Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[stephenwhyte]

2 hours ago, RichardJGC said:

I'm intrigued by the piece of carpet visible to the left in the engine bay shot.

I don't remember seeing any carpet that far down in a Turbo......perhaps an idea that didn't make it through to production?

Was struggling to see what you meant to begin with but now I see it.......it does appear there is carpet all the way down to the engine bay aperture. I wonder if @Bazza 907 has a similar thing going on with his?

[Lotusfab]

A nice shot!

[G_Reaper]

2 hours ago, 910Esprit said:

Does the copper car have to be such a shed?   Don't even think you can call it 'patina'

I think a good clean and it would come up very well and does indeed look like expectant patina to me.

Remember this has not been someones prize possession simply stored at Lotus iat various places after the interest in the film died down from the early 80s to its sale in 1997 in the Lotus collection sell off. To a new life behind a chain barrier as a exhibit where the inside and engine bay cannot be viewed. Looks pretty standard for a car that has stood this long. Also remember in its white colour it was a road test early production car NOT A PROTOTYPE  so the engine will have seen some action. I know it may look like carpet in the photo of the engine bay but I think you will find in further Fabian photos it is not , just a dirty panel with ingrained white dust out of focus being at the edge of the photo.

Buddsy with his Lotus connections perhaps could answer many of the questions that are asked on this forum over and over about these cars come on get your finger out Buddsy.

Its simple the build book held at Lotus for 10930 Copper Fire Deezer car car and 10929 White Deezer car would state there build spec and use at Lotus + colour change and allocated UK registration number.

10930 Copper car at Deezer in my research is OPW654W ex white press demo car.

10929 White car at Deezer in my research was a press demo car OPW664W (Never used in the film but used as a promo prop as it is the same spec as the white film car) I really needed to know if this car had a N/A engine then the whole Bond mystery would have been solved if these reg numbers and this info could be confirmed. 

Cheers Mike

[Andyww]

3 hours ago, RichardJGC said:

I'm intrigued by the piece of carpet visible to the left in the engine bay shot.

I don't remember seeing any carpet that far down in a Turbo......perhaps an idea that didn't make it through to production?

That definitely is carpet, it has the sewn edging. But this was a production car not a pre-prod.

Another oddity in the same picture is it has both types of engine cover latch, the early type which was press-and-turn fasteners and the later which were the over-centre latches.

[Lotusfab]

Sorry Mike, I didnt have a chance to confirm the aspiration of the white car. There was a problem getting into the Copper Fire car,  which caused a slight distraction! I may come back in the next few months. If I do I shall be going car to the museum.

 

[G_Reaper]

1 hour ago, Lotusfab said:

Sorry Mike, I didnt have a chance to confirm the aspiration of the white car. There was a problem getting into the Copper Fire car,  which caused a slight distraction! I may come back in the next few months. If I do I shall be going car to the museum.

 

That's no problem Fabian the main thing is I hope you got out of your trip the information you need. 10930s interior looks exactly as per MPW.

 

2 hours ago, Andyww said:

That definitely is carpet, it has the sewn edging. But this was a production car not a pre-prod.

Another oddity in the same picture is it has both types of engine cover latch, the early type which was press-and-turn fasteners and the later which were the over-centre latches.

If it is carpet then that would not surprise me. I learned when I had contacts with the Lotus back door development department once a car was used as a factory car anything was possible in terms of part swaps and testing and trying out new ideas. A prime example of this was the statement in a letter from Lotus about MPW in which they said after MPW had finished its use as an Essex development car and its further Bond re-trim it was left sitting in the car park unused. They needed a car to hide the dev work on the new V8 Etna engine so MPW was hauled out of the car park and it once again became useful to Lotus, when the Etna project was cancelled MPW was again redundant left in the dev department long time before Lotus were contracted to develop the Corvette engine. MPW was brought into use again to develop the Corvette induction system on the Etna Lotus V8. It is no coincidence the Corvette (I think it was the LT5) engine is in many ways actually a production version of the Etna V8. 

What you need to understand is these cars were not precious to Lotus they were mere products and promotion tools. Hence NCL was sold in the mid-eighties to a Lotus employee and thus its subsequent appearance a low budget films car chase. Another example is the second white S1 from TSWLM which was used by the factory after filming and spirited away anonymously. Peter Nelson bought NCL from a private owner in Leeds in the late 80s these cars were of no extra special interest to people, the interest now is quite amazing. That is how Peter Nelson built up many of the exhibits in his collection by buying ex props that cost no more than a good example of that particular marque would have cost anyway.

I had quite a few conversations and a long meeting with Peter back in the early 90s discussing his collection and examining NCL in much the same way as Fabian has examined 10930. Peter did not own 10930 back then he bought it much later at the 1997 Lotus auction.

Cheers Mike

[Lotusfab]

More engine bay.

[Lotusfab]

I like this!

Andy we'll have to recreate this at Newlands Corner! Well add the Copper Fire on!

[G_Reaper]

Hi Andy I see what you mean I looked at the wrong part of the photo of the engine bay I can see the carpet now you are talking about on the quarter panels very strange. MPW had no engine bay quarter panels when I bought it you could see the insulation on top of the petrol tanks so I cannot compare the 2.

Edited January 11, 2018 by G_Reaper2

[Andyww]

Yes I will need to park in the middle though so nobody notices my BBS wheels

[Andyww]

Another oddity is the Lumenition module is sitting in the boot, not in the encased box in the engine bay.

