psteinb

gday jack

you mean you'll be there in "Espirit" here are the 2 samples: OR

Hi again Rob, I was wondering if the Lotus badge on the front of your car is black/white or green/yellow. regards Paul

i still can't send a private message to you - you should fix that... i'm considering moving to israel, and because i can't take my esprit with me (R-H drive not allowed), i thought an idea would be to 'drop' it in Malta, and i could fly there once in a while to drive. strange idea i know, but anything is possible...! paul

I took my 1980 Turbo Esprit on the track here in Melbourne - Calder Park. It was AWESOME. I had a great day, did about 30 laps altogether. Got it up to about 180km/h on pit straight. Full racing gear and helmet. Cost about $250 for the day - quite reasonable. My new tyres cooked a little but did well. The most important I learnt: Don't start 'pushing' your car until you've done 2-3 slow laps... Your tires MUST be HOT. http://picasaweb.google.com/steinbergpicasa/LotusAtCalderParkRaceway#5476198128579366370

Background The Essex was the first release of the Turbo Esprit and was the primary Turbo Esprit model being maketed by Lotus during the Bond movie release. For reference, I own the first white Turbo Esprit off the assembly line in 1980. Here are 2 crucial links to the Essex and Bond... 1. The intention of using the Turbo Esprit in For Your Eyes Only was that it co-incided with the release of the Turbo Esprit from Lotus in 1980/1981. Much of the marketing and hype surrounding the release of the movie was based around the Turbo Esprit - an example of which is in the picture below. It is important to remember that the Essex was the first edition of the Turbo Esprit being hyped by Lotus at the time, even though it failed to garner sales that the factory would have liked. (Essex was an oil company that I believe was embroiled in very public legal action at the time over an oil spill they were involved with - hence leading to a bad public reputation with any brand 'Essex' related. Not good timing for Lotus). 2. As we're aware, the Essex was the first release of the 'new' Turbo Esprit and was meant to be a run of 100 beginning in 1980. However, when there wasn't enough demand Lotus simply churned out Turbo's in regular colours, as per customer requests. Hence, my white Esprit was made during the 'run' of Essex Esprit's in mid/late 1980, and it has ALL the same features as the Essex bar the paint job. Also, another Forum member 'Per' owns the Esprit built just before mine (in black) and it TOO has all Essex features bar the paint job. In 1980 only 57 Turbos were produced. For many years my car would easily have been referred to as an Essex model by the factory and connoisseurs. And there has been much debate over the years as to whether car's such as mine and Per's and others like them should be classified as 'Essex' cars. The general points of confusion were that car's like mine and Per's had the same features of the Essex (e.g. roof radio and A/C) and also, interestingly, they were also released out of the factory with the Essex sticker decal on the side near the petrol cap! Ultimately, it had to be decided by the factory many years later, that despite having all the features of the Essex, they were NOT Essex cars as they did not have the blue paint job. However, it is fair and reasonable to say that they are 'de facto' Essex cars, as the primary intention of our cars was to be produced with Essex colouring - but obviously limited due to customer demand. So i hope this helps to clarify how the Essex and Bond are closely related.

i'm intrigued... tell me how you manage to keep a lotus in malta and where you drive it? any racetracks? are there any other lotus's in malta? (i've been trying to send you a message, but it seems you haven't got your settings correct.) regards paul

no. (come back in 5-10 years when you have expendable income and no kids, or in 30 years after raising your children) nice thought - but no.

I used to have a smell of petrol inside my cockpit (and outside too). All the breather hoses were replaced, and i thought the engine mixture was too rich, or that the choke was getting stuck.Then about 3 months ago i opened the engine cover after going for a half-hour drive and found petrol dripping from the cover (above the carburettor)! So i immediately had it towed to my mechanic and he replaced all the fibre washers in the carburettor connections... PROBLEM SOLVED and no more petrol fumes too. Lesson for the day: a. Don't ignore petrol fumes. b. Carry a fire-extinguisher. Regards Paul

Kimbers - you are wrong Bibs - you are right I own the first white turbo esprit off the assembly line in 1980 and it has some Essex features fitted as standard (at the time) - i.e. roof stereo & AC. So there. Regards Paul.

it sounds to me like most of the answers given in this topic were based mostly on highway driving, whereas my usage was at least 50% city driving, thereby significantly reducing my efficiency. my assumption therefore is that if i take it out on a highway run my efficiency will increase significantly and put it somewhere inline with what everyone else reports e.g. >20MPG ... I'll give that a test run soon and let you know. Until then Rich, don't get your knickers in a knot. (also one reason i was relieved with 14LP100k is because at the beginning of this topic i thought i was at 30-40LP100k!) One more thing - about 3 months ago i opened the engine bay after a 10km run and there was petrol dripping from the lid. GREAT. I immediately took it to my mechanic Steve at the elan factory and he changed all the seals in the carbs - problem solved, and the car doesn't have the same smell of petrol fumes anymore (and now i carry a fire extinguisher too!). So my fuel economy has been getting better and better and better over the last few months.

I've just completed a new test run over ~200km city/highway driving and I can now say that my petrol efficiency is now a fairly accurate 14.7L p/100km 16 MPG So I'm pretty happy. I just need my odometer rectified so it shows me my km's travelled more accurately. Thanks for everyone's input. I look forward to seeing more people submitting their vote...

Very nice - congratulations. I also took a couple of years to find my car... similar to yours. Good luck with getting it fixed up!