OakMan

Yes - sorry I got the name mixed up ! Thank you I was told they’d helped Lotus do the set up with the suspension - got to be the best place to go

I've recently had the Ohlins serviced at Dave Gardner, car is just over 10,000 miles. Chris Foulds took them off, no problems with the front or rear springs. My car had done some track work before I got it. One front shock had leaky internal valve or valves, the other side was starting to go apparently. No seepage outside them, well worth any owners getting them looked at I would think. The overhaul is £1,000 from DG Racing, approved Ohlins centre.

They look great. Which one has a DSG? I didn’t know they were available till the new Emira with the AMG engine

I have a friend who's a GTechnique accredited detailer, thankfully not one of those who tries to sell you all the products and services, he just recommends the ones that are valid and beneficial. I asked him about my Evora interior which is also all Alcantara. To echo Keith's (ExeterJeep) advice, a light brush off with a vacuum available if dusty, then wipe down with a dampened cloth - microfibre not spongy wash cloth, allow to dry then give it a light brush to restore the finish and the nap of the fabric was his advice. I also asked should it be coated with Scotchguard or the equivalent, absolutely not was his recommendation. GTechnique do a terrific fabric protector that puts a water proof coating on standard car fabrics, making them easier to clean if dirty - I thought he would have suggested that but no was the answer. Keep enjoying your car 👍 PS. New Car Odour now comes in easy to use bio friendly Eco Green recyclable bottles, at all good car accessory shops, next to the Snake Oil, Parrots Teeth and Unicorn Dust 😉 🤣

Snap Just waiting on the 4th one in Essex Blue to join us 🤩

At Monsal Head car park, Peak District, Derbyshire. Middle of last week. A very scenic stop off for the two of them, you couldn't really miss them on such a grey day, one was bright Orange the other a pale Gulf Blue with orange accents. Sorry no photos as I was driving. I can only guess it was a magazine road test - wait and see ?

You are correct, mentioning the dealership is not tactful. I certainly wouldn’t have wished to compromise them with the factory. However the co owners comments were in open conversation whilst there was another customer there adjacent to myself, who had come to look at their new Morgan’s. The conversation/discussion was with us both. One can only surmise that the factory would have been very aware of their position after the reps visit.

Regarding Emira and the electric range of cars. I was at Central Lotus Nottingham a couple of months back. They had just had their visit that week from the factory sales rep. They were not very impressed that all the rep wanted to talk about was the electric cars, the Emira was completely dismissed. They were expected to confirm how many EV's they were going to (have to) take and that they would have to upgrade their workshop to work on them with all the very expensive new equipment required, including 2 new lifts. Also the vehicles would often require two mechanics (sorry technicians) to work on them at the same time whilst doing diagnostics. Word from the co owner was they weren't remotely interested in taking the electric vehicles - IE extremely kissed off. Additionally they said their commission as an order taker is very low, they have to do any warranty work on behalf of Lotus (unless it's a factory recall job), what incentive is there for them in all that ? Who knows if they will be de franchised or choose not to continue as an official sales agent (a very dubious position given Lotus new preference of direct sales). They may become an 'official service centre' like a lot of the Classic Lotus people were designated. Or just be freelance independent specialists. Incidentally the owner said they had topped Lotus sales/order charts for Emira - a statement I cannot verify I hasten to add. There has been a lot of bad timing and unfortunate coincidence with the Emira launch and deliveries, all too well documented here and online in general. Sadly this has happened to Lotus too often over the years. I'm a true fan, having three Lotus cars. The Emira was very much of interest to me. For me it now will be one of those cars that I will wait till all the problems are ironed out (like all first release vehicles have) and till prices drop to more sensible levels.

Looks like you have a fair distance to go to many of the official or independent specialists. I have known and used Chris Foulds at CJ Foulds Motors near Huddersfield for a great number of years. He looks after my classic Elan, S1 Elise and GT430 Evora. He doesn't find unnecessary work or costs and is always impartial with advice. They can't do some of the diagnostics on the Evora, apparently it's a bit different to the earlier Evora's which they can do. If it requires diagnostic work I take it to Central at Nottingham. Though Central are one of the newer generation of dealers their background is they own and ran the successful Le Mans Evora and campaigned it for Lotus. I've been very satisfied with them too.

