review. Its got to be very hard to beat Porsche at this level so for a little company like Lotus I think thats a good result.

+1 I've found this place and its community a great help! (note to self hurry up and sign up for the Gold FFM)

Have you had a search for a repair specialist for instrument binnacles you can send it to? I remember an old episode of Wheeler Dealers where they bought an TT with a broken LCD screen in the instrument binnacle and took it some specialist repair place to get it repaired think it cost them ~£100 for parts and labour?

I like that, its a nice design and I can see the old Esprit lines in there. But I think it could go a bit further, needs a bit more WOW factor. Its a little bit too subdued and would be good as a mid to high end car but I think as a halo car it needs a little more.

ohhh lovely car, hope you enjoy it, I love the way it looks and all extra bits of detail they have put into the body, the vents and bumps and grooves etc 😍 I think this is what the last gen Europa was supposed to be but seems as if Alpine / Renault have done a better job or certainly created a bigger hype about the car than the Europa? I haven't tried a Europa or an A110 but the A110 appears to be causing more of a stir and getting more positive reviews than the Europa.

No problem buddy, I was on the fence and did not make my position clear. No hard feelings.