USAndretti42

Hello there, As far as I know, the Elise is reliable. Autocar and Evo magazines have run long-term tests on them and had no problems and got great fuel consumption, a vindication of Chapman's philosophy of lightness. By the way, this forum is for Espits not Elises but the Elise is a great car.

If the car is engineered by the team at Hethel, that's good enough for me. So many car parts come from so many countries in bigger and bigger assemblies that the country of the final assembly is getting almost irrelevant. Anything that keeps the company doing its stuff should be applauded.

Doesn't the Merak have the Citroen SM gearbox like a G-car?

You don't think they are Ferrari owners who want to know what owning a real supercar is like? Maybe they'll post comments, questions and info. to let us know.

This is a link to the topic (if it works) http://www.glcforum.com/ukesprit/forums/in...p?showtopic=749

James, there was a long discsussion about this on the forum from a few days ago under the heading Doh!

It's all a bloddy mess. Max Mosley was quoted as saying that F1 is a sport, not entertainment disguised as a sport. So why did they change Qualifying because it was boring, confusing and no-one watched it? Why make the teams choose their tyres so early in the weekend other than to make the race more entertaining? Michelin had other tyres which they wanted to fly out but had no data to show whether they were stronger or not. An extra practice session would have shown whether they were a fix or not. But, of course, in F1, the fan always comes last.

I'm pretty sure that the switch to Triumph front suspension parts happened with the introduction of the S3.

I've had a couple of visitors ask if mine was a DeLorean. Oh the shame of it!

I know most people can't wait for their 21st birthday but you've got the best reason ever. Congratulations and have fun!

I meant NASCAR not NASCAT, sorry.

3 people from work flew from California to Indianapolis (a trip which takes all day) for the race, 2 of them for the first time. They are all racing fans but I don't think any of them will be going again. Now the mud-slinging has started with the FIA calling the teams who did not race to a tribunal saying they were going to check the drivers' speed into turn 13 and warn those who were going too fast. Still it's not as bad as the C.A.R.T. race at Texas in 2001 when the cars did not run at all on raceday because the drivers were getting dizzy. Talks went on up to race time while they owners and C.A.R.T (same people really) discussed reducing boost and adding drag to slow the cars but it all came to naught. As an irony, OWRS, the successor to C.A.R.T. has offered to honour the Grand Prix tickets for admission to their race at Cleveland this summer. No wonder NASCAT does so well over here.

On my S2 the front sidelight/turn light in the bumper has 2 bulbs, one of which has a dual-filament. It seemed that one filament was used for the sidelight and the other was used to earth the whole assembly. I fitted an earth wire using eylets under the mounting screws which helped the indicator flash but does anyone know why there are effectively 3 lights in there?

The three relays in a row are the two headlamp motor relays and the changeover relay. The ones by the washer bottle are the horn and the cooling fan relays. There are 3 wires to each motor. One goes to the middle of a t-shaped switch as a feed. The switch consists of a brass strip in the end of the motor connecting to contacts a each end. When the lamp is down, one of these contacts is open and the other closed. So the feed goes to one side of the headlamp relay. When the relay is switched by the changeover relay, the current drives the motor until a cam on the end of the spindle rotates to move a peg under the brass strip to break the contact and stop the motor. Meanwhile, the other end of the brass strip can drop down ready for the relay to be switched the other way. Diodes on the wires coming from these contacts to the relays stop back feeds. So, if the headlamp relay is faulty, that could give you your problem. To work out which is the relay for the faulty motor, take out each relay in turn and see which two stop the good headlamp going up and down. The one that has no effect is the one for the faulty motor. Hope that helps.

The motor has a switch on the front to stop it running when it gets up or down, depending whether the lights are on or off. If the motor is in the right position, say up with the lights on, and the fuse blows, I would blame the loom, probably where it got trapped unless the switch has welded closed. I doubt this has happened as it carries only a low current and operates the relay. Also, try it with the horn relay removed to make sure it's not a fault on that circuit.

After neary a year of owneership I have finally driven my Esprit. Admittedly it was only on the driveway from the front of the garage down the side and back again and almost half of it was in reverse and it was dark but the important thing is it moved under its own power for the first time since 1997. I just had to tell someone and the family didn't seem impressed.

Is the car in the photos a Vegantune Evante? It used a modified Elan bodyshell and a Vegantune 16 valve engine and their own suspension, being built in the '80's, I think.

The engine has 4 mounts including the 2 supporting the gearbox. Are all these tight? I guess you jacked up the car to look underneath to check the mount. Where did you put the jack? Perhaps that took some load off the mount.

My S2 has a little spring thing whose job is to lift the tailgate when the lock is released but it doesn't. What happens is that the spring does not get compressed by the tailgate when it's closed. It just bends over. Because it bends over quite easily this does not give it enough pre-load to lift the tailgate. What supposed to stop the spring bending and get compressed only? I was thinking of drilling the lock so I could fit a pipe clamp over the spring to keep it in place. Any better ideas? There must be thousands.

Wow, Troy. What set that off. I agree with what you say. I can't style cars better than Giugiaro and I can't set up the suspension better than the Lotus engineers so I don't fiddle with the styling or suspension. If I can make my car more reliable, though, I do. BUT, if I did want to add spoilers or change the wheels and tyres, well it's my car and I can take the consequences, including people's complaints about the descration of their cars.

But the tell tale sign is the smell of fuel in the cabin if you are not getting that then you should be ok. Note that fuel smells in the cabin can be the "surgical" pipe that runs above the window to connect the two fuel tanks and often perishes letting fumes into the cabin. Don;t assume your fuel tank has a hole if you smell fuel in the car.

Glad to hear you can keep her. You would have had to go into rehab if Ms. Monaco had gone.

Thanks for the info, Doctor. Am I right in thinking that "pillock" is short for "pillar of the community" and use their influence or "plonker" so a good way to get into a club is to go to the guy on the door and compliment him with, "You are a real pillock. I wish you would pull my plonker." This always gets a friendly wave and preferential treatment, I'm told. Over in America, the Americans show how they have got over 9/11 by joking about it so, when you come through immigration, say to the official when he asks why you are coming to America, "I have come to blow up a few buildings and kill the president for my Al Queida friends." Guaranteed to help you through and make you popular.

You can't sell it. What about the 300 mile challenge? If you do sell it you'll have to deliver it to get the miles up.

I've been a member of the forum for a few weeks and only just noticed the "Newbies" section so I thought I would introduce myself. I moved to California 6 years ago and now, after having an Elan and a +2 in the sveventies and eighties, it was time to stop being between Lotuses. I didn't think an Elan was suitable with the roads here as they are in such bad shape they would shake the car apart (if it didn't get flattened by an SUV first). So I wanted a new, post kit car Lotus and a smart but non-running Esprit came up on Ebay at the right price a while back. I've now had the car for 9 months and I've not actually driven it yet! I think (hope) I'm near the end of the saga now and hope to be on the road next month. The only problem with this is that the last time I thought I was nearly done I then sat down and wrote 3 pages of jobs to be done in my note book so there may still be more to do than I think. I enjoy the forum and have found it a useful source of information checking it for new stuff about once a day. Anytime I can help, I will. Cheers for now.