Jack Stone

Interesting to see the DV (I think!) car running the pre-prod spec rims

Greek "unboxing" of DV (and another Emira in background along with a Stevens Esprit of some description)

Silver...

Some old skool/new skool Lotus in 1/18

Nice black leather on the inside

Inside B@C (aka "Lotus Surrey") yesterday - customer Seneca Emira awaiting delivery and boss's Esprit V8

Peter Stevens showed this pic of an Esprit replacement concept styling during his Brooklands talk this week. He referred to it as "M200" but that was later used for an M100 concept (I wonder if this was actually "X200" in the Esprit X180 sequence?) https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/118501-peter-stevens-brooklands-talk-interesting-lotus-projects/

Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you, @jep. Lovely M100 Peter certainly did a lot of signing that evening!

@jep's lovely M100 alongside my Esprit V8 outside the Brooklands Clubhouse this week where Peter Stevens was giving a talk, to represent some of his styling creations.

Peter Stevens gave an interesting talk at Brooklands this week. He showed images of a couple of Lotus mid-engined projects, which he referred to as “M200” and “M300”. The silver “M200” (which is also used for an Elan M100 project) was a proposed Esprit successor which used “all the underpinnings of the Esprit”. I’d not seen that styling before (riding on Elan M100-like wheels). According to Peter, the black “M300” dates from 1987 as was a 200mph project to sit above the Esprit. It would have a carbon/aluminium chassis, carbonfibre body and a mid-mounted Cadillac ‘North Star’ V8, most likely fitted with a Lotus-designed four-valve cylinder head. When asked about his satisfaction with how his designs have transitioned to reality, Peter singled out the M100 as a disappointment, saying the final production car was “about 60% of what I wanted, mainly because the wheelbase turned out wrong and so did the track, which meant the wheels weren’t in the right place”. Conversely, the XJR-15 was a great success, being "like 95%” of what he’d wanted. It was nice to be able to park my Esprit V8 alongside a lovely M100 outside the Clubhouse to represent some of Peter’s styling creations (V8 not strictly Peter’s but based on his 1987 Esprit “reskin”). No McLaren F1 in attendance, unfortunately!

The Type 79 looked great with Mario pedalling last year at Goodwood FOS My Esprit dream garage in 1/43...

Some John Player Team Lotus action in 1/20 and 1/12 scale. Ronnie and Mario

Almost forgotten what it was like to go to a Lotus "dealer" and see a new car there. Here's Hendy Performance Eastleigh's Seneca/blackpack looking lubbly jubbly on silver rims and Goodyears with Sport setup...

I checked out progress of new Lotus showroom at 73 Piccadilly. It will be in the retail space on left side of building (bottom right on plan view). Upper floors will be a hotel apparently. Is showroom still supposed to open this year?

Is this your black beauty, @GreenGoddess? https://twitter.com/Mr1000CR/status/1591746769871937537?s=20&t=stxwv_i9UeYlxm7QN0As6Q

Any time any place any where 😉

Difficult to see but could be "039" which is the non-original number applied to one of the LHD Essex cars

A quick "reimagining" of the Emira in an Esprit World Champion/Evija Fittipaldi theme - looks ok!

Cobalt blue 2003 V8 uk last 15 available if needed

Matt Windle taking the Emira for a run...(not sure if this is posted elsewhere?)

I read in Roger Moore’s Bond on Bond book that a Cortina d'Ampezzo scene was cut in which Luigi “tampers with a few buttons” while waiting in the passenger seat for Bond at the ice rink. The implication is that there were a few Q branch gadgets fitted to the Turbo Esprit we don’t get to see. Any ideas what they might have been @Lotusfab? If not, we could have fun speculating! (I’ll ask John Glen if I ever manage to meet him!)

When in Hethel...

ICYMI: The Times/Sunday Times names Emira Sports Car of the Year 2022 https://www.driving.co.uk/news/motor-awards/motor-awards-2022-sunday-times-best-cars/#sports

Delighted to chat with Russell Carr at the Elan 60 event on Sunday and hear his tales about the styling of the S4 and late V8 face lifts