Sunroof Original Patent Design

[stephenwhyte]

I moved into a new house at the start of Feb and took redelivery this morning of the Esprit, back from where it was in storage. As the car was rolling off the trailer my very keen neighbour stepped forward and started a very interesting conversation. 
He starts off by telling me he hasn’t seen one of these for years and always loved them. He then tells me he used to be friendly with a guy who had one from new. When this guy ordered new from the factory he asked if they came with a sunroof option, upon which he was told no, this wasn’t an option at the time.
This guy was apparently an Engineer to trade (name to follow hopefully once Ian my neighbour does a bit of memory jogging!) and took it upon himself to design a sunroof solution.....it was nothing other than apparently the design that Lotus then adopted when incorporating into their following Esprit models from around 1984.
Apparently a true story - would love to hear from someone who could corroborate the story?

Never fails to amaze me how respected Lotus cars are - but how few there are out there.....

Mine now safely tucked back up where I can keep an eye on it😉

[Bibs]

I would think that if anyone would know, it's likely to be @brian_gt4 

[stephenwhyte]

6 minutes ago, Bibs said:

I would think that if anyone would know, it's likely to be @brian_gt4 

Yeah thought that too - just wasn’t sure if he still looked in. Hopefully he’ll come on and tell us if he knows anything. I was quite fascinated when I heard the story.....just hope it turns out to be true. The guy was from Motherwell.