Look at "panic over" I've got a soapbox reply !!!
Discussion
We should not be self critical ! The "two kit cars" comment says a lot about Lotus owners. Reminds me of something an Elise owner said to me when I asked about the problems he had been having with the car. He said, in a sort of sarcastic way: "Ah but it's a Lotus" Clarkson said, in his review of the V8: "The reason this car is less expensive than a Ferrari is that it's not as good...But there's nothing this country loves as much as a loser !" We should stop this nonsense and be unconditionally proud of our cars!! It's almost like a type of inverted snobbery: Look at me ! aren't I interesting, I've got a crap car !" I've done it myself, like there is some kind of bravery involved in owning a totally unreliable car. The Esprit is a world class supercar with there being very little this side of a hundred grand which can stay with it. It does what it says on the tin and well maintained, should give no more pain to its owner than a Ferrari, a Lamborghini or even a Porsche. You never hear an Italian making scathing comments about a Ferrari, however unreliable or tempramental it might be. I use my car daily and have done for over four years. I spend a lot of time surprising people with this remark. I fail to see why this should be surprising at all however. The Esprit is only a car, it's just a very special one ! I mean, does an olympic athlete get sick all the time ?? No !! of course not. Stop this nonsense forever !! The Esprit is an outstanding vehicle with few peers. Praise it unconditionally every chance you get.
The problem is no one remembers the good and when they do and something happens again, all of the good goes away and the focus is on the bad. That and the "reputation" the Lotus has of being an unreliable car precedes it.
My car logged 10k miles since I have got her almost 2 years ago. It is my second car. My daily driver logs twice as much mileage a year, easliy. She has seen not a drop of rain nor snow but every nice day I get, I take her out. She has been out of commission and on jack stands for a total of 4 days in 2 years. Once to do the axle seals and once to do the rear brakes. It of course got oil changes and minor adjustments here and there but nothing to keep it off the road for more than that day. What is the first thing out of my friends mouth? "Oh, you own a garage queen. You never drive that car. It is always broken." Yet every time I hang out and it is nice, I drive the car. My one friend I visit maybe once every other week and always take the Lotus. What does he say? "Oh, you got the Lotus today.". I have the Lotus almost every day! It gets annoying. I put a lot of love into the car and it was always a dream to own. I love taking her out and sharing it with everyone. You want to sit in it, go for a ride? Let's go! I have had strangers come up and show appreciation and I let them jump right in. They start to say anything negative, I'll correct them in the nicest way possible to educate them that ANY car can turn into a shitbox. I talk great about the car and if I do bring up its shortcomings (GM parts bin, Toyota parts bin, etc) it is jokingly yet I always finish the remark with how much I love it and how glorious a car it is.
Everyone, love your Lotus and share that with the world!
My car logged 10k miles since I have got her almost 2 years ago. It is my second car. My daily driver logs twice as much mileage a year, easliy. She has seen not a drop of rain nor snow but every nice day I get, I take her out. She has been out of commission and on jack stands for a total of 4 days in 2 years. Once to do the axle seals and once to do the rear brakes. It of course got oil changes and minor adjustments here and there but nothing to keep it off the road for more than that day. What is the first thing out of my friends mouth? "Oh, you own a garage queen. You never drive that car. It is always broken." Yet every time I hang out and it is nice, I drive the car. My one friend I visit maybe once every other week and always take the Lotus. What does he say? "Oh, you got the Lotus today.". I have the Lotus almost every day! It gets annoying. I put a lot of love into the car and it was always a dream to own. I love taking her out and sharing it with everyone. You want to sit in it, go for a ride? Let's go! I have had strangers come up and show appreciation and I let them jump right in. They start to say anything negative, I'll correct them in the nicest way possible to educate them that ANY car can turn into a shitbox. I talk great about the car and if I do bring up its shortcomings (GM parts bin, Toyota parts bin, etc) it is jokingly yet I always finish the remark with how much I love it and how glorious a car it is.
Everyone, love your Lotus and share that with the world!
toyroom said:
To wedg1e: Sorry, didn't mean to criticize you personally, I was just pointing out the tendancy we all seem to have towards maintaining the Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious myth and your entry just made me think of what Clarkson said in his V8 review. Sorry
No probs. I find that maintaining the myth means more cars for the diehards among us...
zeddie said:
I agree thoroughly - only badly maintained Esprits play up all the time!
