EspritMiltonKeynes

Thanks for tips guys, I might try pursuing the CCTV route, just out of interest - but I imagine I'll get something along the lines of: 'we can't show it to you 'cause of data protection' or 'we can't retrieve the CCTV videos because they're held by an off-site agency', or 'we'll release them to the police' or something of that nature... I'll give it a go though - see what happens! I could have been a trolley, but it's so low down height-wise... it's almost as if someone would have to stoop to even key it. There's a paint guy not far from me - I'll see what he says about it, or failing that I'll get back in touch with the place I had the respray.

It's been moved to this weekend! And I'm probably going down tomorrow. Pete (PNM Engineering) is going to be there. Is there any chance of getting on the circuit tomorrow? And if so, who do I get in touch with? Thanks!

It could be something to do with that... I'd understand if I'd parked it on a council estate at school-chucking out time, but in Malton late morning in a Sainsbury's car park??? It's kind of... well, bizarre. Perhaps the riots have given all would-be vandals around the country a new sense of confidence?

1986 Porsche 944 Lux 1988 Toyota MR2 T-bar 1990 Lotus Esprit SE 2001 Ford Mondeo TDi 2002 Peugeot 607 HDi 1993 Lotus Esprit S4 A friend's dad I know has had over 140 BMWs, he averages about 6-9 a year, and tends to keep at least 3 going at a time. The good thing though is that he actually drives them all, and also has perchant for vintages - he's currently got a 1905 Wolseley and a 1915 Napier.

Title says it all really... happened in this Sainsbury's car park earlier today between 1050am and 1140am in Malton, North Yorkshire... quite a nice town, quite a nice area tbh... just shows I guess. I'm guessing there'll be no point in claiming off the insurance, especially with the excess and price hike for next year?

That is brilliant (if it's not a wind-up)!

Disaster! Got mega-car problems now - booked into PNM Engineering for 20th April. Won't now be able to make it tomorrow unfortunately. Really dissapointed but hopefully on the next time! 1 & 2 Brian & Jackie (including munchies) 3 & 4 Mark and Jane (including munchies) Unable to attend 3 & 4 Allan & Debbie (including munchies) 5 & 6 Gordon & Linda � Preliminary yes� will depend on timings - Will need to confirm later Unable to attend due to illness 5 & 6 Derek & Karen - Provisionally, subject to running in being done, and dog sitters! 7 & 8 Euan & ???? 9 & 10 Andrew C & ??? 11& 12 Mike & Georgia (including munchies) 13 & 14 James & Vanessa (including munchies) 15 Gazoo (including munchies)

Count me in for the Cafraemill Hotel meal at 4.30pm! All sounds good 1 & 2 Brian & Jackie (including munchies) 3 & 4 Mark and Jane (including munchies) Unable to attend 3 & 4 Allan & Debbie (including munchies) 5 & 6 Gordon & Linda � Preliminary yes� will depend on timings - Will need to confirm later Unable to attend due to illness 5 & 6 Derek & Karen - Provisionally, subject to running in being done, and dog sitters! 7 & 8 Euan & ???? 9 & 10 Andrew C & ??? 11& 12 Mike & Georgia (including munchies) 13 & 14 James & Vanessa (including munchies)

Well.. the Ferrari inpection didn't come back too favourably, and I haven't been able to convince the seller of his car's failings. He is living in Dreamland of course - but it was worth a shot. I'm £600 down, but it's the best £30k I never spent as I keep telling myself - so the search continues... Anthony, you should get the Evora if you can... Can your daughter not get a graduate loan (different to a student loan), and available to people doing medicine/law/etc - I know when I was at medical school I was offered one but didn't take it - the rates weren't bad

