NG5

In the UK (don't know about anywhere else) complete headlamp replacement with 'e' marked units such as those sold by PNM are road legal and will pass a MOT. Putting led or hid bulbs in standard halogen headlamps in place of the halogen bulb was made illegal a couple of years ago, the MOT regs are just catching up. The reason apparently is that for the reflectors and lens's to work properly the bulb fillament needs to be in a specific place. Led and HID bulbs don't put it in the correct location and so the beam pattern is wrong often leading to dazzle. Led's not being single light sorce and hid's longer than a std bulb.

I remember it well. I actually worked as a bin man in the summer holidays when a student on village rounds near Skipton. It was actually a sought after summer job at the time because unlike most summer jobs that paid reduced rates to students, the bins paid full wage. There was a definite knack to getting the bin on your shoulder, you sort of threw it up rather than lifted. Not difficult when you knew how, but occasionally, rather than the bin flying to your shoulder, your shoulder would fly to an unmoving bin. Fortunately, every round had a man mountain on the team who you would call over, he would then lift if up effortlessly while giving you a look which said "you are so pathetic not being able to pick up such a featherweight bin". A very different time.

I would hardly call it a big change. The paper copy has had no legal standing for a long time and when buying a car the advise has been to check MOT history on line and not to trust the paper copy as it might be forged. The article seems to imply that they will still print the paper version if you ask for it. It also gives you the opportunity to ask for the corner weight print out which are now measured for the brake test, which hardly anyone gives out as standard.

I've never seen this particular one, nor fitted a high torque starter to an esprit. But I have fitted high torque starters to various competition cars. You normally only need to fit a high torque starter when you have increased the compression to such an extent that the standard starter starts to struggle to turn the engine over fast enough. On an unmodified car they are overkill, if the standard starter is working fine. This one also seems particularly expensive.

I have to 100% agree with you. I no longer need the flexibility/space of the daily hack I've been using, an Astra 1.4T and I've been toying with the idea of a Evora as a daily for a while. A couple of weeks ago saw a 400 on line that ticked most boxes, and wondered what the insurance would be. Went to the usual comparison sites, quotes came back almost exactly the same as for the Astra which I only renewed about a month ago! Go figure! Bog standard hatchback worth less than 10k v an Evora 400 worth about 50K. Quotes were on the same basis. Bizarre

Quite a lot I hope as I'm about to hit that number later this year. Still healthy, fit(ish), active, feeling and doing much the same as I did many years ago.

C8RKH, think long and hard before going to bed tonight. Statistically far more people die in bed than anywhere else... It's a very dangerous place.

Came across this list of lotus dealers in 1970 on fleabay (that someone snapped up before I bid) As far as I can make out not one of them still are. Mind you that could probably be said of ford or vauxhall dealers from 1970.

You could try these people, they specialise in historic belts http://fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/Services.htm If looking S/H or ebay I belive they are the same as fitted to Jags of the period.

The biggest part of enforcement is not being able to easily buy them in the 1st place. To get an "E" mark moulded on the tyres they have to conform, if they don't no one sells them. It's illegal to fit non "E" marked tyres so finding a fitter to do so is not easy but like anything if you try hard enough someone would fit them. Interestingly it's not an MOT failure to have non "E" marked tyres. Driving on non "E" marked tyres is a grey area as the law only refers to fitting, but probably would have insurance implications in an accident.

Thartje Thanks for the extensive list but I have to assume you are in the US, sadly the only tyres on that list currently on sale in the UK are the BF Goodrich which are being sold by a US show car tyre specialist. But even they are not "E" marked so not legal to be fitted for road use in the UK. The Ventus and Kumho were on sale a while ago, but unfortunately no longer. I think the EU and UK tyre noise limits are probably to blame. Getting good tyres in small wheel sizes is getting harder and harder over here.

Tell me more. Not aware of any road legal 245/50x16 in the UK or even the EU at any speed rating. A few 245/45x16 but getting less and less. Same goes for the fronts 215/50x15, a few 225/50 and a few 205/50 but almost all of them are VR rated not ZR

And, ACO to Host Hydrogen Demonstration at Le Mans https://sportscar365.com/lemans/lemans24/aco-to-host-hydrogen-demonstration-at-le-mans/ For both fuel cell and ICE hydrogen cars

Hydrogen-fuelled diggers to be allowed onto highways https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2024/03/27/hydrogen-powered-diggers-to-be-allowed-to-use-highways/ The JCBs in question are Hydrogen ICE, not fuel cells btw.