Geoff.
I don't quite buy into the idea that only badly maintained vehicles have all the problems. I know of at least one Esprit V8 that was sold new and needed a complete change of a wiring harness within 3 months of the sale. Frankly, any car selling for $80,000 plus should be significantly more reliable than a Fiero.
Unfortunately, that simply isn't true. Someone buying a Lotus should do so for the pleasure of driving a truly unique vehicle while fully aware of the potential downtime and expense.
I equate owning a Lotus to owning a single engine plane. Plan to maintain the vehicle and expect to shell out at least $1000 for an unexpect repair on an annual basis.
My car has never stranded me anywhere or had what many refer to as a major failure. It was only undrivable 4 or 5 days in 4 years. It had some annoying things happen to it but nothing that could not be fixed in a day or so. I suppose if I had to take it to the auto repair shop it would have been out of action longer. But the down time was prepared for in advance and many of the parts replaced before a total failure occured.
After all many of the more reliable Esprit's had one thing in common, the owners had a pretty good idea of the condition of their cars at all times and when things needed to done. The Esprit has been almost as reliable as my daily driver and I drove my Esprit in quite a robust manner compared to my dailty driver.
A lot of people say these cars are not reliable like a regular car, but we do not drive them like a regular car. If I drove my daily driver in a similar fashion like an Esprit I'm sure my daily driver would need a bit more attention and repairs.
Does an olympic athlete get sick all the time? No they do not. But in the same thought they have a tendency to take better care of themselves, eat better, and train more to tune themselves up than the regular person. The Esprit is no different. The Esprit driver should be well aware of how the car should drive or what is the normal feel of their car. I know many Esprit drivers that are in tune with their car that any small quirk, tick or hiccup and they are out there finding the problem or why the car is behaving in that manner. Many of us can go drive someone else's Esprit and can tell if something is a miss or not quite right.
Most of us know it is usually much more cost effective to repair or replace before total failure as many times it is not the primary failure that costs so much but the 2nd and 3rd order failure that will cost you. Like in as the inexpensive timing belt that will take out the top half of the engine if it fails. A suspension part that fails that will do a whole lot of damage if it happens to fail while on a robust drive.
Ruined brake rotors from not replacing pads in time.
The list goes on.
If you don't know the hows and whys of an Esprit go learn from someone. Anyone who know will be more than glad to share the info.
>> Edited by cnh1990 on Tuesday 19th April 16:00
After all many of the more reliable Esprit's had one thing in common, the owners had a pretty good idea of the condition of their cars at all times and when things needed to done. The Esprit has been almost as reliable as my daily driver and I drove my Esprit in quite a robust manner compared to my dailty driver.
A lot of people say these cars are not reliable like a regular car, but we do not drive them like a regular car. If I drove my daily driver in a similar fashion like an Esprit I'm sure my daily driver would need a bit more attention and repairs.
Does an olympic athlete get sick all the time? No they do not. But in the same thought they have a tendency to take better care of themselves, eat better, and train more to tune themselves up than the regular person. The Esprit is no different. The Esprit driver should be well aware of how the car should drive or what is the normal feel of their car. I know many Esprit drivers that are in tune with their car that any small quirk, tick or hiccup and they are out there finding the problem or why the car is behaving in that manner. Many of us can go drive someone else's Esprit and can tell if something is a miss or not quite right.
Most of us know it is usually much more cost effective to repair or replace before total failure as many times it is not the primary failure that costs so much but the 2nd and 3rd order failure that will cost you. Like in as the inexpensive timing belt that will take out the top half of the engine if it fails. A suspension part that fails that will do a whole lot of damage if it happens to fail while on a robust drive.
Ruined brake rotors from not replacing pads in time.
The list goes on.
If you don't know the hows and whys of an Esprit go learn from someone. Anyone who know will be more than glad to share the info.
>> Edited by cnh1990 on Tuesday 19th April 16:00
Calvin,
I'm not certain if your response was general or directed. Every car I've ever owned has gone well over 100k miles and three have passed 200k. I think I understand the basics of auto maintenance.
