Esprit

Theirs is an S2 Exige. Less power than mine had stock for stock and 150+kg heavier. The S2 Exige is basically an Elise with a roof. The S1 was a racing variant of the Elise.

It's ok, their Lotus isn't a particularly fast or rare one Still, should be nippy enough to give you a thrill

HAha if I did, I'd have a finished Exige I couldn't drive thanks to certain missing appendages.

Would love to, but already have plans tonight

lotus's (loti?) are so cool. my uncle used to have a 1999 elise same colour as your exige. twas so cool/quick/awesome. i believe it had the toyota celica engine in it though

If it was 99, it'd be rover powered. Toyota engines only came along in the 04. A stock Elise is a wonderful thing to behold. I miss my old one, so delicate and fun. I also miss my father's one, sadly that one's never coming back. In the market for another not though

Took her for her first drive today! Well first in her current iteration anyway. Took it over to get a wheel alignment done and it behaved a lot nicer on the way home.

It's got a 6500RPM limiter on it so it's killing the power at about the 170nhp mark but you can feel she just wants to take off! It's sounding a lot better than it did before too.... creamily smooth and sounds so crisp!

No leaks, no rattles, gearbox is behaving itself, so touch wood it's all looking good.

It's idling happily at 1050RPM but sounds like it wants to rip your face off doing it.

Handling is incredible. It's been so long since I've driven it, I'm falling in love all over again.

Tomorrow lunchtime I'mma take it down to get its WOF so it's all officially road legal again, then I just need some nice fine weekend days to start racking up some miles. With daylight savings and long sunny* evenings only another week away... timing couldn't have been better**.

* Sunny not guaranteed.... actually this is the most unpredictable time of year weatherwise.

** Actually it'd have been nice this time of year three years ago thanks!

Well a VERY full on day today, has kept me very busy!

I spent the fist part of the day making up some brackets to hold the fire extinguisher nozzles in the engine bay. No photos of these yet, as they're currently curing as I've bonded them to the back face of the dressing panels in the engine bay. Should be good to fit next weekend.

The remainder of the day was spent refitting the rear clam and hatch with the help of my good friend Richy, followed by the rear arches etc. and I got finished about an hour ago:

The camera and car looks like shit as it was just my phone and I've not yet cleaned it so it's caked in shit. That can wait for a week or two until I'm sure that it's not going to have to come to bits again.

The only minor pisser was that the rear clam has picked up a scratch in the past few months sitting in the garage where I suspect my landlord was a little clumsy getting his toolbox out past the clam. Most of it'll buff out and it's not too noticeable but it did just piss me off a bit. I've not done anything with the bodywork on the car yet, so I guess I'll get it 100% next year if I can be bothered when I respray the car to get it perfect.

In the meantime, I'm having a beer to celebrate a hard day's work. I'm looking forward to getting the wheel alignment and WOF done this week so I can start putting some miles on.

Well, so far so good! One day of work down on the car and the car now starts and runs. Today went fairly smoothly with only a couple of minor hiccups but all in all everything went to plan. The engine started pretty easily this time around after a couple of coughs and splutters it started after about 6 seconds on the starter.

Tomorrow I'll be getting the bodywork back in place and hopefully taking the car for a quick shakedown/test run before its WOF and wheel alignment during the week.

Smooth sailing.

A small update, but no pics tonight. The engine's back mated with the gearbox after a bit of struggling around, and the engine is now sitting happily back in the engine bay. MASSIVE thanks to Nikki and James Colverson again who this time came around in their stunning electric-lime-coloured Exige S260 to lend a couple of pairs of much-appreciated hands.

It took a good three hours to get the box and engine reunited, then the whole lot back in the engine bay as it put up a decent fight and we were going very carefully. But it's in there now and that means first thing in the morning I can begin the task of hooking everything up. Having the engine already back in is a MASSIVE head start compared to where I wanted to be.

Car will be back in one piece before the end of the weekend! HUZZAH!

