I can haz done a buyage (AND a sellage)

[drum]

Well jel BV, always wanted a lotus of some flavour. Nearest I've got so far is a scalextric JPS F1.

 

And welcome back.

[chaseracer]

Spider, not Coupe, shureley?

 

Hard to tell but - looking more closely and getting a 'weirdo' glance from Domestic Management - yes, you're right.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Yours is 'facelift' model, very similar inside to Excel. Very comfortable seats and pedal set up one of the best.

[Noel Tidybeard]

 

Early cars either had a four speed Lotus gearbox or the five speed gearbox derived by Lotus from Austin Maxi components

oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

[Doctormop]

Great to see you back BV,

I'm sure Lotus doesn't really stand for 'Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious' at all.

Pointless fact no 617 a Lotus Elite broke down at the end of our road in 1979, my parents being kindly souls invited the stricken Lotus owning couple in for a cuppa whilst the AA arrived.

7 year old me was fascinated by this car, it looked like nothing I had ever seen before and after looking out of the window at it dribbling furiously I was asked by the very nice owner if I'd like to have a proper look at this metallic bronze beauty. I nodded shyly and next thing I knew I was sat in the driving seat making the electrical windows go up and down, sounds a bit sinister now I know but nothing untoward happened, no counseling required, the only long term trauma suffered by my good self apart from a fascination with unusual cars was the inability to look at a 70's Lotus without saying 'I sat in one of those once and it was all completely innocent'

Pretty poor for a Lotus story but the only one I have,

[Noel Tidybeard]

Great to see you back BV,

I'm sure Lotus doesn't really stand for 'Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious' at all.

Pointless fact no 617 a Lotus Elite broke down at the end of our road in 1979, my parents being kindly souls invited the stricken Lotus owning couple in for a cuppa whilst the AA arrived.

7 year old me was fascinated by this car, it looked like nothing I had ever seen before and after looking out of the window at it dribbling furiously I was asked by the very nice owner if I'd like to have a proper look at this metallic bronze beauty. I nodded shyly and next thing I knew I was sat in the driving seat making the electrical windows go up and down, sounds a bit sinister now I know but nothing untoward happened, no counseling required, the only long term trauma suffered by my good self apart from a fascination with unusual cars was the inability to look at a 70's Lotus without saying 'I sat in one of those once and it was all completely innocent'

Pretty poor for a Lotus story but the only one I have,

so what are you doing here then?

[Inspector Morose]

Good you're back.

 

Nice lotus.

[MrDuke]

Just awesome. Lotus being the only company to make a production vehicle look even more like a dodgy kit car than an actual dodgy kit car. Except for the chrome window trim, that kinda redeems it. Did I mention that it was awesome?

[wuvvum]

I like those.  Much better balanced design than the Elite imho.  Black colour scheme suits it too.

[Bren]

Welcome back into the fold.

 

Not content with re appearing with a 3 pot daihatsu or volvo 340, you turn up with a black and gold lotus.

 

If ths thread was an episode of blackadder, you would be Lord Flasheart.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Woof!

 

 

Re the Wiki quote about the gearbox (and guess who wrote that, BTW), the series 2 Eclat has a Getrag 5 speed, which is fine.  I had the Maxi derived 5 speed when I had an Elan Plus Two S130, and it was OK, but apparently it couldn't cope with the more torquey 900 series engine.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Well jel BV, always wanted a lotus of some flavour. Nearest I've got so far is a scalextric JPS F1.

 

 

 

 

Likely to be more reliable than  a real one.

 

This Eclat is my fifth Lotus  (previously: Europa Special, Europa Twin Cam, Elan Plus Two, Excel SE).  I is loff them. 