In any event, there really isn't a preventive maintenance plan for cracked exhaust manifolds, poorly installed wiring harnesses or ECM failures. After reading this board on a daily basis for several years, I believe all of these areas are known faults for the Esprit. Our car has experience problems in each of these areas. I agree that the areas you mentioned should be captured by regular maintenance. I would even go so far as to say that the known corrosion of the fuel tanks should be detected prior to major problems. I suppose even the charge cooler pump could be labeled a maintenance item (although I'll never understand designing a device that is known to fail every 18k).
By the way, unless there is snow or rain forecasted, we drive our SE 40+ miles/day on a daily basis.
In the end, if someone asks me about owning an Esprit, I tell them that the car is a joy to drive, discuss some of the common problems associated with the car and advise them to read the Lotus Fact File to get a clear picture of the potential costs of maintaining the car.
I'm not certain if your response was general or directed. Every car I've ever owned has gone well over 100k miles and three have passed 200k. I think I understand the basics of auto maintenance.
In any event, there really isn't a preventive maintenance plan for cracked exhaust manifolds, poorly installed wiring harnesses or ECM failures. After reading this board on a daily basis for several years, I believe all of these areas are known faults for the Esprit. Our car has experience problems in each of these areas. I agree that the areas you mentioned should be captured by regular maintenance. I would even go so far as to say that the known corrosion of the fuel tanks should be detected prior to major problems. I suppose even the charge cooler pump could be labeled a maintenance item (although I'll never understand designing a device that is known to fail every 18k).
By the way, unless there is snow or rain forecasted, we drive our SE 40+ miles/day on a daily basis.
In the end, if someone asks me about owning an Esprit, I tell them that the car is a joy to drive, discuss some of the common problems associated with the car and advise them to read the Lotus Fact File to get a clear picture of the potential costs of maintaining the car.
My response was both general and directed. General in terms of one must accept the quirks of car and keep on top of them. directed to people who own Esprit's and give minimal service. I have actually heard of people who brag they have done nothing other than change oil. I would expect any future owner of those cars to have some problems to sort out. There are some that can barely afford to make payments on the Esprit let alone look after them properly. Doesn't matter if one does the work themselves or pays someone else to do it for them just that someone takes care of business.
I know of Esprit's that have gone over 100K miles and still run well for a 100K car. They don't run quite like a newer car but the performance is acceptable for a car of such mileage.
The Esprit was made for speed and performance, so is it perfect? no they are not. But they are not unreliable as many think they are. They are within what is expected. After all if one exposed the daily driver to the forces and speeds over 100 mph on a regular basis I would expect a lot more issues to come up on the daily driver, which just about everyone would agree with.
ECM failures are a fact of life too. It does not have to be a Lotus for this to occur. I've seen quite a few Esprit's and while I have heard of ECM failure I have yet to personally run across one gone bad. This is not to discount such an occurance. But I have seen ECM's on minivans go out with much more frequency just because there are more of them around. You can read the boards for problems areas and yes there are a few items one has to look out for. But remember people are quick to post a problem or ask for help with a problem. Far less people will post everything running fine or will post it only once or so and why waste the bandwidth. Multiple problems that are posted many times come the same car which would lead me to think some of these cars may not have been taken care of with the best effort maybe by a previous owner. I feel sorry for these owners as the hits just keep coming.
Chargecooler pumps? $40 and a hour of ones time. I consider it a maintnenece issue. I consider any part subjected to friction or extreme heat a wearable part. Wearable parts will need to be replaced one day. Yes there are no preventive measures to some items they will just wear out or exceed their duty cycle. Just as brake pads need to be replaced so will the exhaust manifold one day, sometimes as short as 40-50K miles. I know of many 10-15 year old Esprit's with about 40-50K. Replacing manifold at those times frames are quite reasonable It is my opinion that it is more cyclic in nature than miles put on the car. So I think the manifold does last longer if one takes longer less frequent drives. When Jim and I used to go play it was not uncommon to run our cars in a very robust manner for 400+ miles many times with speeds in excess of 120mph and with turns near 1g. Jim and I are really anal people with our cars. We give our cars for the lack of better words a physical before and after each session. I think Jim is more anal than I am about Esprit's.
