Lotus Elite: Lots of Trouble....EXCELlent news P33

I had no idea they were so wide! It's got the behind of a Lambo!

Do nothing else this year, and let that be the parting image. Excellent.

--Phil

LOL, the best and the worst of '70s fibreglass in one photo there ;D

Those wheels are far less objectionable than they looked in the first photos.

That is amazing. Muchos wantos

You are either very brave or very mad.... probably both!!!

That is an amazing project. Please keep it updated.

For my part, these are iconic cars. The looks and the noise are amazing. Please, please restore it to original spec, faults and all!!! I think modern upgrades will ruin it.

Thanks for the comments Darryl. (and everyone else for that matter)

I am all for suggestions and alternatives and certainly, normally, would relish the idea of engine conversions and other suitable mods, but for some reason with this car I reckon it was 'so right' from the outset that deviating away from the original styling & running gear somehow loses the impact of the design as a whole.

I did read, and very much enjoyed, the thread about the red V8. Some serious work had gone into that and I really like the way he'd done it whilst still keeping the engine weight the same as the original. There is no way I could justify the kind of budget he spent on his though....no way, ever! (even if I could afford to)

Apologies for the delay in putting more photos up - the battery on my netbook died and I decided just to go to bed instead seeing as I was pretty tired from all the excitement!

Anyway, I left it at the point where we had a break to regain some energy. Here is Sam finishing his well earned cuppa and looking over the car:


Some serious pushing & shoving and we manage to get it to this position but despite being on the smooth, flat workshop floor, the car is still sapping all our energy just to move it a bit. We've only pushed it back & forth to turn it into the unit more..and we're worn out again.




Someome mentioned dollys and suddenly I found myself crawling around under the Fairlane to pull a pair out. An excellent idea....sticking them under the back wheels will enable us to move it SO much more easily! You can just make out one of the dollys behind the back wheel in this pic


It's a steep learning curve when you get your first plastic car with a backbone chassis. Not having any outriggers, finding anywhere to jack it up is a challenge. I now have one very (VERY) bent suspension support beam! It survived being used to drag the car into the unit, but it was all too much for it when I tried to lift the car on it using the trolly jack.

Not at all worried though, I am sure there are going to be far greater things to deal with on this build. Many, many of them too... The bent piece is actually a pretty easy thing to remake and it did get me wondering how many other parts of the car I am going to get to make from scratch?

Note the subtle use of wording there; "going to get to make" not "going to have to make". Yep, I am really excited about getting my teeth into this car.

Anyway, enough of the waffle, have a couple more shots I took before we wheeled the car into its temporary place.

You just couldn't make it up!


Not that I ever could/would, but if I ever did get bored of looking at that body shape, opening the bonnet gives a whole new level of boost. No explanation needed here:


It's dark, Gaz, Sam, Mark and Jim have headed off (guys, once again I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am!) and I think this is a nice time to grab a shot before I depart myself. One to put in the brilliant 'Garages at Night' thread:


I will certainly make an effort to revisit and improve on this shot in future but it was VERY cold and I was worn out...so home beckoned.

Despite feeling ready to collapse, I still contained large amounts of excitement within. Like vast quantities....along with the requisite grin.

Thank you, I am very flattered that you'd choose one of my shots to be the wallpaper on your computer

I forgot/neglected to mention earlier that while the wheel was off to reconnect the driveshafts I had to do the staple RR method of sticking another wheel on there for curse word&giggles. Well, it jsut happened to be right by the car anyway...and in the right stud pattern.

Tyre fitment is WAY too small (the tyres were fitted based on these wheels going onto the Rascal) and the camber is still ridiculous, but ignoring those two points, how cool do these look on the car???


They aren't the actual wheel I have in mind for the car but would certainly work as a 'back-up' option (with the right tyres) if my plan fails.

The wheels I am planning (they are already bought and hidden away) are going to be a bit of a gamble. In my head, they should look beyond stunning fitted to the car, but when I'm stood next to the car I am not 100% convinced. Only time will tell - only when I dig them out and try them on. That won't be for quite a while though, but at least I know my 'Vecs have a good home if 'plan A' doesn't work and I will no longer be thinking of selling them. Not for the forseeable future anyway ;D

did they nick their inspiration from lambo.... ;D

Wow, just wow. Well Bruce I have to say that I was not expecting that I have huge love for the Lotus, especially the Eclat, Elite Excel's. They are the epitome of 70's cool. We were offered an Excel the same week we bought the Escort. A great shame, because I just couldn't justify another car. As a "slightly" older mid life crisis-er, I totally understand the auto thing, and the truth of it is, most old sports cars are disappointing in their 'sportiness'. Most will lag behind a decent diesel nowadays. I think these are really Grand Tourers though aren't they so maybe their sporting aspirations aren't really so important nowadays! I am really looking forward to seeing how this progresses and am even more determined to get down to Area 52 than ever.

Bookmarked of course