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EspritBoy98's Achievements
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Hello Lotus Enthusiasts!
I just joined The Lotus Forums with the addition of a 1998 Esprit V8 to my little inventory of cars. I remember vividly the September evening in 1977 when my parents and I went to an evening viewing, on a whim, or the recently released Bond flick "The Spy who Loved Me". My world changed. I had never seen such expression of design and style, panache, excitement, action, humour and suspense all set to Marvin Hamlisch's tongue and cheek yet wonderful music. Eclipsing everything was the little, white Esprit that I so hoped could indeed turn into the most fabulous submarine to ever grace the seas. I was nine years old. Exiting the theatre when this monumental experience had sadly ended, I remember promising myself that I too would own such a car one day. One day. Deep, deep down I knew this was not a sure thing; ever the realist even before I was a single decade old. I saw that film three more times at the theatre, by myself, all before my tenth birthday.
2019 saw my long wait come to an end. This was and will remain, hands down, the greatest expression of patience in this lucky man's life. And patience was tested to some degree in the following 6+ months. Purchased at just too good a price, with test drive and delivery conditions just a little too generous, and with a temperature gauge at the very top end in the very short drive in cool weather I thought I've got a cylinder head gasket replacement ahead of me. For this I was prepared and not phased. Discovery of a perfectly intact pair of head gaskets I was not prepared for. A cracked cylinder liner I was certainly not prepared for! With no Lotus specialist remotely close by I had to pick a competent, honest shop that my wallet would soon turn into my personal, local Lotus specialist! Engine removal along with all the other stuff required to be removed to allow for this yielded a very empty engine bay! No matter. Suspension components could be swapped out whilst the engine was being broken down and built back. How naive. Months after the suspension had been brought back up to snuff, the "rebuilt" engine was ready and reinstalled. All systems go! Sort of. It ran but had some misfiring issues. Obvious components were checked, changed (plugs, ignition wires, coils) to no avail but adding weeks. The ECU/ECM seemed to be the culprit and was sent to the UK for repair and testing. Upon return I had a functioning Esprit. I now had to learn to drive the thing; not nearly as bad as all the blogs and articles suggested and you know what Mr. Clarkson? The gearbox does not ruin the experience; it's just something to get used to! Winter was upon us so time to put the Esprit away but not until a last few short drives that ended in an odd, low grumbling tone from the engine with and increasing tendency for stalling when stationary. This after about 1000km of essentially flawless "break in" driving? I'm pretty sure it is the whole water ingress from the surprisingly open engine vents in the deck above the V8. Removal of the two cover plates to expose the two banks of four spark plugs revealed a rusty mess so I've been working to check all the plugs, clean things up and reinstall the plates with augmented gaskets. I'll add just how I learned to remove/reinstall the plugs in place in an appropriate part of this site in case you need to to this (many of you need to do this!). It took 5 days of spare time as opposed to about 1.5 hours on a car with easily accessible plugs but what the hell. It's a LOTUS! People think the entire year since I purchased the car has been a real test of my patience and love of this car. Not when compared to the 43 years of biding my time to get my hands on one!
Happy motoring everyone and I'm more than pleased to be part of this community. Let's keep these unique, perplexing, somehow optimistic vehicles on the road and looking great!
Peter Goodings
Ottawa ON Canada
April 10, 2020