The New Life of an S2

[aquilante]

Hi, finally I received the car!

Now I am ready to start my project.

The car of course needs a lot of work to do.

For sure she needs a re-spray and the interiors are to be rebuilt.

I have a lot of ideas about the future car and I will appreciate every suggestions from you.

To keep track of every development, I made a mini-site ( www.s2v6.it ) that I am building right know.

I'll keep you informed

Alex

[Mark Blanchard]

Good luck with the project. Looks like someome wanted it to look like a JPS (gold wheels).

[Bibs]

I saw this car on Pistonheads recently! Good luck, that will be a beautiful car when you're done

[USAndretti42]

You are a brave man, Alessandro. Good luck with your project and saving another Esprit from oblivion.

We already have one member on here with a Ford Duratec V6 engine in the back of his Esprit. Maybe you should browse his restoration thread to see how he dealt with the problems that arose. Here's a link to his notes.

[wayneb911]

Good luck with the project. Another engine transplant yippee i do like to see the conversions. Like the round rear lights this is also on my list and seeing your picture has made it an essential on my build. Much further down the line though.

[Bibs]

Here's Punky's website

http://www.espritv6.co.uk/

[Cos]

Hi Alessandro

That looks like it going to a really good project. I am at a very simular stage with my car. I am going over to London today to go and work on it for a couple of days.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Regards

Cos,

Larnaka, Cyprus

[yeti]

I would like an S2/3 like that. Should keep me busy for the next 10 years

Good luck, and please keep the pictures coming.

Bj

[smokingkills]

Very interesting idea with new/old combination.

Any more progress?

[Andy67]

Good man Alessandro...!

Have just had a look at your site and saved it to favourites,so keep up the work and of course,photo's...!

[wayneb911]

Alex

How is the project coming along

[aquilante]

Hi everybody, thanks for your comments.

During these months I think a lot about the project and I made some changes.

First of all I decided to keep the original engine using a fuel injection system instead of carburettors.

I never thought that was possible but a friend of mine suggest me the idea and I really liked the opportunity to keep such a historical Lotus engine.

Another reason for changing direction is the italian laws.

It's very hard to obtain approval from authorities for this kind of modifications (lucky you.....) so the risk is to do all the work for nothing: it would be an immense waste of money and time.

so these are the new guidelines

- lightness

- simplification (particulary in piping from and to engine)

- spartan interiors

these are the steps

1) to do only the necessary works to obtain the registration plates, keeping the car almost original (wheels, RHD, carburettors)

2) start with mechanical upgrade

3) wheels and bodywork

I will work (mostly inventing from scratch) on:

engine management (injection, ignition, ECU)

air conditioning (new approach)

power steering

drive lights

cockpit

brakes

cooling

wheels

I keep you update.

I hope to start the first stage in september hoping to have the car for next springtime.

bye

in the attached image the future look of the car (re-touching the Silverfrost one.....)

Edited May 9, 2010 by aquilante

[GavinT]

LotusBits has a fuel injection kit for the 907 engine...

clicky

[slewthy]

Wow - £2000. Is that the going rate for a conversion kit, or is it cheap/expensive etc etc?

[aquilante]

I know, it's not cheap but I think that I can find some solutions here in Italy from race tuners......

[matk]

It's not cheap, but it's proven, so I suppose you're paying for the ability to plug and play.

I've been in Cliff Ledgers Excel Celebration fitted with after market fuel injection, and although it's a 2.2, and I was only a passenger, I was very impressed at how it performed.

[aquilante]

Good point Matk, I'll keep in mind.

thanks