Nelly

My rear light surrounds also went milky, so I took them off and painted them black. Also changed the LOTUS lettering to black and it looks so much better. My car is white so it was an easy decision. I damaged my sail panel annoyingly, £400 for a new one. The old one had already been repaired at some point in its life.

I can see what they mean - I re-used mine, its not perfect but its a lot better and acceptable. I also now have a sunscreen for the inside of the window as I don't want to be doing it again anytime soon.

I did indeed. Please forgive me! If I can do it though, anyone can, and your hands will stay pretty clean on this one

I did mine a couple of years back, its great fun. Seriously, I also used a guide on one of the other sites (I think it was Lotus Talk but certainly a USA site) which details how all the trim is removed. You can leave the steering wheel in place as long as you are careful. Make sure you disconnect the battery as the passenger airbag module has to come out.

Your second paragraph is spot on @Francisco Franco. Its taken furlough for me to get back on top of mine and as well as the time its inevitably cost some money. Being able to do the work yourself is a massive bonus, and I have had a crack at it but struggled, but thankfully had some local help to get me through. My guess is the car was purchased in 2012/2013 so values will have gone up in that time which helps when you are investing in a project, assuming you have the funds to do so . I think what has said been before stands - if you are not fully committed to the car, either financially or emotionally, you should move it on. It seems as though enough time has been wasted and in my experience that.s the worst thing you can do - when you come back to pick up the pieces, something else will also need attention. I feel for you on the work situation, I had a similar scare last year and if that had come to pass my Esprit would probably have had to go. That may ultimately make your decision. Like I said earlier, good luck whatever you do.

OK, here is an update on my situation which I hope is helpful for anyone else who comes across this thread. My 2010 NA (same as the original poster) had the old hose taken off yesterday - it was indeed the rubber version. The garage doing the work (Purbeck Sports Cars) have confirmed to me today that the rubber had gone hard, and would eventually perish so he thought it was an upgrade well worth doing. They had never come across this issue before, but with it only now affecting the older cars its probably not surprising. As mentioned on earlier posts it has to be done through the access hatch behind the rear seat on the driver side (on RH drive cars),. The initial fitting of the new hose did have a slight weep, likely down to the fact the new hose is rigid whereas the old was flexible being rubber so its having to be re-done with some sealant on the gaskets - something to be aware of if you are doing the work yourself. If anyone has a 10/11 year old car I would definitely suggest thinking about doing this, as mentioned earlier in the thread Toyota have identified this on their cars but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to have entered the Lotus domain. I am very grateful to Gordon @rabidh for highlighting the issue, I am planning to keep my car long term so its likely I would have had the same problem.

My Evora lives on the drive, albeit under a car port. The Esprit is in the garage, its the smaller of the two, least used and "more valuable" even if the Evora is worth more - if you see what I mean. The guy who owned the Evora before me also kept it on his drive, so that kinda helped me although I was a bit apprehensive about it. My company car blocks it at night. Only you will know what your area is like but don't let it put you off, get a car cover for it and you should be fine.

Appreciate Ken sold you the car, just relaying my memory and sure the car was already at the dealer when Ken started there - not that that is any excuse for anything bad which happened. To reinforce my recommendations, Cos at Sportomotive and Dave at Esprit Engineering used to run the garage at what was Haydon Lotus in Salisbury who were Lotus dealer for this area when the S4S would have been new. They know Esprits.

Just read this thread, and gone through the original 14 page thread linked above (which didn't actually take that long, there was an awful lot of filler). Weirdly, I think I was down at Snow's on the Saturday morning the S4S had just been dropped off - certainly a blue later Esprit. I reckon it was when Chris was running the Lotus side who Ken took over from, so the car had been at the dealer longer than he had. It was dirty and needed a damn good valet, and did have an air of being uncared for now I think about it (the rear shelves by the quarter windows had leaves in, god knows why I remember that detail). As someone who bought an Esprit and spent a lot of money on it since, I feel your pain but I went into mine knowing it was going to need this and know several people in the same boat. You never find out fully until you enter ownership. Going back to Snow's, they did do a basic repair on my S2 Esprit but other than that I personally (just my opinion) wouldn't let them work on an earlier car - you have to remember they were not a Lotus dealer until recently and have no experience of the older cars, being Lotus trained on anything with a Toyota engine. Despite living 5 miles from them, I still took my K series Elise to Sportomotive for that reason (and as a bonus they were cheaper). Obviously it was difficult in that they supplied this car and although I would have insisted they look at it, the above would always have been in the back of my mind. Best of luck whatever you decide to do. I would echo Esprit Engineering or Cos at Sportomotive in Bournemouth if you are willing to come this far.

This is a great video, seen it a year or so ago - like the Thames archives. Having just re-read this thread, my feeling was the image posted by Pheonix which was commented that it looks like a model had come from this video.

Its funny regarding the black pack, for me the Evora is very colour dependent on the need to apply it. I think the yellow car is crying out for it, but the liquid blue car should definitely stay without, especially with silver wheels. And yes the liquid blue car, as lovely as it is, is very much overpriced and would have been a couple of years ago when entry level was around £28k.

