TS500 build - over half way

[joust]

Thought a few people might like to see the current build stage of the TS500.

Apologies for the lack of clarity and correct colour in these piccies - my decent digital camera memory card packed up 2 days ago and so I had to resort to using my camcorder digital camera mode to take the pictures.

Colours (esp. the colour of the blue) is therefore well out from what it actually looks like in the flesh.

Front


Rear


Engine 1


Engine 2


Steering colum, dash, air con vents, loom


View into pedal box


Rear


Rear


Outside for first time


Very shiny bonnet


Shiny car


One of the nicest views of the car


Very shark looking, mean even!


Bonnet reflections


Sun highlights


Nick looking into car


Proud owner


Back inside for fitting



Few things to note.

The car had only been on the ground for the first time yesterday and hence looks a bit "4x4" as the springs haven't been adjusted to the right length.

The wheels are just mule wheels - final ones are 10 spoke "spider" design which is a brand new design and not used on any other car currently.

Paint finish was immaculate. The photos do not do it justice and it was a real "wow" factor when I saw the car.

Major about of work has now been done - what's left is trim, hood, final plumbing and then setup.

Delivery will depend on the motorshow preparations, but we have agreed on something around 4-8 weeks time as I've asked for some quite specific changes to be made to my specification.

I also took some video - 2 minutes of shots of the demo TS and my car inside and outside of the factory.

WMV - 384kbps (LowQ)
www.lotus-elise.org.uk/marcos/build2/marcos384kbps.wmv

WMV - 1500kbps (HighQ)
www.lotus-elise.org.uk/marcos/build2/marcos1500kbps.wmv

MPEG - 1100kbps (VCD)
www.lotus-elise.org.uk/marcos/build2/marcos1100kbps.mpg

J

[toppstuff]

I've been to the Marcos factory a few times.

A friend of mine bought a Mantaray a few years back, and I often popped down with him to check on progress.

No please do'nt flame me for saying this, but I recall thinking that the build quality at Marcos was a whole step better than the build quality at TVR.

OK, the volume of cars being made is less ( but then there are a lot less staff on the case) but they really took their time getting everything ' Right First Time".

No glue stains on the door trim in Wiltshire, I recall...

A lovely looking car , Joust. I saw the silver launch TS500 at Canary Wharf and thought it was suitably phwoarrr..

Congrats. Thats gonna be one lovely motor..

[whitechimp500]

Saw the demo at Pistonfest and was suitably impressed,a good looking,bespoke ,British Sports Car ,with a powerfull yet reliable Rover V8 engine.

Splendid idea,TVR should build something like this .

Ahem ,back to reality.
Great looking car Joust , amazing what small Brit manufacturers can turn out, from buildings the size of Fords paperclip storage dept.

.

[joust]

The quality is superb. ~400 hours will go into mine, and almost everything is bespoke made by other, small, UK engineering firms (e.g. things like the wiring loom).

J

[Nightmare]

totally agree about quality - my first trip to the sheds in Wiltshire impressed me with that

Joust - that looks beautiful - their paint guys are gods.....even to the point of making AM look a little shoddy when it comes to attention to detail!


cool, cool choice!

[craigw]

wow, coooooooool Joust, is this as well as the rest of the fleet? what will final spec be ?

[rico]

Looking good Justin

[chrisj]

So where's the car up to now joust?
Will you be at the club sprint meet on Saturday 8th May?

[joust]

Last I heard it's being trimmed.

Not sure about the 8th - I'll let you know nearer the time.

J