For me the switch is more about comfort, and the practicality of being able to take 3 friends for a ride rather than 1. I'll take the hit with the servicing - it will be more; but the F456's engine is a tuned down version of the F550's and so consequently even if you floor it - it's still only operating at about 90% capacity - this pays dividend in the sense that it is never over-stressed - and so often the servicing isn't that bad anyway. As for me - I'm a self confessed lamo with mechanics so the Esprit's DIY prospects were never much help to me. Road tax in the UK - £245 a year compared to £205 with the Esprit - not much of an increase. [pre emissions laws cars get away with a hell of a lot!]. 17mpg is more the downside than the tax front. As for my music choice... don't ask! But the group's quite popular in Germany so I believe. The text is a live feed from the i-pod and the top line is the artist, the middle - the song title, and the bottom - the album it came from. 'Maybe this Maybe is Gone' doesn't make much sense in English let alone across languages! - but I guess it's a declaration about going indecisiveness and becoming resolved in your mind. And 'Time is the Reaper' is a metaphor for saying something like 'we're all gonna die eventually so you may as well get on and do whatever it is you're thinking about doing'. By the way Gunter - couldn't help noticing you're in Potsdam, I'm in Berlin this week - arriving tonight so if you fancy a or if you have any tips on where to go in the evenings for a quiet drink around Chausseestraß that would be great! Oh and the JVC's model number is KD AVX-44, and it's brilliant! :-)

http://caraudiosecurity.com/ in West London They're a good bunch - and work quickly. :-)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be selling my Esprit soon! It's not a sad day, although I will miss it - but after nearly two years of owning this great car it's time for a change. THE REASONING This is my second red Esprit, and although it still thrills me every time I drive it, it's time I think to get a sportscar that is more suited to long distance touring and the wet Scottish weather - and hence one that I will be able to drive more often! A few days ago I ordered a £600 inspection on a Ferrari 456, and all being well - sometime in the next week or so if the results come back favourably, I'll buy it. The money's ready and waiting and I'm not needing to sell the Esprit to finance the purchase - but it's pointless owning 3 cars in the longterm (I have a daily drive as well). I will come back to Lotus, hopefully in 2012 when the new Esprit is released! THE HISTORY I got this car through this forum, the last owner before me being our own moderator Anthony Kimberley (Kimbers) - son of the Lotus CEO. He looked after it impeccably, servicing it at the Lotus factory, and bringing it to meets - it's a well known vehicle on here having appeared with the Anglian Esprit Group and at the annual Oxford meets. It is an early edition S4 from October 1993, registration L816PCL made on the same day, (and two cars behind on the production line) as the top gear S4 - L813 PCL, as driven by Clarkson. During my ownership I've had the leather interior recovered (which wasn't cheap!), and about £800 worth of sound system installed (providing DAB digital radio, MP3/USB/i-Pod playability and the usual CD, AM/FM radio), with a colour touchscreen display and 4 new speakers - you could say it's pretty pimped! But the headunit appears as a very inobtrusive single-DIN plain black fascia - which I like as it isn't a button-fest, nor does it look too out of place in the simple interior. My philosophy whilst owning this car has always been to try as best as possible to keep things 'original-looking' - even if they're not original! I got a single-exit stainless steel sports exhaust added in 2009, and took the opportunity to de-cat it as well - but this is about as far into modification as I've gone, nothing which isn't easily reversible, and I've still got the cat for MOT tests. I've had it serviced at PNM Engineering and Murray Lotus (the Lotus Main Dealers in Edinburgh), and other than a seized back-pressure valve one Christmas, and a wire going to the starter motor falling out on an autumn drive - it's never let me down. At the moment I'm getting all the seals, drops, and frames replaced in both electric windows - it's costing over £500 but I hate that juddering you get, and even though I may not own this car for much longer it'll be nice to have everything working perfectly in my last weeks with it. Other works that I've had done are new fuel breather hoses, new brake pads, the discs skimmed, calipers reconditioned, new power steering hose, chargecooler pump impeller replace, a C-service with cam belts in Easter '09, and some minor aesthetic stuff like getting the electric wing mirrors working again and putting new pedal grips on the pedals! COPING WITH SAYING GOODBYE! It's been a fun journey - and I haven't been taking this decision lightly. It's been a decision process of nearly 6 months. If I had just a little bit more free time on my hands I might consider keeping it - but since Oct '08 when I got it, it's only been driven 6,000 miles! And it will get even less attention now with the new arrival. I haven't put up any adverts yet, but I will do soon, and I'm not expecting it to sell it immediately so unless someone takes it straight away I will probably go through a 'slow-break up and grieving process' with the car - which will probably involve a drive down to the south of France and back over Easter! If it goes before then - I'll just do the same in the Ferrari! It's been a great ride! But it's time to move over - and let someone else take this car on. I would of course love to see it stay in the forum.

does gasket paper expand at the same rate as the aluminium body of the engine when it heats up? - I've no idea... Is hylomar the recommended brand of liquid gasket by Lotus?

