A note on the '95 Lotus Turbo Espirit...

Hachi, if you think that's a lift, try looking at the brake system of a Rolls Royce. A friend who used to be in the auto parts business tells me that once he visited a mechanic who was doing a brake job on a Rolls, and said to him "Am I looking at what I THINK I'm looking at???" The mechanic nodded his head and said "You win the prize..........it's all Chevrolet!"

Years ago, when I was aboard a DC-10 headed for Hawaii, standing by a bulkhead in the rear enjoying a cigarette (remember when you could smoke on an airplane?) and noticed an ashtray sticking out of the wall. It looked oddly familiar, and after a few seconds I realized why. I owned such an ashtray myself....in the side wall of the rear seat of my '67 VW Beetle ! It was not 'like it'...it was exactly the same thing.

but do they have the same part number. The headlight switch in my car has both GM and Ford part numbers on it. You can also got to Toyota and get the same part.

The BMW I owned while I lived in Spain in the early 70's had GM emission controls (including an air pump).

Guess what failed within 5000 miles?

Good thing it failed while we were on a 'road trip' thru Germany. The service manager of a BMW shop didn't speak any English, but I'm sure he said something like... 'you Americans can sure f*ck up a great car with your emissions crap'..... He removed it and the car ran great!

Repurposing already-debugged production pieces out of the parts bins for new cars and new uses has been done almost since the invention of the automobile. A good engineer does this all the time, saves a lot of time and money.

Just a few years ago, right after Ford bought Jaguar (but before they did anything with them) Jaguar realized they HAD to dump Lucas or they were through... So they called GM/Delco Harrison for new electronics.

Someone over at Autolite (Ford) must have been livid... ;-)

All it takes to repurpose other items like those VW ashtrays is to remove the trademark from the stamping dies or molds. The other mfg. tooling and machinery needed remains unchanged.

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I think Toyota also supplied door locks to Lotus. ;-)

Exactly the same. It even said TOYOTA on it! I've had my Hachiroku for 21 years, and know all the markings on the taillights. Exactly identical!

What gets me, is they were from the 83-86 models, and the Lotus was a '95!

LOL! Was it the pull down type, or the one that 'flips' when you push one end, and closes when you push the other?

The Prince Of Darkness...

When the guy unlocked it, I thought the door handle/lock looked oddly familiar. The only thing was, when the door was locked, the key slot was at 9-3 o'clock position, and unlocked at 12-6 position. No spring-loaded return to upright.

However, when I left, I got into my Supra, drove home, got home, and looked at the handle/lock assembly a bit more closely...

Oops I meant my headlight switch can be got from ford, gm or Toyota.

I always have trouble with English, I usually speak Australian

Eh, wot, Bruce?