After all no matter who says they drive their Esprit's daily the car was never really meant or designed to be a daily driver like some Toyota. It was made for an occassional use fun hobby car.
In the end, like yourself I tell them what a joy it is to drive. I also encourage them to work on their own cars. In this way they learn to take true ownership of the Esprit. To become in tune with the car. If you can fix it you know how it broke or got worn. If you know how it got broken or worn you can minimze, prevent or detect before total failure. JK1 on this forum is a good example, he is very good now with his car now and knows his S4s like the back of his hand. The Lotus is just a car and people can learn. More you practice the better one becomes.
It is a good hobby.
I you all have a good Lotus experience, I did.
Calvin
I know of Esprit's that have gone over 100K miles and still run well for a 100K car. They don't run quite like a newer car but the performance is acceptable for a car of such mileage.
The Esprit was made for speed and performance, so is it perfect? no they are not. But they are not unreliable as many think they are. They are within what is expected. After all if one exposed the daily driver to the forces and speeds over 100 mph on a regular basis I would expect a lot more issues to come up on the daily driver, which just about everyone would agree with.
ECM failures are a fact of life too. It does not have to be a Lotus for this to occur. I've seen quite a few Esprit's and while I have heard of ECM failure I have yet to personally run across one gone bad. This is not to discount such an occurance. But I have seen ECM's on minivans go out with much more frequency just because there are more of them around. You can read the boards for problems areas and yes there are a few items one has to look out for. But remember people are quick to post a problem or ask for help with a problem. Far less people will post everything running fine or will post it only once or so and why waste the bandwidth. Multiple problems that are posted many times come the same car which would lead me to think some of these cars may not have been taken care of with the best effort maybe by a previous owner. I feel sorry for these owners as the hits just keep coming.
Chargecooler pumps? $40 and a hour of ones time. I consider it a maintnenece issue. I consider any part subjected to friction or extreme heat a wearable part. Wearable parts will need to be replaced one day. Yes there are no preventive measures to some items they will just wear out or exceed their duty cycle. Just as brake pads need to be replaced so will the exhaust manifold one day, sometimes as short as 40-50K miles. I know of many 10-15 year old Esprit's with about 40-50K. Replacing manifold at those times frames are quite reasonable It is my opinion that it is more cyclic in nature than miles put on the car. So I think the manifold does last longer if one takes longer less frequent drives. When Jim and I used to go play it was not uncommon to run our cars in a very robust manner for 400+ miles many times with speeds in excess of 120mph and with turns near 1g. Jim and I are really anal people with our cars. We give our cars for the lack of better words a physical before and after each session. I think Jim is more anal than I am about Esprit's.
After all no matter who says they drive their Esprit's daily the car was never really meant or designed to be a daily driver like some Toyota. It was made for an occassional use fun hobby car.
In the end, like yourself I tell them what a joy it is to drive. I also encourage them to work on their own cars. In this way they learn to take true ownership of the Esprit. To become in tune with the car. If you can fix it you know how it broke or got worn. If you know how it got broken or worn you can minimze, prevent or detect before total failure. JK1 on this forum is a good example, he is very good now with his car now and knows his S4s like the back of his hand. The Lotus is just a car and people can learn. More you practice the better one becomes.
It is a good hobby.
I you all have a good Lotus experience, I did.
Calvin
cnh1990 said:
"... When Jim and I used to go play it was not uncommon to run our cars in a very robust manner for 400+ miles many times with speeds in excess of 120mph and with turns near 1g. Ahh... those were the days eh Calvin...?
"...Jim and I are really anal people with our cars. We give our cars for the lack of better words a physical before and after each session..." Very True...
"...I think Jim is more anal than I am about Esprit's..." Well, perhaps... many people do think I'm an ass...
It is a good hobby.
I hope you all have a good Lotus experience, I did.
Calvin
I agree with everything Calvin says (me?... anal??). But like everything, you do get out of it what you put into it. I am confident that the new owner of my Esprit will be getting a well sorted car which should cause minimal headaches and many more years and miles of driving pleasure.
