PJB

Hi Tom, I’m not too far from you in Hampshire, would you mind telling me who did your lights and did you take the headlights out yourself, £200 sounds v good value.

I think at some point Silverstone Lotus were also doing refurbs, not sure if they still are, mind need doing, does anyone know who is currently refurbing them and at what rough price?

I have a non valved 2bular, it sounds lovely but sometimes is more conspicuous than I want. The new version Jim is doing could be the answer. Has anyone got one or been in a car with one?

I have one, they are great little cars but you have to work them to go at any speed. Mine is a 64 plate and feels very well put together (for a Lotus) and has been completely reliable in the nearly 6 years I have owned it. The running costs are absurdly low and it’s totally guilt free ownership as someone else mentioned. Regardless of the costs, it’s just a lot of fun with no complications of some of the “higher end” models. Even my wife loves it and has said I’m never allowed to sell it. She’s never said that about anything else I have owned. If you can cope with the fact it’s not actually that fast, and simply want something fun, they are hard to beat. I would add, if you get one a 2bular exhaust makes a noticeable difference, a bit more torque, better noise and less weight.

I have also had some more info on the O2 sensors and CEL light, will update when I get around to doing more research on that. Whilst doing the re-fresh and before the final bill, I had got a little excitable and bought a couple of bits of carbon fibre; an Lotus Sport OEM Engine Cover and one of the factory seconds Carbon Fibre Rear Hatch. I had these both fitted and the car came back to me with them on, having had the hoses in the engine bay routed to give a really clear view of the carbon engine cover and out the back, well not that clear actually...... ....the view out the rear-view mirror from the driver’s seat is now very reminiscent of my 1985 Esprit Turbo, and I like that! The edges of the rear-view mirror were tarnishing and so I ordered a new one, to fully enjoy the view. It took nearly a year to come from Lotus and then they sent the dealer 4 of them instead of 1; isn’t that just so Lotus?! On the plus side it was only £17, happy days! Having got the car back, I have managed to use it for some runs with the local Lotus WhatsApp group. I was complemented on how good the exhaust note sounds and how I managed to hang onto the supercharged crew! I do think the n/a is a lovely version of the Evora, more basic, less to go wrong, less engine heat issues, more supple with smaller wheels, lighter and lower centre of gravity. The 300 odd bhp my Evora puts out, especially in the south of England where I live feels like enough to have fun, although, I’m obviously biased! I have realised I haven't taken many pictures of it recently, mainly because it needs a good clean and there are some aesthetics next on the list, more of which next time. In the meantime, here's one with the carbon hatch, which by the way, is featherlight, compared to the glass one!

With the exhaust question hanging, I reached out to the owner prior to the one I bought it from, he did the work and I have been in touch him with since I bought the car. The owner I bought it from only had it a year and was a Jag man, he has a mate who's pretty active on some of the Lotus forums and tends to buy cars, do a thread like this, (but where he does the work!) and then flogs them on. I think maybe he planned on doing the same but figured there was more to do than he thought at outset, albeit he didn't tell me that! Anyway, it was an interesting answer (over WhatsApp hence short sentences!) "it's one of the prototypes for the first Evora systems. Sport cats. Slightly larger bore than the normal system, Combined with a BOE Intake. And Komotek ECU Tune. So should be making 310-315bhp." He also confirmed the manifolds were done. He's been super helpful and it's great that they clearly have a lasting impact on those of us lucky enough to care for them for a period of time.

As you can imagine paying someone else to do this lot was not cheap, but there are many aspects of the car which are better finished now then when it left the factory and I have been working on trying to make the car futureproof in terms of reliability and being able to cope with a long range tour in a hot country. The one thing the car hasn’t had is a clutch and after some consideration I decided that the car shows no sign of clutch problems and the gearshift is good, so on this point, I followed the “it ain’t broke, so don’t fix it” mindset. Separately at a local car audio place I had the tweeters and main speakers upgraded, I think I may want to upgrade the Alpine unit, already an upgrade from the original one. The car had gone in December and I finally had it back in May. I was not in a rush and for me it had always been about taking our time to make sensible decisions with much of the work being collaborative; me supplying parts I felt were superior, or on numerous occasions, brining them in from the USA. What is it with better and cheaper parts being available from the USA for our cars that are made in Norfolk; madness! I know main dealers sometimes get a tough time but I found that Hendy were great to deal with; genuinely nice people who are true car enthusiasts with a problem-solving mindset, and were fair with their pricing too. On that positive note I will leave you until my next instalment which is mainly moving into non mechanical things.

