Esprit Picture & Video Thread

[stephenwhyte]

9 minutes ago, cbclotus said:

Ok guys took the car out today for a spin with Mrs B....Drove fine .pulls well temperature stayed good .after buying lotus sender ....Still going to fit another control box to check temperature bought from car builders solution....Then going to get more air through shroud .Mrs B really enjoyed the car today ...And me .........put a lot of effort into this car .so the upshot is I think we will keep her ....Besides not one phone call ....So I think she wants to stay lol .I think it looks better with the lines ...Now to do the other side ....Mike

Glad you’re keeping Mike - get some large Turbo Esprit decals on her and the look will be transformed. I know it’s a non- Turbo V8 in the back but who cares the right look is what matters😎 Well done again on deciding to keep👏

[cbclotus]

Thanks guys .i was going to get some v8 decals made up .It sort of reminds  of the 47D .Europa ....Mike

[eeyoreish]

5 hours ago, Andyww said:

Newlands Corner this afternoon. I acquired a spare set of BBS wheels and had them diamond cut, including machining the full width of the wheel centres flat, after inlaying with satin black.

Awesome. Now I know what to do with my BBS wheels!

[TAR]

5 hours ago, Andyww said:

I acquired a spare set of BBS wheels and had them diamond cut, including machining the full width of the wheel centres flat, after inlaying with satin black.

Wouldn't this weaken the wheel by reducing the thickness? 

Not suggesting its a bad idea, just curious  

[eeyoreish]

Surely you're only removing a few mm? Given all the lattice work I doubt it will have any significant effect?

[Andyww]

2 minutes ago, TAR said:

Wouldn't this weaken the wheel by reducing the thickness? 

Not suggesting its a bad idea, just curious  

There is loads of thickness behind the wheel centre. Not much needs to be machined off, its around 1mm at the edges of the centres and 6mm towards the middle as the original centres are convex. If you compare the resulting wheel with an original Compomotive centre, there is a lot more material on there.

[Giniw]

That definitely weakens the wheel and I suspect the wheel centre is the worst place to remove any aluminium for when the wheel has lateral loads in the tight turns.
But of course I have no idea whether the wheels can handle it safely or not, they may be designed far much too strong.

[Lotusfab]

9 minutes ago, Giniw said:

That definitely weakens the wheel and I suspect the wheel centre it's the worst place to remove any aluminium for when the wheel has lateral loads in the tight turns.
But of course I have no idea whether the wheels can handle it safely or not, they may be designed far much too strong.

Compared with the cx500 centre in my opinion there really is no issue. The four stud cx500 really has practically no material between the bolt holes and the 70 mm centre. 

[Giniw]

As I said I have no idea as I have never seen these wheels so you may be absolutely right, I was just speaking on a general and theoretical point of view ^^

[Lotusfab]

Here's a CX 500. The centre cap passes right through the wheel. You can see hardly any material between the bolt hole and the centre hole.

[Bazza 907]

4 hours ago, stephenwhyte said:

Glad you’re keeping Mike - get some large Turbo Esprit decals on her and the look will be transformed. I know it’s a non- Turbo V8 in the back but who cares the right look is what matters😎 Well done again on deciding to keep👏

I wish that was sitting on my drive. Oh, hang on a minute..

[stephenwhyte]

Yeah I suppose there will be times when you think you should have kept that one Barry, but probably simpler to let it go and appreciate the Essex Turbo even more👍

[Dan E]

20 minutes ago, Bazza 907 said:

I wish that was sitting on my drive. Oh, hang on a minute..

Not anymore 😂

[Barrykearley]

On the plus side - at least here’s no more oil stains 👍

[Andyww]

9 hours ago, Giniw said:

That definitely weakens the wheel and I suspect the wheel centre is the worst place to remove any aluminium for when the wheel has lateral loads in the tight turns.
But of course I have no idea whether the wheels can handle it safely or not, they may be designed far much too strong.

Its a valid point, I have compared the BBS quite extensively to the CX500 and the BBS have a much larger solid area in the centre, ie the spokes are shorter, (the pictures can be misleading as the black suggests through-holes but they are actually not) this area is thicker and as Fabian mentioned, the area immediately around the bolt holes is more substantial. There is a lot of thickness there which cant be seen. Also the BBS are a better quality casting and general manufacture. I believe the BBS are a very strong over-engineered wheel, after all this was made for daily drivers such as BMW, Merc and would have been designed to withstand abuse such as kerbing etc.

[Bazza 907]

9 hours ago, stephenwhyte said:

Yeah I suppose there will be times when you think you should have kept that one Barry, but probably simpler to let it go and appreciate the Essex Turbo even more👍

Actually I'm chuffed to bits that Danny has it now. It's great just knowing I played a part in putting it back on the road after decades of gathering dust in a garage.     

[Andyww]

On the way to "Departure Lounge" Car meet at Alton, Hants

[eeyoreish]

Loving those wheels! And I notice they haven't collapsed yet 😀 They are definitely part of my plans for my TE 👍

[eeyoreish]

I noticed on the cars at Beaulieu yesterday and in your photo here that my mirror bases are different to yours and the other cars I've seen. I have the same rectangular (Ford?) mirrors but with more oval bases. Do I have the wrong ones or did they fit 2 diffferent types?

[Andyww]

They fitted different types on later cars. The early ones are a rare Japanese make, they are only used on a few other cars such as the Aston Martin Lagonda and some London taxis.

[eeyoreish]

Thanks Andy. So mine probably are Ford then, sure I recognise them from the '70s...

[swindon_alan]

4 hours ago, Andyww said:

they are only used on a few other cars such as the Aston Martin Lagonda and some London taxis.

Hah! Talk about a spectrum of exotic cars..!

[Mark Blanchard]

4 hours ago, Andyww said:

. . . they are only used on a few other cars such as the Aston Martin Lagonda

My knees are shacking.  That was my first car I ever loved.

 

[Steve V8]

Wow...an Allegro Vanden Plas in the hall of mirrors.

[Mark Blanchard]

No, a bloody good design by Williams Towns, that would go on to influence a lot of other car designs.

He also designed the stunning 1969 Aston DBS / V8 that was produced for 20 years until 1989.