Have we all been starting our classic Lotuses incorrectly? Interesting expert opinion.

[fjmuurling]

On 30/11/2022 at 16:55, MrDangerUS said:

Esprit S4/ S4s has an interesting feature: with engine not running, when you depress accelerator pedal to the floor you  can crank the engine as long as you want without starting it. In this pedal position, the ignition and injectors are disabled. This feature is advertised as a method to "clear" your flooded engine.

This applies also to the SE, AFAIK all Esprits with a GM P4 ECU have this "feature". 

[MrDangerUS]

To avoid "dry starts", some manufacturers add engine pre-lube pumps.
Adding such system on our cars would save bearings.
Interesting start-up sequence in this video.
 

 

[jonwat]

Those column stalks look like pre S4 Esprit, AKA BMC Marina stalks to me 

[HarryMann]

Presumably irs good practice to let any engine dle for a few seconds before that first raucous blip of the throttle.

 I certainty do with any OHC engine especially my old Diesel Vanagon