Looking at my photos I don't seem to have taken too many of the back of the car. I think partly because the engine and gearbox are all good so other than the engine mounts there was less to do back there in some ways, or at least it didn't seem to look as transformational as some of the shiny new bits at the front! The bars that go across the engine as a brace (what are they called) were taken off and sprayed and lots of bolts, clips, piping, hoses and rubber etc replaced together with some of the shielding. There was nothing done to the exhaust but it came up when discussing the engine management light, in terms of do I have the 3rd cat delete system. The previous owner was in Scotland and had all the work done by Craig Moncreiff with the exhaust from Jim at 2bular and a Komotec map. I was a little worried how the exhaust would look having seen some of the rust, but it looks OK to me. Anyone able to tell me what system layout/type it is?

Me again, so now time for some pictures whilst the work was being done. I will start with the suspension, which now feels a little tighter and stiffer as I think I mentioned before but which I expect will free up a little. Everything else is running perfectly with the engine temps staying well controlled even when we had some hot weather and when stuck in traffic. You will see from the pictures lots of new shiny stainless steel bits including proper jubilee clips, so I suspect the car in some ways is better screwed together that when it left the factory. Enjoy the pictures, mainly of the suspension and front end. Will add some rear end pictures later.

Thanks for all the responses and top tips regarding the sensors. I expect Hendy know what it is as they've cleared it a few times, anyway, they weren't worried, so I'm not worried, just something to sort at some point. Thanks to those who've PM'd me regarding parts etc, really appreciate it. Thankfully most of the parts for our cars are straightforward, but if anyone wants to know where I imported any of the parts from, or got them made (air con pipes that Lotus couldn't supply) just let me know. Thanks

Hi EvoraBob, I’ve not done the clutch, decided against it in the end. I just couldn’t justify it when there was no sign it was needed. The car has just passed 50k miles. With the exhaust, I’m not 100% sure, it has a full 2bular system including manifolds, I think it has 3rd cat delete.

Right, back on topic: So, my last picture you have probably realised I ended up having classic mission creep. Whilst the car wasn’t all that bad underneath, and could have probably lasted a good while with most to the equipment (except the aircon), I decided to get on a do a pretty thorough job given the clams were off and it was winter time. I agreed a fixed price for labour with Hendy, and they were happy for me to supply upgraded parts or imported parts where I didn’t want OEM or wasn’t prepared to pay the OEM price. Here is a list of what I ended up having done: · Full suspension rebuild including new droplinks, OEM springs and dampers and anything else that was deemed worth doing · Some uprated suspension and roll bar bushings · New high capacity radiator (I hope to do some Euro trips so thought this might be sensible) · New air conditioning compressor, drier & pipes · All the grilles sandblasted and sprayed · The plastics at the front all blasted and sprayed · New engine mounts · New hoses and proper stainless steel jubilee clips all round · New stainless steel bolts, nuts etc all round · New brake hoses · New engine panel assembly – this had cracked since I bought the car strengthening the argument for the high capacity radiator · New sump (old one heavily rusted) · And lots of other parts shotblasted and painted · New speaker grills as the current ones were rusty · New battery · Full race clutch / brake fluid upgrade with the clutch pipe lagged · New nose badge and wheel centres · New TPMS Oh, and some tyres, Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric. As you can imagine that all added up. I'll let that sink in and post something later in the week when I have organised some pictures.

Hi there, I was looking at the Shell website on my phone earlier, well spotted on the 99 aspect Rambo. I must admit I have used it for a long time with numerous performance cars and never had an issue. Jep, I agree, I'd much rather see a car well used rather then tucked away in a collection never seeing the light of day. In my experience they have less problems when run regularly too. I'm prepping my Evora for a good many more years of use.

Interesting, it used to be 99, looking on their website now I see that they only mention the E5 aspect, I can’t see any mention of the octane level. I might try the Tesco and see how that goes. Thanks for the info.

Hi C8RKH, I'm lucky I live on central south coast, so not much snow or ice and higher ambient temperatures. I am also far enough from the sea that salt isn't an issue. I know a local guy who moved to Scotland for a period and was shocked how quickly thing deteriorated, so I guess it depends on your baseline as that's your comparator. As you say, it's Lotus being cheapskates on bolts and things mainly. Although I've never had an issue living here, I still did a complete nut and bold replacement on all the bits I could on my Elise as a preventative measure. It may well be the special map that's impacted my car then, as you say, or as someone else suggested, throttle bodies that need a clean or an O2 sensor. Of course, it could be a toxic combo of all three! I will see if I can get to the bottom of it at some point but it's not a priority at the moment as the car runs perfectly well. Interesting that you were told not to use V Power, do you know why that is? By the way, if anyone has a view on whether I should just chuck some of the things I've listed, e.g. the rusty springs and shocks, I'm happy to hear. Just trying to be helpful and I just don't know how salvageable those parts in particular are?