Lotus Number 9 - the Evora Launch Edition Refresh thread

[Ahmad B]

On 22/08/2021 at 16:14, Daveb99 said:

Heat shield “Chimney” ducting - this was very tired with the usual paint flaking off, so I replaced it was an OEM one.

 

Can you please provide me with the link to where to buy this? I need to replace mine soon..

 

[Daveb99]

Sure, I bought mine from Deroure (Bell & Colvill) online..

[Daveb99]

It has been a quiet 3-4 months with the Evora, as I’ve been working on the house a fair bit.

However after 5 months of deliberations I’ve finally got my wheels refurbished.   I went for gloss anthracite, absolutely delighted with them - to my eyes they are more suited to my “lower black pack” than the diamond cut finish 👍🏻

I had them done by Nuneaton Alloys and Powder Coating and they were extremely good value.   The quality of the finish is top drawer.  They cure the powder at a nice low temp (180-200C) for just 15 mins so absolutely no risk to the integrity of the alloy👌🏻

[Cdm2018]

Good value ?

I paid about £200 for refurb but had them done in black and to be honest the paint started to wear after 3 months 

[jep]

What a great pair of Lotus. S1 Elise is perhaps the greatest Lotus road car ever. Evora NA is the sweetest of Evora, perhaps the best. Great colour too. 

Justin

 

[Daveb99]

51 minutes ago, Cdm2018 said:

Good value ?

I paid about £200 for refurb but had them done in black and to be honest the paint started to wear after 3 months 

It was £240 including the tyre removal and refit.  Proper full strip, then powder coat anthracite then gloss lacquer.

There’s no way it would wear off after 3 months - that must have just been a (rather poor) smart repair / blow over?

18 minutes ago, jep said:

What a great pair of Lotus. S1 Elise is perhaps the greatest Lotus road car ever. Evora NA is the sweetest of Evora, perhaps the best. Great colour too. 

Justin

 

Cheers Justin.  I’ve had 5 Elise S1’s over the last 21 years including two Sport 160’s and a 111S.   This one though may just be the best of the bunch.  It’s a high miler but I’ve done absolutely loads to it, cosmetically and mechanically, and it’s a real gem.

Evoras are new to me - this year - but what a fabulous drivers car.   And that’s coming from a serial Elise S1 owner 😀

[Whitey]

Wheels look great Dave, and my 18/19 forged alloys need doing and I’ll be sticking with anthracite.  Is their anthracite colour from any particular brand, or just a generic one that they keep in stock.

[Daveb99]

1 hour ago, Whitey said:

Wheels look great Dave, and my 18/19 forged alloys need doing and I’ll be sticking with anthracite.  Is their anthracite colour from any particular brand, or just a generic one that they keep in stock.

I believe it’s their ‘normal’ anthracite that they keep in stock.   The colour is extremely similar to that of the anthracite 18/19” forged wheels.   Here it is next to my old wheels (albeit in odd lighting conditions, it was about 3.30pm I think).

 

[Whitey]

Brilliant, Cheers Dave.

[Daveb99]

Some of you may have spotted that, despite all the hard work I’ve put into the car, it has been up for sale in the last week, and is now sold awaiting collection.

This was never in our plans; the sale was somewhat forced due to my wife no longer being able to drive a manual comfortably because of a health problem, and we bought the car to use not only for Lotus meets and runs but primarily for weekends away and longer trips etc, where we typically share the driving.

It will be missed, and the new owner has bought a truly great example of this wonderful sports car.

However - have no fear - I am keeping my mustard Elise S1 !

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this thread and if anyone needs any further tips or guidance get in touch.

Cheers,

Dave

[paranoidandroid]

On 06/01/2022 at 22:01, Daveb99 said:

Thanks, well it didn't take long - I accepted a deposit for it last night.  The new owner will be getting a great car.  Thanks for all the positive comments everyone 👍 

Congrats on the sale, beautiful car, hope you don’t miss it and at least you still have another Lotus in the garage! 
 

Slightly off topic but quick question if I may? Read through your build thread and am interested in doing the Focal speaker upgrade on mine. Just wondered if you need the dash out to do the tweaters? You mentioned you needed to enlarge the hole slightly. Having to take the dash out would put me off doing it! 

[Cdm2018]

I am going to really miss the refresh updates on the Evora !

I looked a loads of you tube videos on people around the world doing or getting things done but these from Dave were really easy to view and follow if you had the skills and facilities 

sad day that the your car left you but I am show you still be around lotus world hopefully at next lotus in peaks this summer 👍🏻

[Daveb99]

3 hours ago, paranoidandroid said:

Congrats on the sale, beautiful car, hope you don’t miss it and at least you still have another Lotus in the garage! 
 

Slightly off topic but quick question if I may? Read through your build thread and am interested in doing the Focal speaker upgrade on mine. Just wondered if you need the dash out to do the tweaters? You mentioned you needed to enlarge the hole slightly. Having to take the dash out would put me off doing it! 

Thanks, the car has gone this morning so there’s a big space in the garage now!

For the tweeters it would possibly be doable without removing the dash but the cable length could be an issue.   When you ease them out (use a pry tool) you’ll see that you can’t get them out far.   So you’d need to cut the wires and try to join the new wires into them.   Doable perhaps - take one out and have a look.    If not then yes it’s a dashboard out job.

However, you’d be better to remove the seats and sill covers to replace the crossover units with the focal ones, to get the best out of the new speaker setup.   To get the sill covers off you have to remove the lower dash panels - at which point you might as well take the whole thing out anyway!

 

[paranoidandroid]

 

Thank you. The standard setup sounds terrible although I do think my sub isn’t functioning which probably doesn’t help.
 

Thanks for the advice regarding the tweeters.

[Cdm2018]

My sub wasn’t even wired up and I think that was from factory 

my son replaced the sub and amp but few months ago the unit started to go weird and he needs to inspect it but he tells me that he needs to wait until the spring as you have strip out the rear interior body and get to wiring etc 

we don’t have a garage 

 

[Whitey]

12 hours ago, paranoidandroid said:

 

Thank you. The standard setup sounds terrible although I do think my sub isn’t functioning which probably doesn’t help.
 

Thanks for the advice regarding the tweeters.

I upgraded to Focal door speakers and Tweeters and was able to pull the tweeters up enough, disconnect the wires, enlarge the holes very slightly with 80 grade paper and slot the new tweeters back in. The door speakers are a good straight replacement fit but I used extra sound deadening adhesive material inside the door. The worse part of the upgrade is getting the sill covers off to access the Cross overs - they are stuck on really hard with double sided tape