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March 2004
LEW in Metro Newspaper
After sending in an email to London's Metro Newspaper about cars in the movies. LEW appear in the paper today (30th March), with reference to the Esprits appearance in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. A reference to Lotusespritworld.com was also printed alongside a picture of Roger Moore getting into the white S1 from the film.
Hopefully a few London based Esprit owners who don't know of LEW will come and have a look!
LEW @ Donington
Great day at Donington yesterday. Nice to meet so many LEW users. iBooks due back tomorrow, so hopefully a full report of the day will follow in the next few days.
LEW/Yahoo! Oxford Meeting
The First LEW/Yahoo! Oxford Meeting this year will be on Sunday 2nd May 2004. Same format as last year. Hoping to have a special guest this year, so keep an eye out for more details. Just make sure you're free that Sunday!
Remember the Clocks go 'FORWARD' Saturday night!
LEW @ Donington
Everyone to meet at my Esprit (will have a LEW sun screen in the window, Black SE) at midday on Sunday. That way everyone can get together and meet up. Will make it easier for new faces to get to know everyone. See you all there!
Let's go for a big group photo!
LEW Tyre Discounts!
The Lotus Esprit World Team is currently negotiating a discount on tyres from a major outlet. This would mean around a 5% discount for mentioning Lotus Esprit World when ordering. More news once a deal is done.
LEW & ClassicLine Insurance
Lotus Esprit World & ClassicLine have finalised their agreement and the valuations and discounts are now available to all Esprit owners. See the Valuation page under Buying & Running.
Please read the form carefully before sending it off, as this will speed up your valuations return.
All information on our deal with ClassicLine is under the 'Buying & Running' section.
Donington 2004
LEW will again be at Donington for the Lotus Festival. The major Esprit gathering will be on the Sunday (28th March), as the event is held over two days Saturday 27th – Sunday 28th March 2004. The will be a few meet up points around the country for those wishing to join up with other Esprit owners for the journey to Donington. More information will be posted here once available.
I'll be meeting up at Newport Pagnell Service Station on the M1 (North bound) at around 8.15am to leave at 8.30pm.
Anyone from Thames Valley/West London going to Lotus Parts Fair at Donington Park on next Sunday (27th) I suggest we meet at the Little Chef (NORTH BOUND on the A34 at Weston on the Green, nr. Oxford). For those of you who have not met up there before it is about 2 miles from Junction 9 on the M40. I SUGGEST WE TRY AND LEAVE AT 9:00AM, I will try to be there by 8:45am. It will take us 1hr up the M40/M42 to Donington Park
There are other meeting points around the country.
If you don't know what to expect then take a look at the reports from the last few years.
Hope to see plenty of Esprit owners at the first big meeting of the year!
Bleeding Brakes
I'll be doing a full bleed of my braking system this weekend, weather permitting! The procedure for this (SE with Delco system) is quite involved, so I'll be putting together a full guide. I will also be adding instructions for bleeding the later K&H system.
More iBook Trouble
Lotus Esprit World's Apple iBook is playing up for the third time now! Seems it's going to have to be repaired (again!). So the site and emails might be a bit quiet for a while. Should be able to get some work done and answer some emails, but don't expect the usual service for a few weeks.
UPDATE: iBooks been picked up today (Friday 19th). So should be back at the end of next week (hopefully)! I'll be able to do some updates on the site, but ususal service won't be resumed until the end of next week (just before donington).
This problem is nothing to do with Golf Computers plc
I DESIGNED THE LOTUS ESPRIT
ROARS DRUNKEN GIUGIAROwww.sniffpetrol.com/issue001.html
Car design maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro has reacted angrily to accusations by some bloke that his recent work has been a load of rubbish.
"I designed the Lotus Esprit" snarled the Turin-based designer, "and you didn't".
