mr50bmg

I am writing this in the final hours of my 32+ year Esprit ownership. I've been wanting to sell it these last few years. I'm almost giving it away with a very low price and tomorrow it will be done. I haven't been on this forum since 2015 and, even then I wasn't a frequent poster. This posting is a farewell to my Esprit as it moves on to a new life with a new owner and, not coincidentally, a farewell to my interest in sports and exotic cars. This is its story. I am the third owner of what is a RoW Lotus Turbo Esprit first sold in Belgium and destined for the Middle East. It was imported to the US by the second owner, from whom I bought it in 1991. When I bought it, I loved the shape Giugiaro had designed (still do). I was a member of the local Lotus club and my greatest desire was to take it on monthly drives with the club. Sadly, most of my memories with the car are those of disappointment. Club drives didn't happen very often and when they did, often it required leaving home at 7am on a Saturday morning to drive and be at the meetup spot at 8am. As a night-owl firmware engineer putting in 60+ hours a week, that drive schedule didn't work. On the few drives I did attend, a navigator was required in order to follow the map or scribbled directions to know where I needed to go. Some clubs, like our Jag club, are good with discipline to ensure cars don't get separated while going through city traffic ("always let the car behind you stay in sight") or our Triumph club which has a sweep car. In hindsight, I should've driven with those clubs in my Esprit - they had weekly drives. Later on, our club did have more frequent drives but it seemed that my car was always being worked on when a good drive was scheduled. I spared no expense to keep my Esprit in the best condition I could. At that time, any expense less than $10,000 was essentially of no concern to me. The shop had a few knowledgeable Lotus mechanics, but their specialty was another marque. After many years, they had more and more work and it was clear they didn't really want to work on my Esprit (usually carb tuning for emissions, regular maintenance, timing belt, etc.). Usually my car was at their shop for over a month, set aside. One mechanic clearly stated he didn't like working on the car. Even so, I kept it healthy and running; it had no issues. Yet, my bad luck in missing drives continued. In 1995 Lotus was the featured marque at Laguna Seca. A lot of people from our club were planning to drive our Lotuses there and stay for a week. I planned for this and got my car ready. On the morning of the drive to our club's meetup and departure point, I packed all my gear in the car, got in, pulled out the choke, put my foot on the throttle, and... the pedal fell to the floor. The throttle cable snapped just at the carbs and fell somewhere down between them. With neither a spare cable nor any time at all to try to do a repair, I was forced to drive my daily car to the event. I was really mad. Ten years later there was a similar Lotus event 1200 miles away. Only one other club member besides myself were driving to it - but that was better than going alone or not at all. At the event, at the first night's grand dinner, there was a little contest to determine who had driven the furthest. The drama built as the mileage threshold increased and participants dropped out. At 1200 miles, the contest was between me and one other driver. He beat me by 100 miles. The host stated that there used to be a time when you wouldn't want to drive your Lotus further than you could walk back home; he asked the winning driver what his Lotus was. I was curious what my 22-year old Esprit lost out to. It was a new, week-old, Lotus Elise. Right. I took my Esprit out on a few other drives in the following years, but by then it needed more maintenance. It needed a new timing belt, new tires, needed the carbs to be tuned and the valves adjusted. I also got a new proper flywheel for it, as the original had been shaved and it was too light. The tach stopped working and I got it fixed, but upon putting the tach back in somehow the shop got my wiring harness messed up and my telltale lights would not come on. I last drove the car in 2016. I got busy with work and the car sat in my garage till 2019 when I had it trailered to a different, much more distant shop, for the needed work. That shop also specializes in another marque, but the proprietor and head mechanic knows Esprits, has worked on them, and has a good reputation. Then the Covid craziness appeared, my mechanic's help disappeared, and the car sat with its engine and transmission out. So it has been there since 2020. Over the years I've had other sports cars and touring cars as well: a TR6, a Jag XJ6, an Audi S4, and a Porsche Cayman S. The Audi and Porsche were very nice. But I came to realize I wasn't enjoying them. There would be a nice warm sunny day and sometimes I'd feel it was more of an obligation and chore to drive the car alone up the freeway and back for 90 minutes when I'd much rather get into my daily car and just go to the coffee shop. With all the jerks today and their loud exhausts, bright lights, and braggadocio posturing, I realized that now I dislike sports cars. I never liked muscle cars. The two most enjoyable and satisfying cars I've ever owned and driven were small manual transmission economy cars (one a diesel!). I'd own them again today if they weren't so dwarfed by so many bigger vehicles driven by unaware impaired drivers. In the last few years I realized I didn't want to drive the Esprit nor own it any more. My time with it had come and gone. It is partially disassembled now, but the engine and transmission are fine. Getting it all back together, sorting possible unknown new issues, paying for that, and then looking for a buyer or selling on consignment is more than I wanted to deal with. I'm retired now and I can no longer say $10,000 is of no concern as I'd had in the past. I indicated to the shop I wanted to sell the car and was open to consider any offer no matter how low. I got an offer for the Esprit from a customer whose other car was in the shop and who saw my Esprit. It was a low offer, maybe laughable to others, but I accepted it. If the owner puts $10,000 into it, paying for labor already done and future labor, he will easily have a $20,000 to $30,000 car, if my understanding of current BaT prices are correct. So tomorrow my Esprit gets a new owner. May they both fare well.

