Nearest Lotus garage

[ZR1427]

Ime in the Basingstoke ,North Hampshire area and wanna buy some Lotus stickers and badges,where's the nearest Lotus garage/parts shop to me,Thanks in advance.

[xxplod]

There's Haydon Cars in Salisbury, who are no longer franchised dealers, but do have plenty of goodies. There is also Westover Sports Cars, in Blandford, Dorset. I work in Basingstoke. I drove to Blandford in a little over an hour - easy drive!

[ZR1427]

Thanks for that Scott,its along time since ive been to Salisbury and do vaguely remember a Lotus garage near the old city wall part

[Elanbloke]

Lotus dealers www.bell-colvill.co.uk in West Horsley (north of Guildford)would be another option.

[cuzza]

MIght be worth giving Club Lotus a call as they sell all that kind of stuff via their shop.

[ZR1427]

Thanks for that lads,,have you got a contact no address for Club Lotus.

[cuzza]

Here you go:

Club Lotus
41 Norwich Street
Dereham
NR19 1AD

01362 694459

www.clublotus.co.uk

You'll never convince anyone your Corvette is an Esprit you know Seriously, doesn't the 'vette have and engine breathed on by Lotus???

[ZR1427]

Thanks for the Address of the Lotus site.

Lotus did more than breath on the Engine they designed it,a short version of the story.

Somewhen in the 80's GM bought Lotus ,,,at a later date mid-late 80's GM wanted to build a vette that could compete with Europes finest so Lotus where bought in and told the that the engine had to conform with certain requirements one being it had to maintain 350ci(5.7Ltre) Lotus came back with a 4 cam 32 V all alloy motor called the LT5 backed by a 6 speed box.

They put it in a 90-95 body and called it a ZR1 the body is 3" wider on the back end than a stock vette to make room for the 315 tyres.

The car i think still holds the record for a STOCK ,PRODUCTION car for the 24 hour record with a average speed of around 176mph(it holds 12 world records),,it can return up to just over 30 to the gallon at selected speeds not bad for 5.7 ,and cruise in 6th gear @100mph @around 2200 rpm,the engine redlines at around 7100rpm.

There is a book on the LT5 and what Lotus went thru to get the performance but also taking in GM's criteria called 'Heart of the Beast' by Anthony Young

http://autoquarterly.com/books.html#125

Makes for interesting reading.

I still think LT5 is an abreviation of LoTuS

Hope i didnt bore you.

[cuzza]

I didn't realise it was a ground-up job, interesting and great to see someone with real enthuisiasm for their chosen marque!

Do I take it this is the beast you have - any chance of a picture of it??

[ZR1427]

Here's a photo of my car taken last year at the corvette nationals 03,the car is away at the moment at the workshops of Jeal&sons(who used to work for Lotus and was involved on the LT5 project) in Oxfordshire having some modifications ready for next year so we can compete at TOTB3 at Elvington.

She runs Coilovers,Brembobrakes allround and the motor has been taken out to 7 litres witha lot of trick bits and machining.

Ime sure a "Flat planed crank" version of an LT5 was used in an Elise or Exige for racing but because of rule changes had to revert to an Esprit Turbo V8.


http://community.webshots.com/s/image6/7/99/84/79079984zFMqxa_fs.jpg

[cuzza]

URL doesn't work

7 LITRES!?!?! - you could fit my engine in there!!!

Excuse my ignorance but what is TOTB??

[ZR1427]

cuzza said:

URL doesn't work 7 LITRES!?!?! - you could fit my engine in there!!! Excuse my ignorance but what is TOTB??

Thats Strange the URL works this end ,will sort that out.

TOTB is 'Ten of The Best' its the begining of August at Elvington airfield ,York ,when around 150 cars compete for the Top Ten fastest STREET legal cars in the UK ,there is 3 stages,Slalom,1/4 mile and 1.25 mile top speed run ,all cars must be street legal including tyres,tax & ins.

There are 3 class's RWD,FWD & AWD,it should make for a good weekend.

I see you run an Elise, How do you find it,bet its good fun

>> Edited by ZR1427 on Tuesday 13th January 20:48

[cuzza]

ZR1427 said:

Thats Strange the URL works this end ,will sort that out. TOTB is 'Ten of The Best' its the begining of August at Elvington airfield ,York ,when around 150 cars compete for the Top Ten fastest STREET legal cars in the UK ,there is 3 stages,Slalom,1/4 mile and 1.25 mile top speed run ,all cars must be street legal including tyres,tax & ins. There are 3 class's RWD,FWD & AWD,it should make for a good weekend. I see you run an Elise, How do you find it,bet its good fun

It says I don't have permission, maybe you need to make the album public??

The Elvington weekend sounds great, are you allowed to fettle the car between the rounds, I'd imagine a good slalom car doesn't necessarily do good quarter miles?

By the way we are having a PH get together on the 25th to run down the A272 to Goodwood from West Meon and back to pub for lunch, it'd be great to see you there if you can make it (not too far from Basingstoke).

The Elise is great fun but fiunding good roads to exercise it on is getting harder and harder so I'll be off to the track this year

[ZR1427]

Gotcha on the link,ile sort it

Yes you can play with the car between stages as they give you all day to enter in all events as they are going on at the same time,i think there are axle changes and such.

There will be a bunch of us of the vette forum and viper forum entering plus others around PH i dare say,come and join in ,it promises to be a good weekend.

I will try and make it on the 25th Family and work commitments allowing although i will be vetteless,if not another time with the vette.

Keep us imformed of the track events as a few of us vetteheads wouldnt mind a shake down.