The Dino/Europa body was moulded from an actual Dino, after making his body he sold the mould to someone else who then used it for one of the better Dino kits (although I think that had been arranged in advance). On his now defunct website he had scale drawings of a Dino and Europa Superimposed on each other the similarities in key dimensions were amazing, wheelbase, interior width, distance from front axle to driver etc. The outer shell is Dino, the inner shell modified Europa, the interior, engine, chassis, suspension etc. stock Europa, even the dash fits. He used to take it to both Lotus and Ferrari meets and at one time it had both Ferrari prancing horse and the lotus round badge on the rear, although I see the lotus badge has disappeared from that set of photos. Change of owner perhaps?

You could always combine the 2 https://www.flickr.com/photos/39860650@N02/51934410170/ A twin cam europa with a dino body. Done many years ago by David Mirylees. He used to have a great website explaining how he did it but sadly that no longer seems to exist.

Cars rarely cause potholes, most are caused by bad drainage or bad repairs, particularly after services work. But cars do rapidly make potholes get bigger and bigger. Once started damage increases by the square of the load. So faster cars cause more damage than slower cars and a modern 2 ton car does 4 times the damage of a 1 ton car. So yes the increase in traffic levels and increase in vehicle weights are making the problem a lot worse. Having said that most councils now just patch repair the pot hole without fixing the cause, so very rapidly the pot holes come back. Lorries of course do by far the most damage, in fact when designing roads, car traffic is ignored, the number of lorries (standard axles) is the measure of how strong the road needs to be. (I've been involved in building quite a few new roads and repairing old ones over the years 😎)

terry, as no experts have replied, I'll say the little that I know. Both carbs should have the same suffix letter and should be jetted the same. All the jet specs are in the workshop manual, the numbers are stamped on the jets and holders. The holder with an air calibration hole in it is for non emission carbs, the solid ones are for emission carbs. The non emission ones do not work properly in emission carbs and visa versa. So there is something very odd about your carbs and are possibly not a matched set. Hope that tells you where to start looking.

Just a follow up. Changed all the injectors for a new set of RS ones, been for a decent drive all nice and smooth, waited 5 to 10 mins. Started and idled fine. So hopefully fixed. Thanks again Sparky

Because I wanted something different. Back in late 1979 I was given a company car (Ford Escort 1.3 LX !!) and found it boring as hell. I decided with the massive budget of £2K I wanted something interesting as a second car. Anything that looked interesting at the right price I went to see including a Piper GT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Cars and even the adams brothers probe 15 https://web.archive.org/web/20161022200749/http://adamsprobe.com/adams_probe_15_photos.html That was definately interesting but at the time a non runner and I thought beyond my mechanical abilities. I kept looking longingly at the adds for Ferrari Dinos but they were about £2300 for what was probably a rubbish one, so just beyond my budget. Slowly I homed in on the Europa and after the 1st test drive I was sold. Never had I dreamed a car could handle like that. So in April 1980 I became the proud ower of an S2 Europa and not only do I still have it, I still think it's the best handling car I have ever driven. I've thought of selling numerous times, but then I go for a drive and think "don't be daft!". I've driven lots of faster cars, but nothing that puts a smile on my face to the same degree on a twisty British B road.

@Escape Thanks. It's tempting, price is in the right ball park, but not sure about it being a US car that needs to get UK papers, I don't know what's involved with that. My experiences with the DVLA and registrations have not been the best. Shortage of photos of the engine and running gear, but I'm sure that he would supply them, at least the seats are original as they are difficult to get and I don't have any spare. Speedo is original too. Needs a bit of a think, but tempting....

@Escape where was the original ad? I might be in the market to restore it back to a europa. I've probably got most of the bits needed including a spare bodyshell!

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/search?registration=G-AIST&exact=true&source=g-info G-AIST But you would never know looking at it. And this is G-CIPB https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/G-CIPB.html

That is the genuine aircraft, serial number 414A-0049. It was sold to the states in 24-Aug-1979 and de-registered from the UK register then and re-registered in states hence the N registration. It has obviously be repainted in its 'historic' livery. Aircraft can be painted and show markings which are not normally allowed or of different countries if there is good reason and permision from the registering authority is obtained. This is most common for war birds, loads of ww2 german marked aircraft on the UK register. The N414BW in white is it's real registration, G-PRIX is just part of the paint job. Nicely done and i for one am happy it's back in its JPS livery.

Further to my previous post. According to my parts manuals there were 3 different part number sets for just the CWP sets (More if ordering with gear clusters). All fit, the 2 earlier numbers are down as 'use up stock' to be replaced by the later numbers. For ref Earliest 77 01 453 193 & 77 01 455 878 next 77 01 453 194 & 77 01 455 879 last 77 01 455 880 & 77 01 455 881 One number is obviously the crown wheel and the other the pinion, but not clear which is which. Only supplied as a matched set anyway.