There are still some nice people out there!

you original post was " I'm rolling about laughing here. Would you go on the BBC to talk about your sexually transmitted disease? "

which basically implies i had a std and was talking about it with the bbc.

anyway, lets leave things at that

thank you for the apology steve, those notches have gone back up now.

i guess your not that bad after all.!!!!!! ;)

simon

I eat babies as well.

BTW, I was referring more to the stigma of the disease than your particular exoerience. It's also just as well I didn't tell you what I think of Loti.

Yes

In which case we'd expect you to be a little more mature in your postings!

Re-read it sometime...

Your original post made clear implications that were defamatory/libelous in nature.

You may think you're safe posting what ever you like - but defamation is still defamation.

Hopefully in future you'll stop to consider what effect a post like that would have on someone - would you have liked someone posting inuendo like that about you?

Oh yuss... :)

Hiya Steve,

Long time, no speak! ;) (ukrm/ukrmc)

Actuerly - if you want an Esprit to keep - it's worth onvesting - I've just spent £14k on mine for a full Mech overhaul and cosmetic sundries...

Cost - Lots...

Smile on my face when I picked her up from Devon after the work? Priceless! :o)~

I knew I recognised the name, but wasn't sure where from.

All true, but £25k gets a late Esprit V8 Twin-Turbo.....

Indeed, haven't seem him around for a while...

And that clearly won't need any work (it's a Lotus...) and it'll cost a bomb to fix, even compared to the older Esprit.

Although I'm occasionally tempted, even I'm not daft enough to buy a Lotus.

Well, you say that, but.....

I just know this would suit you:

1. £2k spare at the moment
2. Space for another car.

Aaaarrrgggghhhhhhh.

That would be the model I'd consider. Fortunately I have the same space constraints as you do...

If only they said something that nice.

I've had the dubious pleasure of maintaining one of those.

To be honest, they're not that bad. Not that bad at all. Drive well, handle wonderfully, and seem to be the only Lotus (apart from the FWD Elan) that they built with even the slightest bit of care. They *eat* shock absorbers and engine mounts though, but at least most of the electrical faults are just dodgy earths - the component parts seem to be above average for Norfolk. Oh, synchromesh on 3rd is a pig to sort and will only last about

I've often wondered if those things (FWD Elans) are any good.

'Cos they look attractively affordable and a much more individual alternative to the MX-5 / MG-F.

Hmm, you make them sound *almost* like they're worth having...

Could you kindly f*ck off and stop weakening my resistance? ;)

They're ok. The "raft" suspension shouldn't work but it's brilliant. Handle unbelievably well but you have to be going insanely quickly to notice. Rest of the time you don't think you're being silly.

I've not tried a non-turbo one, but I've done a fair few miles in a '90 SE and yeah, I'd have one.

Heh...

Will do!..

Look at it this way, Timo.....

You and me both appear to have the 'golden touch' when it comes to wierd and thought to be unreliable cars. We've both run stuff everyone says 'don't touch with a bargepole' without them breaking down all the time.

Your major failing appears to be 'normal' stuff - you break all the so-called 'reliable' kit.

I'm not helping much, am I?

A good friend of mine has one. I went with him to view a few (not the one he bought in the end) and there are a large number of sheds out there. However he did manage to find a pretty decent turbo one in the end.

Quite nice to drive, handles rather well and the chassis copes well with the increased power (his is chipped, producing a guesstimated 175bhp).

If you're looking at the cheap end of the market, they aren't. They'll go bang sooner or later (mostly sooner) and then you find out how much they cost to fix properly. And how easy you can find the parts, especially the Lotus-specific ones.

If you only have MX-5 money, buy the best Eunos Roadster you can find. A good Elan will still cost you around 6k. I've seen the cheaper ones and they fall into the category of "run away, fast".

Oh, and they're a pain to work on as well - we swapped out the coolant hoses for Samco hoses and that took about three times as long as we expected, mostly thanks to a comedian who put on the jubilee clips in such a fashion that it took us ages to undo them. I think the worst one took almost 45 minutes.

There are some kicking around with a guesstimate 200bhp - which I take with a pinch of salt, to be honest.

Yeah, the problem with stuff like the Excel and Elan is that they've fallen to the levels at which dodgy s/h car dealers / bouncers / pub landlords and drug dealers will buy them - which means a half decent car becomes a shed in no time at all.

No, no, no..... if you only have MX-5 money, then.....

At the low end of MX-5 money, you buy an X1/9, or possibly even an MG-F (how cheap are they these days?)

At the higher end of Mk1 MX-5 money, you'd get a very nice, late model (ie. 2lt EFI) Fiat Spider.

Not good - although that's hardly the fault of the car, it's whichever muppet last played with the hoses. Which may or may not be the bloke in the factory, I suppose.

I had a few tricky ones on the 75 when I did a complete cooling system overhaul last month - I can only guess that some of the pipes were replced from underneath last time.

Seems to be that way.

Tell me about it.

No you're not. The last bit of resistance I can put up is that I can't park it on the road outside the house (I've currently got a Merc Diesel parked there and that looks worse for wear after three months) and I can't really clutter up the temporary space in front of the house with a permanent fixture because (a) someone *will* drive into it at one point and (b) all those mates of mine with the other wierd cars will have nowhere to park.

Timo would break a Lotus. Everyone breaks 'em. It's a design feature.

Timo, think "Honda swing-arm"....