As for me, I will miss my Esprit very much, 9 years of ownership is a long time, but as the saying goes...So many cars... So little time.... I have found a new love to pour my passion into. It'll be fun starting at the bottom of the learning curve and working my way up. I just hope I can find a forum with as many dedicated, friendly and educated owners as this one possesses. Not going away, but my future Lotus experience, at least in the short term, will have to be a vicarious one.
Happy Motoring!... Jim '00 Porsche Boxster (Guards Red/Tan-1 owner-17k mi.)
>> Edited by lotusguy on Thursday 21st April 15:02
I hesitate to continue this thread but can't resist.
I agree with most of your comments (excepting of course any comments of a personal nature relating to Jim).
The car is what it is and you do get out of it what you put into it. However, I don't believe in making excuses for a company that cut too many corners in bringing a supercar to the market.
For example, the exhaust manifold is cast iron. The block is aluminum. Seems strange to mate an antique manifold up to this block. A first year engineer knows the expansion of iron is different from aluminum thereby leading to premature failure. Same with the charge cooler, why shouldn't this pump last as long as the water pump? Pumps are not high tech items; yet, you can find instructions on the Internet on how to retrofit a Rule live well pump to the Esprit because of this poorly designed part.
Yes, only complaints get posted here. However, I see too many responses that say, "oh that is a known problem go see LEW for the fix." The latest example is the post concerning the wooden firewall. Who would believe that a wooden firewall has been fitted to an Esprit.
We've had our car for 8 years now. Probably will hold onto it for another year. We'll definitely miss it when it gone; however, as Jim indicated there are too many cars waiting to be enjoyed.
Regards
I agree with most of your comments (excepting of course any comments of a personal nature relating to Jim).
The car is what it is and you do get out of it what you put into it. However, I don't believe in making excuses for a company that cut too many corners in bringing a supercar to the market.
For example, the exhaust manifold is cast iron. The block is aluminum. Seems strange to mate an antique manifold up to this block. A first year engineer knows the expansion of iron is different from aluminum thereby leading to premature failure. Same with the charge cooler, why shouldn't this pump last as long as the water pump? Pumps are not high tech items; yet, you can find instructions on the Internet on how to retrofit a Rule live well pump to the Esprit because of this poorly designed part.
Yes, only complaints get posted here. However, I see too many responses that say, "oh that is a known problem go see LEW for the fix." The latest example is the post concerning the wooden firewall. Who would believe that a wooden firewall has been fitted to an Esprit.
We've had our car for 8 years now. Probably will hold onto it for another year. We'll definitely miss it when it gone; however, as Jim indicated there are too many cars waiting to be enjoyed.
Regards
the bottom line is with lotus quality varies (a fair bit somtimes) between different cars an even models in the same range. there not as unreliable (touch wood) as some would make out.
but i certainly wouldn't say they are robustly built things do go wrong an usually more often than one would like, but lets put it in perspective ferrari are not much better an tvr are well down in that respect, small volume sports car marques like these generally have a much lower quality standard an have done for a long time although things are improving a lot an the last 10yrs has seen a big increase in quality across the board from all these marques, except maybe tvr
but i certainly wouldn't say they are robustly built things do go wrong an usually more often than one would like, but lets put it in perspective ferrari are not much better an tvr are well down in that respect, small volume sports car marques like these generally have a much lower quality standard an have done for a long time although things are improving a lot an the last 10yrs has seen a big increase in quality across the board from all these marques, except maybe tvr
have to admit that an engine and gearbox should be sorted before putting the car on the market. Lotus almost had the 910 sewn up, then they binned it for emmissions or whatever. plus they should have sourced a stronger gearbox and clutch or uprated the un1 to well beyond what it is, done a Derrick Bell on it or something. If it is all in aid of keeping cost down they should have put in an option for a quaife and ap box/clutch option. that would have eaten up lots of sales as the people who buy a new £50,000 sports car probably could afford it if it were £60,000 with the tougher drivetrain.
Beats me why they don't develop a variable valve head for the 918. Proton must have some pretty good development kit available for Lotus to make use of. Or else buy the old Rover patent and put two of the things on the V8! Must be down to about 50p now...