Aided by the necessary take off velocity - 85mph 😇

A younger me captured on film circa 1990. Image was taken by Duncan Wherret for his Osprey book on the Elan. He was lying by the side of the road less than 6ft from the car ! Brave (or foolish) chap.

Funny, I always thought that this was Pistachio 😉

Email received today from Central Lotus, Nottingham. No doubt other main dealerships will have sent similar promotional messages. Pistonheads also has 5 new cars direct from the factory among the 34 for sale presently. Beat the £5,000 price increase on the Central Lotus Emira's in stock. PS. I have no affiliation with Lotus or Central Lotus

I read some of it - I would be totally confused ! 😂 There appears to be pages about the adaptive cruise control and lane assistance. Obviously not designed for owners of older or Classic Lotus 🫣 PS. What's ADAS ?? Or have I already dropped a goolie with the above about cruise control

Crikey 282 pages of handbook - Lotus keeping to minimalism or what !

I drove briefly on Sunday for first time since mid June. I’ve had a bit of a year with unexpected health issues. Well on the mend now thank you Jimmy. I contracted a hospital infection in mid June when I went in for something minor. I caught EColi which attacked my joints and ended in my right knee. Technically it is septic Arthritis and it totally disabled my knee and leg. Im just off crutches now and getting around better. not driven a Lotus since early June 🥲

Hi Scotty, I followed Ray the main organiser of LITP. He was in a Riviera Blue 410, it wasn’t his but a friend of his car. I was in my Sprint. It was the promo video shoot. I did the promo video the year after in my S1 Elise - it turned out they used footage of that quite a bit which I didn’t expect.

"For the trained ear not much out there sounds as good, (with the possible exception of V12 Vantage). 😎" That's what did it for me, following a 410 in my Elan for the filming of the promo video for LITP 3 years ago ! Mighty expensive exhaust note 🤣 it's stunning. I can't remember if I told you the outcome with my car, it was the ECU that had failed. Lotus allowed a bit of goodwill on its cost and Central fitted & re programmed it. Unfortunately I missed this years event, I was due to lead one of the Classic runs again but ended up in hospital before it, ended up being 4 weeks.

Fantastic car Jimmy. Bravo, I love it. I was so impressed by his, it didn’t feel big once on the move. As a true compliment to our 430’s they have a lot of similar ‘feel’ on the road I thought. I didn’t seriously open it up - not my car, mind you I more than doubled the mileage on it in that week - which he was ok with ! I couldn’t agree more with your summary of them.

You are so right Jimmy. I was loaned by a friend his 991.2 GT3 RS Weissach car for a week up in the Lake District where he kept it. I was amazed by how compliant it was, apart from the new major link roads in the Lakes the rest are narrower and not in the best condition, its only difficulty was the width, which our Evoras can't be much narrower. Token snap of his car as used in typical Lakeland conditions

So right - its remarkable isn't it 🤣 Then all the Garage Queen buyers won't buy it because it's been on a track - where Lotus earned all its reputation! Anyhow, I prefer not to drive my cars on the road

I'm the second owner of my 430. First owner did some track days, he was a member of one of the exclusive owner/track day driving clubs. He was a very experienced amateur racer (not with the Evora) It didn't put me off buying the car, he had numerous other toys and had also owned a 2Eleven. The car was in meticulous condition throughout and maintained by an independent Lotus specialist who also built and prepared race and track spec Exige and Elise models. I did my research and was very happy to buy the car, probably more so than if it had just a normal Lotus dealer history. I however do not have the first owners skills and am enjoying it as a road car, when garaged for winter it will have the TTX suspension checked and overhauled at Mick Gardner, who did the specs on them for Lotus, they're happy to deal direct with you which saves going through a main agent. Using main agent for this is fine if you're a valued customer and they only pass the cost on, car will still require a suspension alignment after. I very much would like to do an appropriate track day in the car, I have with a couple of my other ones. The Evora is a major step up and I know I will require instruction/tution.