[oman5]

That Lotus is lovely, I've lusted after them since I was a kid

[Guest Breadvan72]

Things wot were borked on this car (now fixed):-

 

The carbs (rebuilt)

The points (replaced)

The rotor arm (replaced)

The starter (replaced)

The coil (replaced)

The fuel pump (cleaned)

The plugs (proper gaps set)

The tyres (four separate types of Ho Flung Dung special, replaced by Falkens)

The gearknob (foogly and loose, replaced by shiny chrome Lotus knob)

 

Things wot are still borked -

 

The rear demister

The wiggly woggly door mirror wobbler

The switch lights

The boot lock (missing)

Cam belt cover (missing)

Bonnet lining (missing)

The radio (loose wires somewhere)

The boot stayey uppy spring

The front brake pads (worn)

 

Also on list - change cam belt, oil suspension trunnions.

 

The paint is probably original and is quite worn and cracked in places. I have waxed the car, but it's not very shiny yet.   Solution:  Romanians.

 

Starts first go, drives tasty.

[garethj]

What a spiffing car, an excellent choice for commuting.

 

A mate had one of these back when I was in university in the early '90s, apparently the electric windows stopped working one day, no real surprise.  About a week later they started working again because the door mechanism had worn so much the windows could get an earth feed through the collapsed hinge pin.

 

Forget this nonsense about OBDII diagnostics, Lotus were making self-fixing cars back in the '70s!

 

ALSO. The headlining would sometimes fall down on his head, therefore making him lift off the throttle straight away.  I think we can see this as a forerunner to the adaptive cruise control or radar-controlled braking that's just coming out now.

 

Your list of borked things is nothing to worry about; most of them were probably broken when the car was new.  Pebble Beach concours will probably knock off a few points as you've replaced them with working items.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Is an Elite not more Breadvanny? The Éclat is very rakish.

Am I imagining it ,or was there a whole range of Eltes and Eclats, all with 50- numbers?

I briefly owned a red S reg Éclat, in a part ex deal. I drove it once and the windscreen trim came adrift,scratched the roof and got run over by my mate in,ironically ,a JPS 3.0 Crapi.

 

The Elites were all 50 something depending on whether they had aircon, power steering, autoboxes and so forth.   Chapman's Missus used to tool around in one, and the F1 Team drivers had them as their company wagons.

 

The windscreen trim famously came off the press car when it was launched, but the meeja still liked it.  Setright was very keen . 

[Guest Breadvan72]

WARNING: photos may contain dolly birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[barefoot]

Rather than the more traditional welcome back,

I have pm'd you an extensive list of people I want sueing to death.

[Rocket88]

Fine cars................usually suffer from too much electricity [and burst into flames] or not enough, [and decline to proceed..........................]

[Bren]

WARNING: photos may contain dolly birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like their boots.......very much.

[chaseracer]

...suspension trunnions...

 

WTaF?  I knew there'd be some Triumph Herald in there somewhere...

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Also: Inboard read drum brakes, less accessible than Kate Middleton's chuff.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I like their boots.......very much.

Those aren't boots, they're ear rings.

[M'coli]

Well bought, sir. I take it it has the Allegro-based 5-speed gearbag?

 

Edit: I don't know if it's been asked before, but I will read the rest of the thread later.

[Mr Lobster]

Hey, Welcome back Breadman!

[Guest Breadvan72]

This is a Series 2, so it has a 2.2 litre 912 engine and a Getrag five speed gearbox, ie one that works. Galvanised chassis, lecky pop up lights.

[Taff]

Also: Inboard read drum brakes, less accessible than Kate Middleton's chuff.

 

Ha! keyhole surgeon rather than a mechanic, then.

 

Top motor, BTW. I had a Corgi one back in 1980, which is probably fared as well as most full-size ones

[sporty-shite]

WOW. That is 1970s in one package. Love the rail station car park pic, too.

 

Top comeback. 1112313/10

[derskine]

Decent!

[jonny69]

Top. Purchase.

 

This was one of a long line of Lotus's major mistakes in car design, BUT LOOK AT IT!!!