Evora GTE Registry

[21gg]

There is the RHD with the Komotec 430 conversion at Leven (Murry's) Lotus if you really want a RHD car but not sure how much it is. The GTE is just like any other Evora but understeers less and does feel wider than it is, so I think you would be right to try the LHD one before committing, but as the others have said, its more personal preference than one being better/preference etc than the other.

LHD, there is Isheys old one at JCT 600 for £98k now, and the white one in scotland which has come down to £89995.

Looking at mine you can see the 'weave' on the front and rear clams but not the roof. From memory when Acrobat got his parts from mansory the rear calm wasn't a complete ready to fit item as such but a complete new top skin, thus leaving the underneath, boot are etc in the original fibreglass. He had to split the old skin off and bond the new one on.

[TheKevlarKid]

How much is @bingoking's rhd one up for at Leven may I ask?

With regards to the spare parts for them. As Gav has already said, the only real issue would appear to be front wishbones if you ever needed them.

Bodywork - Strattons have plenty of it, new and secondhand I believe. Or you can go straight to Mansory who will still manufacture it, so there are no supply issues there, cost issue is a different matter of course from both parties.

Mechanically everything underneath of them is pretty much S1 Evora except for the front wishbones, so spare parts are available. Well saying that, lotus have a shocking record for spare parts supply even on current vehicles so you'd only be in the same position with a regular Evora if they don't have the parts you need in stock.

The wheels, yes you'd have a problem if you damaged one that couldn't be repaired. There are loads of aftermarket single peice forged Ali wheels you can buy in hundreds of designs (certainly thats what I'd be looking to do if I bought one of the Stratton cars with the std Evora wheels and rear spacers). So although you wouldn't be able to get one of the original factory style forged wheels it wouldn't be a killer. To be fair, I'm surprised we haven't seen a few of the 20 factory car owners buying sets of aftermarket wheels and removing the factory fit wheels altogether. Damage a aftermarket one and you can replace just one. Damage 1 factory wheel and the whole set is gone.

So the wishbones... there's only 2 reasons I can see why you'd would want some. 

1. The bushes and ball joints in them will eventually wear out and according to Lotus they're not user serviceable (same as with regular Evora). You can't buy Evora bushes and ball joints for the wishbones separately,  you have to buy a whole replacement wishbone that comes with them pre-installed.

No one has had to do it yet,  but I'm sure with the right tools and a bit of digging around you'd be able to source bushes and bj's to service them.

2. You've had an accident, a relatively big one if you've damaged wishbones. Pass it onto your insurance company and let them sort it out. If the car gets written off due to 'no wishbones available' then that's what happens. Annoying yes but so long as you cover yourself correctly you shouldn't be out of pocket, move on.

There is always the custom route though. Plenty of companies out their could make you a custom set of wishbones to the factory specs, they were done in solid billet but I imagine could be also done in steel tube. It would cost to get them manufactured ye, but that type of decision can only be made when you find yourself in that position and is not something to worry about until you find yourself in it imo.

[adfer]

9 hours ago, Bibs said:

Regarding the Stratton cars, I'm fairly sure some of them (I can't remember which) are full carbon bodied too. Spotted the weave through the paint on a recent visit. 

How do you define “full carbon bodied” Bibs?  Does that include the doors?

 

[TheKevlarKid]

Yes, some of the cars had carbon doors Alan, they were painted of course. Wasn't until you removed the inner trim panel you could tell if it had them or not. Non of the 20 factory cars except yours got to keep them though.

Same with the full carbon floor panels, it was only your carbon car and my silver no. 15 that got to keep them. I imagine the Stratton cars will also have them still in place..

[CocoPops]

I guess it was weave/lacquer quality that meant they were painted over?

[adfer]

6 minutes ago, CocoPops said:

I guess it was weave/lacquer quality that meant they were painted over?

I think the difficulty was getting the weave to align from one panel to the adjoining ones

 

[CocoPops]

Come on @adfer Let’s have some more pics please

its a shame more companies aren’t doing full panels yet, but as you say it’s the time involved, not like slapping a bit of gel coat into a mould.

[TheKevlarKid]

37 minutes ago, CocoPops said:

I guess it was weave/lacquer quality that meant they were painted over?

I would guess so. When I bought my red car and stripped it down it was quite a shock to see the front clam was full carbon. Underneath hadn't been painted at all and it's beautifully constructed. I thought exactly the same at the time, seeing as the front nose and rear clam were manufactured in GRP the front must have been painted due to not being good enough for exposed carbon. If you remember, they had planned/informed us they were going to make 5 full carbon cars but only one of them ever appeared.