Hmmm... sounds interesting Pete, Unfortunately I'm a bit of lamo with serious mechanics and if I was ever let loose with a mig or tig welder I'd probably either electrocute myself and/or make a right dog's dinner of all the joins etc... I'm tempted by the blue flame options - it's certainly nice that they let you 'choose' your sound and tailor make everything to suit you. I presume you can just order something like that and get it delivered for

Yeah Murray Lotus sorted it all out. Leaks all stopped now - they replaced 2 O-rings and sprayed a load of white stuff all over the engine bay to spot any further leaks. After an extended test-drive (150miles) over the weekend with their 'Head of IT', they then tested ECU - couldn't find any problems. But did clean out carbon-dust from stepper motor, which was caked up apparently. Changed electric mirror switch and relubricated electric window motors as well - and they're both now working as well.

I know you can go totally mad with exhaust systems and get cat-bypass pipes etc, etc.. But let's say you wanted to stay fairly traditional and just get something that looks pretty standard - and get someone to fit it? How much should it cost? And what should I really be getting, I'm not wanting to sound or look like a boy racer, but is it worth going for a fully stainless steel option for corrosion resistance? Or is the sound actually better from more corrodable mild steel options?

Just checked mine into Murray Lotus for the 1st time - so hoping for good results. Sounds like they're a good bunch... Craig's certainly very thorough on the customer service front - getting it back on the 4th June so will let you know the damage... I mean results!

Err.. think it's the latter - I seem to remember 'cam tower' being mentioned by the last mechanic to see it. It's now with Murray Lotus to have a few other things done to it as well - so they're going to sort whatever it is out. Will let you know the results!

1. 2003 V8 (bingoking) 2. 1985 Turbo Esprit (Alan Head) 3. 1986 Turbo Esprit (Stephen Whyte) 4. 1982 Esprit S3 (Scott Gibb) 5. 2000 V8 (Tom Blackwood) 6. 2001 V8-GT (Mark Rigby) 7. 1982 S3 Turbo (Les y) 8. 1979 Esprit S2 (Mike McBain) 9. 2000 V8 (Buchanan Blake) 10. 1993 Esprit S4 (James Paul)

That is exactly how my spark plug wells looked at christmas when the back pressure valve had ceased-up. This is all starting to add up now..

I recently had the car in at the Scottish Lotus Cars Centre to attend to a small oil leak that was dripping from the rearward most bit of the engine onto the bit of the manifold where the 4 pipes converge into one, very close to the turbo. It's not a serious drip by any means, and the dipstick levels are virtually unchanged. But it did cause a hell of a stink and copious amounts of smoke as each night's leakage was burnt-off shortly after start-up. SO: They changed the gaskets, (the liquid gasket?) and struggled enormously with a ceased nut which had to be drilled out in the end. Apparently many many hours of labour were involved - but only 3 were charged for. The total bill came to (what I think) is a very reasonable price of ~

Same here... any of the next 4 weekends should be fine, but this one I'm unfortunately away on. have fun all the same! Hope to meet you on the next!

It's funny... but I remember thinking that this might happen a few months ago. They fill an odd niche. I remember Clarkson saying the only people who'd ever buy saabs were dentists and architects. The funny thing is the only person I now know with one is actually an architect! (and he hates clarkson, and typically isn't interested in cars). They've always done things a bit differently, under-stated power, the 'night pannel' button, cruise control on the indicator stalks, lots of mid-band torque, turbo's in almost every engine and a design that's been essentially the same for years.... I've always thought saab should've taken a shot at the luxury market, do 'Saab 97' to rival the BMW 7, Merc S and Audi A8s... VW and Citroen have had a go recently and it now it looks like it'll never happen. It'll be a sad day if they go to the wall, one of my first cars was a 9-3 automatic... in some ways they don't deserve to go bust, but they were over-priced for what they were, and with limited 'snob value' you can only get away with that sort of thing for so long.

unbelievable! fantastic story....

On the subject of plummeting Merc prices: has anyone seen this??? Is this for real?? [url=http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/MERCEDES-BENZ+CLS/Ne-2-4-5-6-7-8-27-44-49-53-61-64-67-103-133-146-236,N-240-4294966985-4294967262/advert.action?R=200905327997861&distance=87&postcode=hx62nj&channel=CARS&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&model=CLS&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage=&vehicleYearOfManufacture=2006&vehicleRegLetter=]'06 Merc CLS Class 11,000miles -