I have several sports cars, but this year I've been driving my '85 XJ-6 SIII about four days per week. By the way, that's a three-legged cat.

Hello Nigel. You bring up an important point. Over the years I've attended and taken my Esprit to many exotic car shows and, while observing the usual Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, etc., one thought occurred to me: only enthusiasts buy Lotus. Sure, enthusiasts buy other marques as well, but one never really knows if that Ferrari or Porsche owner bought the car for its perceived investment value, for the badge and status, or whether he's an enthusiast. With Lotus, it's a fair bet he's an enthusiast that knows a bit about cars and driving. Also, we both share Cayman S ownership (mine's 2008). I was looking for another mid-engine car and felt I wasn't ready for an F355. When I heard the seductive sound of the Cayman's engine behind my head, I was sold. Yet, some things on the car are total crap and I've written to Porsche about them. 90% of all be electronic stuff in the cabin should be thrown out (thus saving weight). Don't know if this is true on yours, but having the battery inside an electrically controlled bonnet is stupid. If your battery is low enough (and three weeks non-driving can do that), you won't be able to start the car and you won't be able to pop the bonnet. Not only that, you won't be able to withdraw your key from the ignition. Diabolical! You'll need to recharge through the fuse box or lighter. In true fashion, what the Germans should have provided to pop the bonnet open is an explosive bolt mechanism. ... and the cheap plastic caps for the oil and the coolant tank that are stiff and nearly impossible to twist back on? Those are an embarrassment I wouldn't have expected to see on a Trabant. Fun car to drive, though. When this thread first started, I thought it was about the older Lotuses - I didn't realize Andy has an Evora. Well, in my experience here, all of the newer cars - Elise, Exige, Evora - have been very well received. On our many shows or road trips, I've never heard my fellow club members being asked by others about reliability. I think the general attitude is that the Elise/Exige embody the true spirit of what a Lotus is and it is a car Chapman would have loved. So, here at least, I think reliability questions are a relic of the past.

Returning to this forum after many years, I would like to add some perspective to this topic. First, in 1991, I bought a 1984 Turbo Esprit which I still have today. In addition to monthly drives of 50+ miles, I've taken many 300+ mile trips in it at least once a year and even a 2000 mile trip. Overall, in these last 24 years of my ownership, there hasn't been much anguish. Bad or poor maintenance by previous owners or unknowledgeable or uncaring mechanics have been the bane of many foreign cars. Also, in the 1950's through maybe the 1970's, many if not most Americans didn't realize European cars (especially British or Italian) weren't designed to run for 12 months with just oil changes for maintenance. A few years ago Hemmings wrote a story about a 900 mile trip in an Esprit and brought up all the tired clichés. I wrote to the author to complain, saying he did a disservice by perpetuating stories of issues that no longer exist. He replied back, essentially saying "well, that's the reputation they had, so I can repeat it." However, I do flinch a bit about the fit of the early Esprits (I can't speak for other Lotuses). A 1981 DeLorean has far better fit and finish than a pre-GM Esprit (an Elise owner in my club has a DeLorean, so I'm very familiar with them). So it is with other cars of the era such as the 911 and Ferrari 308. They looked more substantial and felt more substantial, even if an Esprit can beat them on the track. That feeling is what survives today. Lastly, I've owned an Audi S4 (2001) and now own a Cayman S. They are very good and extremely reliable cars. It does Lotus owners no good to hurl childish epithets at other marques.

Hello all, I need to get the tach repaired on my '84 Turbo Esprit; , can the tach be removed by taking the fascia screws off or does the whole binnacle need to come off? The parts and service manuals don't make this clear. Thanks! Dave -- Once you start using Windows, your brain has a half-life -- Every time a new Windows OS comes out, I feel like a stroke patient: I have to relearn everything. Yet, I have UNIX manuals from 1976 that are still correct today. New functionality should build upon an unchanging foundation.

