Essex 007

[Veilside]

PPW 702W is Essex 012 which was sold to someone in France May 2009 by Speedmaster Cars, remember it was for sale for a long time.

Essex 007 original reg GBO 7W first registration date 12/09/1980 by Lotus Dealer Goldblatt in Cardiff. They also supplied Essex 004 reg no. GBO 4W first registration date 21/08/1980.

004 is the earliest chassis no. 10899 of all the production customer cars, and recorded as the Lotus press car, the real Essex 001, all the other chassis numbers prior to this were pre-production/developement cars.

Goldblatt also supplied Essex 014 original reg no. GBO 14W first registration date 01/11/1980.

To confuse things slightly there are two 007's one RHD & one LHD chassis no. 10303, one of two supplied directly to Essex Motor Sport, we have never found 007LHD but have good idea who might still own it but he's not talking, think he still lives in Paris !!!!!

Steve T

[Lex Templar]

Essex 007 appears to be sold perhaps? It has disappeared from carsales.com.au where it appeared for a while.......

[Bazza 907]

There is a recent "Wanted" advert on here for an Essex. Given how rare they are, if the person was really serious then they may have acquired it.

[James Jensen Healey]

I'll raise my hand and be counted!

Hi all. I'm the owner of the much posted GB0 7W otherwise known as Essex Esprit #10907 which is tagged as build 007 production car.

I've been the owner since 2010 and brought the car to Australia where it is now a proud member of the Lotus Car Club Victoria..

My wife is driving me to sell it as that was the orginal intention (to buy , own and have fun then sell the car) but as you all know it's been for sale for a while. It's price is about to be lowered and it will be advertised in a magazine Unique Cars. in Nov/Dec 2012. If the car doesn't sell then I will think about keeping it as personally I don't need to sell it any more and might sell another one of my cars that I'm currently restoring. Does anyone want an Aston Martin X-Pack Vantage. 420BHP and a brilliant new bare ali respray!

I also have a track day BMW e24 turbo with full coil overs and 480 BHP.

The Lotus has been great fun and I now am in the hunt for some new tyres to fit to the car so that I can keep the Goodyear tyres in a show condition. If I don't sell it I will keep restoring it as it really is a great car to look at. I've repaired the A/C and have even managed to have machined an after market belt tension for that fixed length dry sump drive belt.....It's a long tale but the dry sump belt when fitted was just to loose and is non adjustable (there use to be 6 different belt length variations and three different pulley sizes in order to gain the correct belt tension. Unfortunately for #10907 the belt that it used was one of the 5 sizes no longer available! The new belt sent to me from Sj's was a bit too loose so I had an Engineer fabricate an after market belt tensioner...it works a treat and looks OEM...Oh and I had the cam belt done at the same time as it's a pig to change!...but now it's done I can rest for a while.

I also had all the interior re-conollised and recoloured hence why it looks a bit nicer in the photo's.

If I do keep the car I'm thinking about going all out on it's restoration....would this be a good idea or a bad one?

Or do I just enjoy the car on Lotus club runs?

BTW I also jointly own with my brother a Jensen Healey with a worked 907 engine....built to 912 HC spec with lightweight pistons and rods from Gary Kemp and a big valve head with high lift 104 cams on the inlet and exhaust also supplied by Gary. and Exhaust by Tony Law.

For info the 907 engine is a treat on the track but it's getting it's own custom dry sump system (pump by Weaver brothers) as at Philip Island I can't keep the oil pressure in the correct 'zone when cornering hard on the southern loop. Oh and it runs a new Toyota supra w58 box that I sourced from Lotus before I returned from the UK.

I only wish the dry sump 910 engine were common as then I could put one in the Jensen!

For info I brought back 6 cars from the UK.

BMW b10 alpina

BMW e24 635 turbo

Jensen Healey

Lotus Essex Esprit

Aston Martin AMV8

Aston Martin AMV8 Vantage X-Pack.

If you are part of the lotus club Vic I will be at the Christmas party this weekend in the Essex. Next year the X-pack will be back on the road, with new chrome and new paint and refurbished interior....It's a good thing my wife likes early style cars.

Anyway..I might pop back from time to time as this forum is a good read and I agree my car is More about being an Essex than being a bond car.

