Essex Spec White Turbo Esprit @ Paul Matty

[Tocus]

Great Topic Guys! i want to come over also with my essex specs silver car,

and you know i have the tobacco brown interior, and my car is from 1980.

 

hopefully the engine overhaul is done soon,

i will look up some dates, i think Lotus festival would be a great event!

[GJones]

Hi Jonny,

The car looks fab. Nice one.

Graham

[The Pits]

Thanks Graham.

 

Tocus it would be great to see you and either of your dry sumps at Brands! Hope you can make it.

[Tocus]

i hope so, maby otherwise in a other lotus car, we will see Jonny

[The Pits]

Fitted the new plate and got the Compomotives properly balanced yesterday and had new valves fitted to the front tyres. Also painstakingly applied the Goodyear logo to the Pirellis. I had to make a template from a rubbing of the NCTs, took hours but very happy with the results. It's ridiculous how much of a difference some white letters makes (to me anyway!), more so than when the BBS were on. Very happy with the final results. Oh, and I past the 23,000 mile mark, getting very leggy now

 

[JNW3]

Simply stunning

[PhilW]

Fantastic Johnny.

I have often thought about doing the lettering onto different makes of tyres.  Can you explain a bit how you did it.

[The Pits]

I sent a rubbing of the Goodyear logo on my NCTs to a company in the states who made some rubber letters which I was then able to stick onto my brand new Pirelli tyres (P600s at the rear, P6s at the front). I had to make a paper template just to get the positioning correct, again from a rubbing from the original Goodyear tyres (piece of paper and a kids crayon is all you need). I then stuck this up on the tyre with some gaffer tape. Up close you can still see the Pirelli logo but you have to be paying attention! I don't think it would impress any judges at a concours event but it means benefits of new tyres with the all important 80's look. Plus I get to preserve my NCTs. It makes all the difference to a car with Compomotives. They're fragile, expensive and high maintenance but by thunder they look good!

 

[PhilW]

Im looking forward to seeing this in the flesh sometime

[The Pits]

It will be at Brands in August and also at the inaugural dry sump meet when we get round to organising it!

[MalcolmS]

Looks fantastic Jonny. Congratulations.

I would be interested in the dry sump meet.

Cheers,

Malcolm

[The Pits]

I was hoping you'd be able to make it Malcolm. I'll put your name on the list. We'll see if we can get everyone together before the festival at Brands.

 

[The Pits]

[stephenwhyte]

Great work Johnny!

[skiing]

How did you stick the letters onto the tyres? I would be up for ordering some of these for mine if they were available...

[Barrykearley]

Jonny - reckon you need to change from " the pits " to " the dogs "

That really is a stunning stunning car.......

[pete]

Looks good.as an aside I see Goodyear are shutting their last UK plant in Wolverhampton

[Bazza 907]

I heard that on the radio tonight too.

 

There was talk of the moulds for the original NCT's being in the factory.

 

I wonder if there will be a fire sale of what's left???

[The Pits]

Had a great day yesterday in the car. Finally at very long last the car is properly set up and ready for the festival. It has taken this long to get the geometry spot on, it was running way too much negative camber before. Fine once you were in the turn but never really felt settled.

 

I was hoping Gerald would have been available to take a look at the car but he's absolutely flat-out at the moment, same for Paul Matty, neither are taking any bookings until well into September and have been that way for a while. There's me thinking that classic car owners like to do the work in the winter and use them in the summer!

 

Fortunately Cos from Sportomotive in Salisbury was willing to take a look at the car before Brands, even though he's in the process of moving to a new site in Bournemouth and he spent most of the day on getting everything spot on. The rear tyres fill the arches much better now, the car looks great but the way it drives is something else entirely! I am absolutely thrilled with it and Cos came back from his test drive beaming from ear to ear. Despite being distracted by the roof stereo (I don't think he's driven a car with one before) he said that it really drives beautifully which is always reassuring to hear. The drive home was glorious. Bond themes on the roof stereo, settle back into the puffa jacket leather and all was well with the world. I have dreamt of driving a Giugiaro Turbo Esprit since I was 11 and it really felt like the dream coming true yesterday evening.

 

Much of the rear suspension is new now but everything has been made strictly to original factory spec, right down to the Lotus supplied rubber bushes. Having new bushes has firmed it up ever-so slightly but it still rides beautifully for a sportscar. But there's nothing vintage about the way the car handles now, it feels fantastic an absolute joy to aim the Concordy snout towards a corner. I'll always prefer the look with NCTs on but the brand new Pirellis generate very modern amounts of grip too. Of course I still treat it with the utmost respect but the car is telling me that it could happily corner a lot quicker if I so desired. If this is what the cars were like to drive when they left the factory in 1980 I'm not at all surprised the reviews were so good!

 

The next drive can't come soon enough.

 

[Bazza 907]

Jonny

Great write up and it's wonderful that you can now really enjoy driving it. They really are quite something when they are properly set up and fully sorted.

 

Look forward to seeing it at Brands  

[Kevin Wheeler]

I'm glad Cos was able to help. He is a Top Man in my opinion - just a shame that he is moving his workshop South rather than a bit North of Salisbury. Oh well, it will just mean an hour's drive when I have to deliver one of them.

 

Good to see that you are enjoying it Jonny. I took mine to Okehampton and back today. Quite a quick journey in a Turbo!

[The Pits]

Yes thanks for the recommendation Kevin. I need to see whoever did your exhaust next

 

Only joking Barrie - OWP - Original Where Possible!

[Bazza 907]

Glad to hear it,  stand down.

[Kevin Wheeler]

I believe that it is an American import, but I do not have the invoice from the previous owner. 

 

Difficult to get mine back to original when the engine melted, apparently!

[GTK]

Jonny I'm happily married to mine but so jealous