I some ways this looks like a pre-production car but it is not, according to the chassis number etc.

[Lotusfab]

Is this the carpet you mean? If so I’ve got another job!

[RichardJGC]

That’s the one! ?

[Lotusfab]

Froyou can sort of see here the true carpet colour, it’s terracotta. The scary thing is I believe it’s the same colour as the Auto Art model picture I put on earlier. They must have studied the car and maybe have pictures of it? 

[RichardJGC]

Perhaps it was AutoArt crawling all over it before?

[Lotusfab]

Mmm, maybe. I picked this colour to match, then thought of the Auto Art model, scary similarity?

[G_Reaper]

Yep. That's the carpet iis normally only on the quarter shelves. Fabian I might have a carpet sample for you I will check, it is a copper terracotta which matches very well the exterior what colour did you think it was?

Andy it is still a very early "factory car" i.e its use even as a press demo car would have meant extra care would have been taken in ensuring it was built as well as possible with any mods that might aid reliability and serviceability in the field before it rolled off the production line, also Lotus have a habit of their early production cars still being in a state of development. This Factory car will have been extensively stripped back and then reassembled during its re-colour and unique colour scheme. Remember Lotus were trying various changes on the Bond cars only some of which made it to the production cars. The Lotus embossed rear bumper made it to production as did Copper Fire colour and leather trim but evidently the quarter panel carpet did not. 

 

[Lotusfab]

The pictures don't really show what the colours are like. The carpets are dirty and the lighting is dim. When you see it in reality they aren't brown, When you put brown samples next to the carpet you can see it is terracotta.

26 minutes ago, G_Reaper said:

Yep. That's the carpet iis normally only on the quarter shelves. Fabian I might have a carpet sample for you I will check, it is a copper terracotta which matches very well the exterior what colour did you think it was?

Andy it is still a very early "factory car" i.e its use even as a press demo car would have meant extra care would have been taken in ensuring it was built as well as possible with any mods that might aid reliability and serviceability in the field before it rolled off the production line, also Lotus have a habit of their early production cars still being in a state of development. This Factory car will have been extensively stripped back and then reassembled during its re-colour and unique colour scheme. Remember Lotus were trying various changes on the Bond cars only some of which made it to the production cars. The Lotus embossed rear bumper made it to production as did Copper Fire colour and leather trim but evidently the quarter panel carpet did not. 

 

Mike if you have a sample that would be fantastic!

[Andyww]

If you follow your arrow further there are 2 screw heads. I am pretty sure those are usually painted body colour , anyone confirm? But they seem to be white.

[Andyww]

24 minutes ago, G_Reaper said:

 

Andy it is still a very early "factory car" i.e its use even as a press demo car

 

 

Both these cars were around midway through the Essex run so not really that early but this seems to have a lot of odd differences.

[G_Reaper]

Andy OPW654W which is in reality the Copper Deezer car was a press cars first before any Bond work. OPW664W  the white Deezer Car I therefore also presume was probably a press car before acting as a stand in Bond car for promo work purely because it was in the same colour trim spec as OPW654W before its transformation to Copper Fire.

Factory cars get used and abused and changed all the time as they are not sold straight to the public from a show room. 

[Andyww]

6 minutes ago, G_Reaper said:

Andy OPW654W which is in reality the Copper Deezer car was a press cars first before any Bond work.

Yep, forgot about that sorry! Its confusing with the colour and reg charges. This is the real 654W not the white car! So yes, this is the actual car on the front of the Jeremy Walton book which must have been really thrashed as the primary press car. Actually the state of this car adds to the confirmation that this is that car.

So that extra engine bay side carpet might well have been a one-off press car "fettling" addition.

There was another white press car to make things even more confusing, 667W but that was later on.

[G_Reaper]

3 hours ago, Andyww said:

 

Both these cars were around midway through the Essex run so not really that early but this seems to have a lot of odd differences.

Yes it may be mid way through the Essex run but early in terms of non Essex Dry sump turbos. 

I suspect the quarter panel carpet would have been a Bond add on along with the Lotus Embossed rear Bumper, for the shots when the tailgate is opened and Bond's luggage is removed from the car outside the Hotel. One of the Bond add ons that did not make it to production along with the coloured steering wheel and of course the ski racks.

So Fabian I would say this is a must for your car. I have a role of the correct carpet in my loft from the supplier who supplied Lotus. I know its product code and manufacturer /supplier so no problem to replicate.

3 hours ago, Andyww said:

If you follow your arrow further there are 2 screw heads. I am pretty sure those are usually painted body colour , anyone confirm? But they seem to be white.

Well spotted Andy I think you are correct!!

Shows the level to which the car was stripped to repaint.

I think OPW667W probably came to a sticky end early in the 80s according to DVLAs records it has been untaxed since then. It also had its 4 stud comps changed for BBS 5 studs and was photographed while on press duty with these BBS wheels before it vanished off the radar.

Edited January 11, 2018 by G_Reaper2

[Andyww]

3 hours ago, RichardJGC said:

Perhaps it was AutoArt crawling all over it before?

 

The Autoart models are amazing and it would not surprise me if they visited the museum. It even has the incorrect HC bonnet! Also roof stereo!

[Lotusfab]

Think your correct Andy. Auto arts model even in respect of the ski racks could only have been made with reference to the real car, it's just too accurate. They must have measured it all before me. The ski brackets are uncanny in there design and shape. 

Thanks Mike. Is that the Terracota carpet or the sidewall carpet you have found?