New from Cheshire

[Robert Crooks]

Hi Just purchased my first Esprit, a 1986 Calypso Red Turbo. Photos and member entry to follow. It's been a dream since my early teens, and just a week of ownership has blown me away. It's a good car, but needs some attention. Had a C service done this week, and having the seats out this weekend to thoroughly clean the cabin, and clean and and feed the leather. It needs new tyres. Am thinking about P7s, which I note some of you have recommended. Lotus recommend 225s on the rear, but I wondered if it is possible to fit 245s to the standard BBS?

[scott]

Welcome Rob,

Told you it was a good idea.............fabulous car. Glad to see you found the site.

Cheers!

Scott.

[arbell9]

HI Rob,

nice purchase and welcome to the forum. Where abouts in cheshire are you, i am in middlewich and can be seen drivign my GT3 regularly around the cheshire roads. There is a bunch of us spanning from NW down to midlands who meet up once a month to do various this. We call our selves North Midlands Esprit Group, NMEG. Great bunch of guys.

I have taken on the mantle of E-presidente withn the group. It comes with a small Island of my own, an extremly large set of gold epauletts and apparently the obligation to pay for beers and coffee where ever NMEG go. Not sure how that happened

see these threads for some reviews of the NMEG (the formidable squadron) past activities. Its not all about kicking tyres, we actullay do stuff!!

Clicky

Clicky

welcome aboard and if you fancy a mini hoon let us know

Alex

El-presidente.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Alex --GT3--

[Robert Crooks]

Thanks Scott. Had lots of cars, as you know, but never fallen for one like this. Needless to say, Kerstine doesn't get it. Will win her over eventually, I'm sure. Keep in touch.

Alex, thanks for the welcome. I am based in Marple, near Stockport. Am going to spend the next few months getting the car into the appropriate condition, but would love to get out with you guys in the New Year. I'll monitor your acitvities and get back in touch soon.

[matk]

Robert

Welcome. Used to live in Didsbury so I know your area. Even if you're car isn't ready, meet up with the NMEG guys anyway and get some passenger rides in other Esprits, you won't find a nicer bunch of people.

[Backmarker]

Welcome Robert,

Why don't you and Kerstine come and join us NMEG guys & gals for Christmas lunch? You'd both be more than welcome and we'd love to see your Esprit.

If you're interested let me know and i'll ask the Lamb to lay two extra places at the table.

Cheers,

Graham

[Robert Crooks]

Graham

Thanks for the invite. Unfortunately, we are away next weekend. I will definitely try and make it when you guys next meet in the New Year. I have a 5 and 2.5 year old, but I can generally escape on a Sunday afternoon for a few hours.

Just finished putting the seats back in the car after a day of leather cleaning and feeding. Hands sore!!!! But looks so much better in there now. Was astonished at how easy it was to get the seats out and back in again.

[Backmarker]

No problem Robert.

Bet the interior smells pretty good too now

[david]

Welcome, Robert.

Hope to meet you at an event soon.

Where did you get it from - post some details of the car and perhaps someone on the forum will know a bit about its history.

[Robert Crooks]

I bought it from a gentleman called Gordon Gooch in Edinburgh. He had owned it for 8 years, but only done 3k miles in that time. It was looked after by Murray Motors thoughout that time, and I had them do a full inspection for me before I agreed to buy. Prior to Gordon it was owned by a gentleman from the Sunderland area for 10 years. He put about 12k miles on it. The original owner had it for around four years and put over 50k miles on it. It had a new grearbox just before he sold it to the Sunderland gent (I have warranty documentation to show that) and I understand it had a new engine fitted at Hethel at about the same time due to porosity issues, but I haven't been able to prove that yet.

It's a lovely 3 owner car that requires a bit of cosmetic detailing and a mechancial overhaul. It's having a new rack and discs this week, which should finish the first stage of the mechanical work.

If anybody know more about my car, I'd love to hear from you.

By the way, I am using a guy called Kevin Moore who trades as Esprit Cars in Hazel Grove. He is in his 50s, trained and worked at Manchester Lotus, and knows the Esprit inside out. He's a proper mechanic who just loves Lotuses. I would thoroughly recommend.

[esprit350]

welcome to the mad house Rob, look froward to seeing you at a meet in the new year

[rj30780]

Hi Rob

Welcome to LEF, I live in Marple Bridge but only usually around at weekends. I will have to come round and say hello.

My son has seen you around, in Bredbury yesterday.

Tony

[MPx]

It needs new tyres. Am thinking about P7s, which I note some of you have recommended. Lotus recommend 225s on the rear, but I wondered if it is possible to fit 245s to the standard BBS?

Hi Robert, and welcome to the support group! Your first issue. The actual tyres you need are 235 60 15 VR for the back of a G-Turbo with std BBS rims. Sadly Goodyear ceased making them years ago and most other manufacturers followed suit. The only available choice for the right size is a Pirelli P600 (I think) which not many on here rate. As a result many have fitted better handling 225s at the back which work OK but to my eye look a bit skinny. It doesnt sound like a lot, but I've got (obsolete) proper sized Goodyears on mine but in ZR form which has a 6 block tread pattern compared with a 7 block pattern on the VR and even they look too narrow compared to the OE tyres. I cant recall anyone fitting 245s so there must be a reason, my guess would be not available in 60 series profile. Anyway, as you can imagine, tyres are a recurring theme on here - so lots of threads to search for to see what others have done.

Enjoy the car (like you need telling)!

Mike

[greenman]

Hi Robert.

Welcome aboard, I notice that you are using Esprit Cars,would just like too say that I purchased my Esprit through them, and was very dissapointed with the way that certain items had been damaged during their working on the car.

I certainly would not use them.

Trevor

[matk]

And I'm also sorry to report I've had issues with Esprit cars too.

[Scatt]

Hi Robert,

Will look out for you as I drive around in my Norfolk Mustard V8 as I live in Bredbury. I too have used Kevin at Esprit and up to now have been very satisfied with what he has done. Most of my experience is with Porsche as I have had a number of them and have a rare 911 tucked away. Kevin was recommended by my Porsche mechanic.

As for your Lotus - ENJOY ! !

[Scatt]

Hi Rob,

Sorry about this but can you pm me your email address as being a computor dinasour having trouble getting a further pm to you

Graham

[stephenwhyte]

Nearly bought this car Robert but the timing on my side wasn't right at the time. Went for a run with Gordon though around Cortsophine in Edinburgh and got plenty of attention. I eventually got my car down in Yorkshire - very similar to your car only yours has the Gold centered wheels and a gold pin stripe.

The only point of concern I thought about the car was that it looked a bit low at the front and as a result it seemed not to like the speed bumps around near Gordons house!

Here are a couple pics of mine attached - get some of yours up!!!

Just found a pic of yours that I took the day I went to see the car.

Edited December 10, 2008 by stephenwhyte

[Robert Crooks]

Fabulous looking car Stephen. Gordon's was basically a good car. Just needed a little pampering, which it is now getting! Bit of work to do yet to get it to the standard of yours cosmetically, but for me that's part of the fun of it. I have this strange fetish for cleaning and detailing cars. So it was the perfect car for me. I'll post some photos next time it's thoroughly clean.

[greenman]

They are both very tidy examples

Well done you Guys on finding them

Trevor