#CarSOS
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Take one cherished car that has seen better days, add an owner in need of a helping hand. Fuzz Townshend and Tim Shaw secretly whisk the wheels away to a well equipped workshop before surprising the unsuspecting owner with their newly restored classic.
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For men of a certain age, the lotus esprit S1 despite not being that fast will always be gorgeous thanks to James bond
Owning a classic car will mean 80% of your time will be spent working on it, 10% pushing it and 10% driving. If you don't like the first two buy an MX5, you'll get a similar experience without the hassle.
Sorry sir, but the Lotus Esprit is a light car. When compared to it's equals. And it also won as the most safe car at the time. My 1990 SE is 1120,597 kilo and that is a lot lighter and also faster than a Testarossa. Regarding burning Esprit, I strongly believe they are not worse than any other composite based super car.
The crap fuel we have now also contributes to this factor, as it eats up fuel lines. Cut one and look at the star shaped cracks fron inside out. Really dangerous.
Finally, as Esprits have been cheap for years, they have been bought by many average basher Joe and treated thereafter – bad. No service. It's is still a supercar.
I don't know about yours, but mine is not a glass fiber car. It's a mix of glassfiber, nomex and kevlar. I added the carbon. Take a look at an old TVR how bad the glassfiber is made. A world of difference to the Lotus Esprit.
I might add that some of the stress crtacks we see ow som 30-40 years later, are due to the way that the cars were lifted. – wrongly, and that put stress to the body. The later cars from Stevens design onwards were actually 60 percent stiffer than earlier models, as well as stiffer frame etc. Another factor that one has to count in, is the amount of people who installed very hard suspension on to these cars, and that will transfer more vibrations and sudden loads on to the body mounts, where they typically may show some stress cracks. Those have to be adressed before the can be painted, or they will show up again immediately. when the car is driving. The painting process is another whole chapter, I'm just saying, taht a quick spray over won't cut it. A propper job will last decades. Lotus themelves used a primer, then a sealer against chemicals from the fibermix, than a basecoat, then 4 layers of paint and finished off with 4 layers of clear coat.
Cheers.
But it IS a light car. An Esprit is lighter than a MX-5 Miata or Toyota MR2. It's nearly 400 pounds lighter than a Ferrari 308, a full 1,000 pounds lighter than a 1st-gen Pantera.
"It always looks messy" That would be because you are not very skilled in GRP. It is usually a 2% mix ratio – Catalyst to resin.
Tim is absolutely right in what he says about classic car ownership. Good job!
watched all 7 seven seasons here in the US, Brilliant Show!! I hope we new shows soon!!