Beats me why they don't develop a variable valve head for the 918. Proton must have some pretty good development kit available for Lotus to make use of. Or else buy the old Rover patent and put two of the things on the V8! Must be down to about 50p now...
okc-esprit said:Amen to that. I've enjoyed my S4s for 4.5 years. Everytime I consider going through the aggravation of selling it, I do something minor that makes it a little bit "new" to me but eventually I'll have to bite the bullet and sell it if I ever want to play with any of the other fun cars on my list.
as Jim indicated there are too many cars waiting to be enjoyed.
Jim,
Concerning a Boxster forum, a friend had the following comments:
"Porsche Pete's Boxster Board is the only place to go. It is a great, well-done bulletin board. Posters are not allowed to be abusive or profane, and the guys who run it are great. I have met them and many others personally. This board is the home page on my computer. I can't recommend it enough."
www.ppbb.com/board/986board.htm
Good luck.
Concerning a Boxster forum, a friend had the following comments:
"Porsche Pete's Boxster Board is the only place to go. It is a great, well-done bulletin board. Posters are not allowed to be abusive or profane, and the guys who run it are great. I have met them and many others personally. This board is the home page on my computer. I can't recommend it enough."
www.ppbb.com/board/986board.htm
Good luck.
okc-esprit said:
Jim,
Concerning a Boxster forum, a friend had the following comments:
"Porsche Pete's Boxster Board is the only place to go. It is a great, well-done bulletin board. Posters are not allowed to be abusive or profane, and the guys who run it are great. I have met them and many others personally. This board is the home page on my computer. I can't recommend it enough."
www.ppbb.com/board/986board.htm
Good luck.
Hey,
I checked out this site and it looks great... thanks for the referral! I have admired the Boxster and studied it since the first prototype was released by Porsche back in '92. The one I bought I found in St. Louis (I'm in Minneapolis). I flew in to STL on Tuesday am and picked the car up and drove it the 650 miles to Mpls. It is a great car, not better than the Esprit, just different, certainly more modern.
As I've said, I'll miss the Esprit, the boxster is no Esprit by any stretch. Still, it's fun, well-engineered, comfortable and it'll flip it's lid, something my Esprit would never do. I'm still a major fan of Lotus and Chapman's philosophies, but afterall, they're not the only ones who make great cars.
Happy Motoring! ...Jim'00 Porsche Boxster
Jim,
I'll have to stop by for a look at the ride.
OKC, if you ever meet Jim in person he is a pretty precise person, he can be anal about things. Which is not a bad thing when it comes to an Esprit. My personal description of Jim is something I have said to him in person and is not really a slam.
The chargecooler is an acceptable quirk. It just takes an 1 hour to fix and the rubber impeller kit is cheap.
It took many years for the manifold I've seen to crack. Most of them were on cars 10+ years old. We have all seen the manifold glow red in the dim light of a garage. Freaked me out the 1st time I saw that. Even if it was made out of Stainless steel it would probably crack or fail from the extreme heat I would like nothing better than to have it last forever.
The wood fire wall is light and cheap, all it is supposed give minimal reinforcement and to do keep a flash fire from enter the cabin while one clears the car before it is engulfed in flames. From the burnt and wrecked Esprit's I have seen it appears to do the job.
A company like Lotus has neither the people or time to run destrutive testing to tweek up the duty cycle of parts as we have been describing. Esprit's are usually run at what I refer to as 2X. Engine rpm's almost twice that of a regular car quite frequently, exhaust temps are fairly high compared to regular car, and many times driven twice as fast in terms of speed. So I do not consider it tragic that the exhaust manifold would fail at 40-60K miles. Just as I do not complain if I burnt a set of brake pads on a single track day or suspension parts that did not last forever becasue of the way I drive. To people who make performance and race cars, 4 or 5 years is a life time. The Lotus is no different from any other performance car, just has a different set of quirks. The Lambo's and the Ferrari's have it lots worse off than any Lotus owners.
The Esprit was made for occassional use. A fun light car than can be driven quickly and fast. So I really have no complaints. I consider it certainly reliable by Exotic car standards. Something reliable, I have a daily driver for that. Both my Escort and Caravan both are running well at 150K miles but they would probably break down a lot if I drove them like an Esprit. Plus that they are not all that fun to drive.