I know when the factory stripped the 20 cars they reworked, some of them had carbon doors, some of them didn't. I imagine some of them had othe variuos carbon panels scattered about them but I don't recall hearing about any of them that were full carbon under paint... Who know's which cars got what panels attached to them and which cars still have those panels is anyone's guess unless you were to inspect them all. One of the Stratton cars could potentially be a full carbon clad car under the paint...

[adfer]

30 minutes ago, TheKevlarKid said:

Yes, some of the cars had carbon doors Alan, they were painted of course. Wasn't until you removed the inner trim panel you could tell if it had them or not. Non of the 20 factory cars except yours got to keep them though.

Same with the full carbon floor panels, it was only your carbon car and my silver no. 15 that got to keep them. I imagine the Stratton cars will also have them still in place..

Carbon floor panels

[C8RKH]

Having seen your car up front @adfer I can conform it is a thing of real and rare beauty.

[21gg]

I looked at getting some forged bc alloys made but in the end just bought a 2004 mini cooper for less money and it meant I had a 2nd car to 'smoke' when I didnt want to take my GTE. In the long term I will get some.

Gav

[adfer]

36 minutes ago, TheKevlarKid said:

If you remember, they had planned/informed us they were going to make 5 full carbon cars but only one of them ever appeared.

The original plaque on my car shows that it was indeed one of five planned.

[BatMobile]

Thats The same interior as the Stratton cars.

is that where the other 4 ended up? 

[21gg]

Those door panels were the standard gte ones as against the standard evoras the GT350's got.

[Babas89]

I know the chrome got the original prototype interior 

[TheKevlarKid]

5 minutes ago, BatMobile said:

Thats The same interior as the Stratton cars.

is that where the other 4 ended up? 

5 full 'carbon cars' as in, 5 cars with full bare carbon bodywork. Only one ever got made though.

Most of the original cars made b y mansory had the full carbon interiors and floor panels.

Alan's full carbon was the only one of the factory 20 that got to keep the full carbon interior, door cards included. my old silver car was the only one of the others that got to keep the floor panels. 

2 minutes ago, Babas89 said:

I know the chrome got the original prototype interior 

Not quite, that picture shows it with the std recaro seats retrimmed with the GTE logo. Other cars like the green one they have got the carbon bucket seats.

[TheKevlarKid]

Tell you what does look unusual though, the white clocks...

[adfer]

19 minutes ago, BatMobile said:

Thats The same interior as the Stratton cars.

is that where the other 4 ended up? 

The other four were never produced. If you look at the nose of my car you will see it is slightly longer and sharper than the other cars including the Stratton’s cars

[Babas89]

5 minutes ago, TheKevlarKid said:

Tell you what does look unusual though, the white clocks...

Yes that's the only one I've see with that

[BatMobile]

How do the gte drive? 

These have the 430bhp engines so how would they compare to the current range? Would they be comparable to a gt430 or gt410 or 400?

in terms of tracking them, are they typical lotus - run all day, very composed and cheap to track?

[Babas89]

Next week I collect my GT430, I'll let you know about the difference between thé two cars.

The GTE is a really great GT cars, very confortable but still with Lotus handling as she love curve 

[Bravo73]

7 minutes ago, BatMobile said:

in terms of tracking them, are they typical lotus - run all day, very composed and cheap to track?

Cheap? Yep, probably. Until you touch something then find that you have to replace an irreplaceable part or panel. 

[TheKevlarKid]

Std Evora parts aren't far behind the cost of the mansory stuff these days!! As I've already stated above, all the bespoke bodywork is available. Insurance covers it after that..

[TheKevlarKid]

They're great on track btw. Have done a fair few trackdays in my red car.

They need a bit of geo putting on them from stock to get the best in terms of handling and tyre wear. Turn in is razor sharp, the car is very well balanced around the driver for the weight it's carrying (you're chucking 1.5t about when you have a pax in with you). It really is a lovely thing to drive to the limits.

Std brake discs are relatively cheap but don't last long with hard punismnet (I killed a set of fronts in approx 800miles of track driving). If you're going to do regular t/d's then youre better off with a set of uprated front discs when you kill the stock ones.

[21gg]

On the road the GT350's are a comfy sofa due to the well know s1 ride. When you lean on them they do respond well, a bit of body roll as always with Lotus but nothing detrimental. They don't understeer like standard Evora's do. Only had mine on track once, it was very wet and my fronts were worn so not worth commenting on.

Go and try strattons and levens and come back to us!  oh, and don't take you're credit card 

 

I had a short drive of a gt430 on the road but it was still being run in and was wet. It did sem harsher than my GTE definitely. If you were using it every day I think the GTE would be comfier.