[Bazza 907]

James

Great to hear from you.

I was had lunch with Chris Cole who started this thread yesterday and we were talking about your car.

For what it's worth values do appear to be increasing although a full restoration would I guess a fair bit unless you did all teh work yourself.

Good luck

Edited November 19, 2012 by Bazza 907

[LOTUS]

No. 18 is still for sale...Its in South Wales.

[robington]

Is it advertised anywhere Julian?

[LOTUS]

No, but I probably will be putting an ad up soon

[mayevora]

http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/lotus-esprit-1980-14185508?base=&vertical=Car&cr=4&eapi=2&__N=4294965279%204294965254%201247%201282%201252%201246%201216&num=15&silo=Stock&sort=default

[Bazza 907]

At £29k that's not a bad tickle as Quentin Wilson would say.  

Edited February 14, 2013 by Bazza 907

[madmax]

Does anyone know if it's ;possible to contact James Cheesewright about the sale of his Essex in Australia?

 

Repatriating it may not be cost-effective and I've tried to make contact via the advert link but it's hopeless and doesn't recognise UK post codes and phone nos on mandatory fields on their enquiry form.

 

Please pm me or contact via the Forum if anyone can help.

 

Thanks

 

Simon

[ramjet]

I may have a phone number for James. I will see if I can find it and get him to get in touch with you. Give me a day or two. OK?

[madmax]

Thanks for that

 

Alternatively, if there  is an essex car for sale here in the UK, that would be better.

 

I like the copper cars too but would prefer an Essex in the 'correct' livery

 

Simon

[Bibs]

Mark @ Stocks has an Essex in at the mo', not sure he's selling it but would be worth a call

[Bazza 907]

Bibs - is that the ex Joolz Essex (No.18?)?

[Bibs]

[madmax]

Thanks Bibs

 

Funnily enough I dropped Stocks an email earlier today asking if he knew of any Essex Cars but as yet, he's not got back to me. I should have bought the Joolz car from wales when I had the chance but was so concerned about the removed engine

 

Thanks once again

[Veilside]

Bibs, You might want to move this post but it might catch a few people's attention here.

 

Compomotive Wheel Centre Caps

 

Was talking to the new owner of 018 yesterday and we got on to the subject of Compomotive wheel centre caps; anyone who has ever tried to find some already knows that they were on a lost cause. This made me remember back in 2011 giving Mike at Lotus Bits an original with a view to having some made.

Rang him yesterday and we need to get as many orders as possible (with the money) to make the price realistic.

We were talking of "realistic" a price of approx. £25/cap, (the caps need to be CAD drawn and then have to be machined from a sold and not extruded/pressed out) so we need to see how much interest there is . The less interest in numbers required then the price goes up which makes it unrealistic. 

At the moment we are only talking about making the larger rear ones which is ok provided you have the earlier type Compomotive wheels so the caps are the same for front and rear. The later Compomotive wheels with the hubs bolted to the outside of the outer rim require a smaller cap, I have no pattern for these, most people use the black plastic push in type, but it's something that could be looked into.

So lets see if there is enough interest out there.

 

Steve T 

[nello]

I'll ask Paul with No.17 Steve.............

[Veilside]

Hi Neil, Funnily enough I was thinking about the possibility that Paul could do them.

 

Steve T 

[nello]

He probably could Steve yes if the interest got reignited...... I did think he was considering resurrecting No.17 recently though he's recently acquired a nearly new 911 Turbo.... If that don't get the car passion back - nothing will! 

[ramjet]

I can't seem to find James number. I will keep looking but I can't find it in the whitepages directory either.

I can't seem to find James number. I will keep looking but I can't find it in the whitepages directory either.

 

Ha!

 

Tried my old phone and there it is. Since it is his personal mobile, I'll contact him and see if I can get him to log on and contact you that way Simon. (madmax)

[ChrisJ]

Just stumbled across an Essex Esprit at Douglas Valley Breakers here - very sad

 

Edited February 26, 2013 by ChrisJ

[Bazza 907]

Very old photo Chris. It was No. 20 

It was sold on and eventually ended up helping lotus of other Esprit owners out.  

[ChrisJ]

That's good to hear at least.