Thanks @KennyN, fuel is only a matter of weeks old, filled the car up in May, I noticed a problem on a post lockdown run but it seemed to sort itself out and assumed it was where it had been sat, so didn't pay it much thought until last week. The car goes in for a service next week thankfully, so good timing in one way and it has now got the engine light on so assume there will be an error code to check. Its doing it on start up tickover, so affecting whatever temperature the car is at.

15th and same place good for me too. I am seeing Pete on Saturday so will give him the heads up 😀. I now have a poorly Evora, it is running rough and I only noticed on the way home, but have noticed it before but its doing it more now. Did anyone notice it sounding funny when I arrived or left last week? All being well I will bring the Esprit!

Echo the above, great to finally do a meet in the nice weather. Paul beat me to it on the pics but here is one of mine:

Good with me! Hate missing the meets when the evenings are light.

No idea on any MY update, but given my car is the same age and variant as the original poster, and with the service due it was a no brainer for me to do this. If by chance my car does have the metal hose already in place I will report back and make the parts available for sale.

Picked up my parts today - ordered Monday, were in the dealer on Thursday. The pipe and both gaskets were £135.40 including the VAT. Car is being serviced in a couple of weeks, will be interesting to see the condition of the old pipe - I will post a photo of it with a condition reports once its been replaced if anyone would like to see it?

Where I think the BLM protest went wrong is on trying to change the past. Their focus should only be on changing the future. The whole thing with the Churchill statue is what angered me - he may have been racist (but that generation generally were, through ignorance if nothing else) but defacing the PM who steered us through the war and gave them the freedom to protest is unacceptable. I had never heard of the guy who's statue was thrown in the harbour, I am damn sure a lot of those cheering had no clue who he was or what he did either. Certainly judging by the football yesterday they have succeeded, the message was everywhere. Lets hope things calm down.

I am still furloughed so any time good with me. Will have to be the Evora though, I fix one problem on the Esprit and another surfaces. Now I have very little clutch, have a new mater and a slave cylinder arriving tomorrow.

BBC 1 currently has a programme on called "Sitting in LImbo", about a Windrush man wrongly detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation, Either very unfortunate scheduling or someone at the BBC is having a laugh.

This has been on my mind for a while and decided it was time to share and see what you guys all think. The very reason I am on this forum typing this is because of a car in a film, a white Esprit, but being born in 1972 my childhood was full of films and TV programmes with cars, and more often than not I had the Corgi version to play with as a child. On TV there was The Professionals, The Sweeney, Magnum PI, The Saint, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice and the big screen had numerous Bond films, Mad Max, Bullitt , The Italian Job, Vanishing Point and Smokey and the Bandit to name but a few.. Basically, there used to be numerous shows and films which had cars integral to them, and I count a lot of them as favourites. I have an early Esprit as a result and there are a couple of other cars from the above list I would get if space and funds allowed, its not as though all of them were exotics - some were fairly hum drum and obtainable. Why don't we see this anymore? Is it un-PC (speeding and the environment), a bit old fashioned, or is it that there are no cars being built which are charismatic enough to pull off what the cars of the 70's and 80's did.? Who wouldn't want to see an Evora, Elise, an Alfa 4C/Guilia or a Toyota GT86 tearing round as part of a TV cop show? BTW I don't think the Evora in Emmerdale counts! James Bond is keeping the Cinema car content ticking over, but even then the older Aston's seem to be taking more centre stage, particularly the DB5. A few notable films such as Ronn pop up now and again but they are pretty rare. I also read that teenagers have less interest in cars these days, and I think some of this is down to the lack of interesting/desirable mainstream cars and the fact you never see any in staring roles on TV and in films. The only exception to this is the Fast & Furious series, which is not my thing but I think it sort of backs the above up in that the Jap cars and modifying scene are popular with younger drivers. Super/hyper cars are always going to be lusted after but I believe that if the younger generation are not getting into cars like I did its because of a combination of not seeing them star in TV and films and the fact that there isn't much mainstream stuff you would want to see anyway, Would be interested to hear anyone's thoughts and what they loved when growing up and why? Oh, and if a Mod is reading this please can they move it to the general forum?

Hi Carl, good cars don't hang around! I spent over a year looking before I got mine - don't let that put you off, I nearly got one earlier but the vibe just wasn't there so I didn't commit. Paid a little more for the car I finally ended up with, but pleased I waited. If you don't like the paprika leather, best move on - loads of white cars had black interiors. Get yourself into a position ready to buy, if you need to move a car on first chances are any potential purchase will have gone by the time you have sorted your circumstances. Otherwise, enjoy the test drives and good luck.

The silver S2 which sold recently (Dave referred to on one of his earlier posts) is now subject to a restoration blog. Stumbled upon this today:

Just seen Dean's garage update on the new car, congrats! Something really nice about early S2 cars - road/seat/arse as someone once said. Done a couple of cosmetic jobs on the Evora whilst I have been off, and finally sorted the gearbox leak on the Esprit so that's all back together and running - took it for a small run yesterday, although its not running great but I suspect that's mainly down to lack of use. Was going to do an oil change, but once again it defeated me - couldn't shift the sump bolt and was starting to round off the head of the bolt. I have got a new one on order along with a 6 point socket rather than the usual 12 point sockets. I think the "C" word was invented for two things - wasps and my Esprit! All being well it will be coming to the next meet, would be great if we can do one with the weather at its best - could we meet somewhere and everyone brings their own refreshments?