Just a quick update. I've got the gearbox back this afternoon, along with a bag of old bits we've replaced. Here's the old 5th gear and 5th/6th selector mechanism.

It's clear that this has run dry and gotten hot which has caused the failure along with previous wear in the box.

Should be good to go from here on in!

Going to spend tomorrow night in the garage after work, get the box back on the engine and hopefully get the engine back in the hole.

Plan is to spend Saturday hooking it all back up and refilling with fluids.

Sunday we'll get the engine started followed by the remounting of all the bodywork ready to get a WOF and rear wheel alignment early in the week.

The last of my gearbox bits arrived today finally! The gearbox will be reassembled this afternoon and I'll pick it up before lunch tomorrow. Thank goodness! This weekend I can screw it all together, stuff it back in the hole and turn the key!

Fully dressed it's around 82kg, or a little under.

Ah well keep at it, When your done you will have quite possibly the most bad arse road going lotus on our shores.

Well here's hoping If I can ever finish the thing I'll be stoked

12A PP, you'll be able to swap it out within 5 minutes and be able to lift it in and out yourself. Downside is Exiges dont have much room for rotor hoes

from my hazy memory of mr esprit, he is the type of guy whos all about the rota hoez and camo doorcards.

Hahah 12As are substantially heavier than a RoverK

And yeah, the Exige is a Chlamydia-free zone so that rules a rotang out

Eh what's a few more days waiting for this part.

If this is true, then I'm not really bothered.... it's just that the project has just been waiting a few days for a part for most of the past 18 months.... I've been going 3.5 years on this sodding car now without driving or enjoying it..... I was a young man when I started.... I have grey hairs now.

Maybe BMC A-series?

Hehe, nah the 2zz ain't that bad, just in Elises they've proven pretty fragile things until you spend good money on them.... although I suppose that's no different to the Rover I've got now, except the Rover is at least light

Sadly it's all the engine in/out business that's ripping my sack right now

Would rather root my own mother than resort to a crappy 2ZZ

Car ate all my money.... no money to be addicted to anything else. Being dirt poor is a good way to avoid addiction.

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!

I got the gearbox bits today and took them over to KW, which was all good. But when I inspected the bits it turns out we're still one bit short thanks to a miscommunication. On top of this there's another part (the 5th gear on the input shaft) that I'm not 100% happy with and would rather replace than risk assembling it into the rebuilt gearbox.

This is going to cost another buttload in shipping and delay things a few days, which means my weekend which I'd planned to be spending getting the car reassembled means I'll be instead spending the weekend sitting around with my thumb up my arse.... great!

Bloody car, I really don't know why I bother, I don't get any joy from it any more and I truly have reached my limit with it now.... I just want it finished so the bills can stop and I can buy a house.

http://helmart.co.nz/

Supplier and painter of ARAI GP-series helmets

Just a little pre-weekend update.... replacement gearbox parts have been ordered and should be here middle of next week at the latest. Aiming to get the box bolted back to the engine and the engine back in the car and running next weekend. Hopefully the following week will involve getting the clam back on and doing some skids.

This weekend I'll be making up a new, improved inlet manifold gasket and trying to get everything matched up as closely as I can.

I remember once upon a time when I had a life.

It will be painted by someone who knows exactly what they're doing, trust me

Not really build related, but the car must be getting close to completion now because my new helmet showed up today.

It's an Arai GP5W, and I've wanted one for some time since I tried one on a couple of years back. The visibility is a lot better out of the wider eyeport and when in the Exige I'll be using it with a peak and not the visor as it's got fitted now. This should allow a lot more ventilation inside a hot closed cockpit, which is something that on longer track sessions becomes a problem in NZ. Especially on trackdays where they won't let you run with the windows down!

Oh and yeah, it's plain white... but it won't be staying that way for too long I hope

Possibly up to 1000... engine built to handle over 9000, but 8500 will be safe. Power will probably peak around 8400 though I'd guess.