Thanks - nice to know the Pertronix isn't the problem. So, can the tach be removed by taking the fascia screws off or does the whole binnacle need to come off? The parts and service manuals don't make this clear. Dave -- Once you start using Windows, your brain has a half-life -- Every time a new Windows OS comes out, I feel like a stroke patient: I have to relearn everything. Yet, I have UNIX manuals from 1976 that are still correct today. New functionality should build upon an unchanging foundation.

Hello all, A while back, my '84 Turbo Esprit came to a halt with what was diagnosed as a bad coil. Possibly the electronic ignition module was also bad. I agreed to have this, along with the distributor bits, replaced by a Pertronix system (though, in the interests of originality, I might consider going back if parts are available). Anyway, the car runs but the tach is dead. Occasionally it will swing wildly between 0 and 2k. Maybe the tach died when the coil did or maybe it doesn't work with Pertronix? I really need the tach to work. Can it be removed by taking the fascia screws off or does the whole binnacle need to come off? The parts and service manuals don't make this clear. Thanks! Dave -- Once you start using Windows, your brain has a half-life. -- Every time a new Windows OS comes out, I feel like a stroke patient: I have to relearn everything. Yet, I have UNIX manuals from 1976 that are still correct today. New functionality should build upon an unchanging foundation.

This information is excellent! Thank you Jon and Steve! I do have the manual on order, however it will take three weeks to arrive. Thank you again, -Dave

Thanks for the replies, everyone. This is what has me and the mechanics baffled. They've tuned the car before and adjusted the carburettors, so they have the experience. Yet, before the floats sank the car was running fine. I didn't know my car had an HEI module, I thought is was just ordinary points. Anyway, the symptoms that I had that required me to bring it in were rough running at low RPM (under 2000) and an occasional odd sensation of power cutting out very briefly while just cruising along. I could've lived with that for a while, but I had to bring the car in anyway so they could insure it would pass emissions. -Dave

How many cars were needed for Group B homologation? -Dave, wishing I had one of the Audis

Nice fix, Peter. On a somewhat related note, many years ago I retrieved my car from my mechanic and started to leave. Noticing that the fuel gauge was reading surprisingly full, I asked whether they'd put gas in it. No. That was strange, but I drove off anyway. Minutes later, I noticed the temp gauge reading high. After getting scared, shutting the car off, checking things, and then restarting, both gauges read normal. Then, on a later date, after about 30 minutes of driving I noticed the same phenomenon: I look at the temp gauge, get scared because it's reading high, then also notice it tells me I've got a full tank when I know I've got much less. My "regulator" has since been fixed, but it's good to know there is this electrical interaction. If you're ever in doubt about your temp gauge, you can always stop, pop the hatch, and listen whether the coolant tank is sizzling or whether coolant is coming out the overflow hose. -Dave

I already have the shop manual for my 1984 Esprit, but I've been told there is a "parts manual" that goes into significantly more detail, hopefully providing part numbers and sizes for my Dellorto carburettor jets. My car has been in the shop since June 2nd, where they've been trying to diagnose what's going on with my carburettors. This is a shop that has done great work for me in the past and has been able to tune the engine and carburettors before without problems. What is happening now is that back in late May, my car was running very rough. So, the first thing my mechanic discovered is that both floats had sunk and couldn't be repaired. It took about three weeks to get the floats because parts suppliers here either claimed that didn't have them or promised to send them but never did. Anyway, he decided to order them from the UK and the floats arrived in July. The time between July and now has been taken up with them tracking down intake leaks and fixing those. What seems to happen now is that at midrange RPMs the engine tends to surge and go lean. They have my shop manual (in addition to their own), but neither have the details on what size jets to use and the part numbers; they feel that somehow the jetting is wrong, even though they've been working on the car almost on a yearly basis for well over 10 years. So, what could've changed? With new floats and a new distributor, it should be as good as new. We're hoping the parts manual will have the needed information to confirm whether the jets are correct or not. Thanks in advance! -Dave

Stunning, Tony. That one's worthy of the Lotus museum. The video was well done - very professional. regards, -Dave

Very good - it's a Lamborghini LP560-4. The eGear on this car is outstanding! regards, -Dave

Much more horsepressure than an R8 or GT-R. Also faster, and more expensive. Sorry for the ratty photo - it's a frame from my low-res video.