As far as better after market parts or to correct defects in design. They are certainly around even for reliable cars from Japan or Detroit. Doesn't matter who made the car where will always be someone who will try and make a better or upgraded part for any car. It is one thing to reverse engineer something and an another to come up with the concept. Not making excuses for Lotus but the items we speak of, I consider duty cycle acceptable for an Exotic car.
When it comes down to it, the Lotus is a hobby. Sort of impractical. So every once in while one has to take a wad of money and throw it at the car when sometihng unfortunate has happened to me in the past I try and not think about it using the logical or practical side of my brain.
I'll have to stop by for a look at the ride.
OKC, if you ever meet Jim in person he is a pretty precise person, he can be anal about things. Which is not a bad thing when it comes to an Esprit. My personal description of Jim is something I have said to him in person and is not really a slam.
The chargecooler is an acceptable quirk. It just takes an 1 hour to fix and the rubber impeller kit is cheap.
It took many years for the manifold I've seen to crack. Most of them were on cars 10+ years old. We have all seen the manifold glow red in the dim light of a garage. Freaked me out the 1st time I saw that. Even if it was made out of Stainless steel it would probably crack or fail from the extreme heat I would like nothing better than to have it last forever.
The wood fire wall is light and cheap, all it is supposed give minimal reinforcement and to do keep a flash fire from enter the cabin while one clears the car before it is engulfed in flames. From the burnt and wrecked Esprit's I have seen it appears to do the job.
A company like Lotus has neither the people or time to run destrutive testing to tweek up the duty cycle of parts as we have been describing. Esprit's are usually run at what I refer to as 2X. Engine rpm's almost twice that of a regular car quite frequently, exhaust temps are fairly high compared to regular car, and many times driven twice as fast in terms of speed. So I do not consider it tragic that the exhaust manifold would fail at 40-60K miles. Just as I do not complain if I burnt a set of brake pads on a single track day or suspension parts that did not last forever becasue of the way I drive. To people who make performance and race cars, 4 or 5 years is a life time. The Lotus is no different from any other performance car, just has a different set of quirks. The Lambo's and the Ferrari's have it lots worse off than any Lotus owners.
The Esprit was made for occassional use. A fun light car than can be driven quickly and fast. So I really have no complaints. I consider it certainly reliable by Exotic car standards. Something reliable, I have a daily driver for that. Both my Escort and Caravan both are running well at 150K miles but they would probably break down a lot if I drove them like an Esprit. Plus that they are not all that fun to drive.
As far as better after market parts or to correct defects in design. They are certainly around even for reliable cars from Japan or Detroit. Doesn't matter who made the car where will always be someone who will try and make a better or upgraded part for any car. It is one thing to reverse engineer something and an another to come up with the concept. Not making excuses for Lotus but the items we speak of, I consider duty cycle acceptable for an Exotic car.
When it comes down to it, the Lotus is a hobby. Sort of impractical. So every once in while one has to take a wad of money and throw it at the car when sometihng unfortunate has happened to me in the past I try and not think about it using the logical or practical side of my brain.
cnh1990 said:
Jim,
I'll have to stop by for a look at the ride.
OKC, if you ever meet Jim in person he is a pretty precise person, he can be anal about things. Which is not a bad thing when it comes to an Esprit. My personal description of Jim is something I have said to him in person and is not really a slam.
Calvin,
No offense taken whatsoever, but you should know by now not to give me a straight line - No Way I can resist
Stop by anytime for a ride in the new car. Tomorrow (Sunday) is perfect convertible weather. Brenda is in Austin,TX for the FedEx/Kinko's Classic for the next two weeks, and tomorrow I'll be out in the garage prepping the Esprit for transport to it's new home in Seattle. Stop by, it'll be great to see you and I could probably use a nice drive along the river as a distraction from all the work of boxing up the spares and removing the external Amp (new owner is 6'1" and needs the space). No need to reply, if you come out, just pull around back. Hope to see you... Jim
>> Edited by lotusguy on Sunday 24th April 05:11
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