It’s a tricky one with these cars isn’t it Jimmy. They’re built as a road to track car like a GT Porsche. The latest RS models are seemingly now criticised for being too track biased ! Leaving a ‘standard’ GT3 / 4 as the road to track day version. Forgetting the Porsche GT product unobtanium tax 😉 When people use them for what they’re designed for it then can cause concern for potential buyers. The same must be thought about Exige models which are unashamedly road to track, a lot of owners of those seem to modify them to even higher levels.

I must admit to not having followed the Emira situation as closely as I had bought my Gt430 not long before it was announced. At that time I looked at the specifications of the launch edition V6 and quickly realised it offers less than what I had got, being heavier and slightly less powerful. I had overlooked the additional year long delay. The pricing is a very major issue, people being given a price scale but it then jumping dramatically is so not right. I also find the move to the 'dealers' appearing to be no more than order takers and servicing agents very strange, there's not much incentive for them to handle any warranty issues if they had no profits in selling the cars. I like you would wait to see where they are in three years or so time. With me having the 430 Evora they have a bit of way to get close to that - it may not even be on their agenda. There seemed from the start to be plenty of room to 'lighten' an Emira, at extra cost with carbon panels, lightweight seats etc. We know more safe power is available with the V6 motor if only to 430bhp. The i4 AMG engine can go to significantly more power as well documented on the internet, the holdback in Emira appears to be cooling issues on this car. I liked your simile to Walmington-On-Sea 😄 All I can say is "Don't Panic"

What saddens me for the UK sports car side of the new Lotus company, is the combined effects of all these international problems. I know these are different times, but it has strong resonances for me of the M100 Elan situation in the late 1980's early '90's. That in effect was the right car for that period of time, with the immense popularity of front wheel drive hot hatchbacks having replaced the demand for 'traditional sports cars'. Lotus with GM's backing prepared a front drive convertible sports car that was a great alternative for the hot hatch buyer of the time, a lot more money mind you but it was from a prestigious sports car maker. Not to forget Lotus had stacks of engineering expertise in getting FWD car chassis to perform for other major manufacturers. It arrived late to the party allied to the economic downturn in the late 80's early 90's that M100 launched in. They had production and supply issues as well, coinciding with the economic situation, inevitably demand just fell away. I remember driving one of Peter Smiths demonstrators at the time, the turbo model, it was great, my daily hack was a MKII Golf Gti, just the target market. It certainly was so dynamically superior, they had nailed the brief for a superior FWD hot hatch alternative. I still have my Elan Sprint that I had then, it wouldn't have persuaded me to have swapped it for one though. There was also another factor to consider as well the Mazda Mx5/Miata launched, well cloned from classic Lotus Elan DNA - going on to be the worlds most successfully selling two seater sports convertible. Major competition at much less money. Unfortunately it arrived late to the party with the economic downturn of the late 80's early 90's the Elan launched in, they had production and supply issues as well, inevitably demand just fell away. I remember driving one of Peter Smiths demonstrators at the time, the turbo model, it was great, my daily hack was a MKII Golf Gti, just the target market. It certainly was so dynamically superior, thy had named the brief for a superior FWD hot hatch alternative. I still have my Elan Sprint I had then, it wouldn't have persuaded me to have swapped it for one at the time, as it felt like I was getting a convertible sports hot hatch. Just to add, I haven't yet had the pleasure of driving an Emira and am no way making any remotely similar driving comparisons to above. With the Emira Lotus have striven to make an exceptional alternative to Porsche Cayman buyers, for increased market share, I shan't include Boxster as there is no convertible Emira. They have aimed at providing a more luxurious interior with appropriate tech and seemingly got it right. The biggest problem is the enforced price increases, where a non 6 cylinder Caymen is drastically less money, even after the usual Porschefest of extras that Lotus do not do. There are always niggles with any new cars, from my experience other well celebrated marks have plenty enough of them - its just that their owners don't like to broadcast them so obviously.