James.007

I was interested to see your post even though it is old now on an EV Esprit, I am also considering a similar conversion as my car has no engine and gearbox when I purchased it. I now have a V8 and gearbox but don't think it's the way to go, especially with the fuel problem and electric is the way forward, or alternative power sources. Did you manage to complete the project or is it still work in progress?

Your cars look amazing, excellent job, well done.

After a year of ownership and little or no progress mainly due to work commitments. I have managed to locate and purchase a few parts, but now I realise that I am going to have to design and manufacture my own as the so called Lotus specialists are clearly using Chinese manufactured parts, so definitely won't be purchasing anything from them. What happened to quality British engineering. So it was about time I started work on the restoration. As the car is permanently outside I need to make it water tight and of course secure, so the doors would be a good place to start, and to my horror I found two pieces of MDF screwed in the inner part of the door frame as a sort of bracing, this must of been done by a previous owner and surely not by Lotus. The inner frame of the door is especially weak at the top and will need reinforcing and bracing as I am not happy to leave it like that. Time to make some bracing and design and manufacture my own door cards. Carbon fibre would be ideal as I want to save weight or keep it to a minimum.

I am not familiar with the Burman model, but will do further research. Yes I think your correct, one has just come up on ebay and looks identical. I've managed to locate a column but with no lock. I bet someone has the bible of where all the parts came from.

I'm am after the steering column, does anyone know what make and model car it was from?

I think I may have to put scales on each wheel to work out the whole weight of the car as is. I was thinking of looking at using a sustainable method of power instead of the V8 I have, and would save a lot of time, instead of 5 - 6 years for the restoration which would include trying to find parts it could be done within a year.

Does anyone know the chassis and body shell weight of an Esprit S3 Turbo? Chassis I think bare is 62kg.

Excellent job, I do like handmade products, the attention to detail is superb

Looking at your design of the ski racks and the possibility of drilling the bodywork, there could be a way of avoiding this, being a qualified designer I may have a solution. Also I have an aerospace vacuum bag system and could easily reproduce them in fibreglass or better still in kevlar or carbon fibre.

Yes, it was good to see all the posts. Balsa wood is used as a sandwich or core material in laminates, so possibly. But your racks are very nice and an excellent piece of workmanship.

The link is very interesting to watch, it has interviews of who worked on the film and all about the submarine.

The little That I do know about the submarine, is that in the film when the car first goes into the water the first underwater shot is a model and the bubbles were produced using Alka-Seltzer tablets.

Nice job, for any imperfections use some Dolphin Glaze and spray on some satin black as a guide coat and sand with 300 grit and you will see any low spots, repeat the process until there perfect and then your ready for primer.