Critics maintain that much of Giugiaro's recent work has been bland and derivative, with none of the flair or intelligent detail that earned his early work such acclaim. The man himself is unrepentant: "Which cars have you designed?" he shouted when asked for further comment; "The Lotus Esprit. Oh no, wait a minute, that was me wasn't it. That's right, ME. I designed the Lotus Esprit and no one else did so NURRR."
Colleagues and fellow designers are clearly alarmed by Giugiaro's anger. "This is very sad," notes British designer Peter Stevens, "and anyway, I did the facelift."
Esprit Video Clips
Have a look here for some interesting video clips featuring the Esprit. www.ao.net/~billg/carmovies/carmovies.htm
Available as a Wallpaper here
Email Virus
LEW has been receiving a increase in Virus emails lately. These have included emails ghosted from LEW. So I've actually had emails from Lotus Esprit World to Lotus Esprit World. Please do not open any attachments attached to these emails, as they could contain a virus. The only attachments sent out via LEW are Checklist or Receipts pdfs, and only if they have been requested.
As has been mention before, LEW runs on a Macintosh system, which is unaffected by these virus's, so you will not receive any virus's from LEW, but it may look like you have, as the sites emails are being ghosted. Please be careful. Below is the text from an email I've received from myself:
Hello user of Lotusespritworld.com e-mail server, Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions. Pay attention on attached file. Best wishes, The Lotusespritworld.com team
Stainless Steel Manifolds
A few people have been asking how the search for a stainless Steel Manifold for the 4-cylinder Esprits was going. After talking to the factory, some Lotus independents and exhaust makers, LEW came to a bit of a dead end. The trouble with the stainless steel version, is that it couldn't support the weight of the turbo once it reaches high working temperatures, around 1000°C. The cast manifold can easily support the weight at this temperature.
After talking to a few suppliers a company said they could make a crane to support the weight of the turbo, that would be attached to the side of the engine block. The price for this would be around £1,000, which isn't a bad price, but the problem is this design was totally untried and untested, which was quite a risk. So it anyone wishes to become a test bed for other Esprit owners, we'd love to see the results. At the moment we are stuck with the 'cracking' cast Lotus version.
LEW Insurance Deal 'Close'
Lotus Esprit World is currently in negotiations with ClassicLine insurance to provide an insurance discount for Lotus Esprit Drivers of up to 15%. LEW is also going to become ClassicLine's valuation source for all Esprits. This would mean that LEW will be providing your official valuations for any 'Agreed Value' policies. This will give owners of cars valued under £15,000 another £5 discount on their insurance. ClassicLine also offer multiple car policies, which means you can insure all your cars on the same policy. This should be up and running by the end of the month.
Master and Slave
After my Esprit returned from having a new manifold, it lasted two days before something else was up (typical Esprit). My clutch pedal started to take a split second before it came back up after changing gear. Also travel became slightly shorter and the change was getting notchy (more than usual). This all happened on a short journey and once safely home the Esprit wasn't taken out again. I'd also lost most of the Clutch fluid in the master cylinder.
As I'd had a new PUK 35%+ Clutch fitted not long ago and had changed the Red Hose a while ago, this didn't leave much left. I knew it wasn't the gearbox as it wouldn't affect the clutch pedal.
Next day I ordered a new Master and Slave cylinder from PNM Engineering. The Slave is a standard Lotus Part and is just over £50. The Master Cylinder is a PNM sourced Wilwood cylinder. This should be of a better quality than the standard Lotus one and is £35 instead of £85. As both were in stock, I had them within two days.
Sunday was spent changing both over. I wasn't sure which was causing the problem, but was sure if I only changed the broken part the other part would soon give up. I pretty sure it was the master cylinder that was broken. You can buy kits for repair both cylinders, but for the price I didn't think it was worth it and decide to fit new parts. The slave is easy to change, the master was a little more difficult. Once fitted and the system bled, the test drive proved successful. The new master cylinder provides a smoother, lighter pedal feel as well. A guide will be on the site shortly.
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