Lotus Plus2 Stuff

I thought I'd updated this blog recently but its April already! I've been beavering away on the Esprit book, and have visited several owners over the past months and have got plenty of of other owners lined up. I've got a good feeling about this book and I'm hoping it will be even better than my Aston Martin V8 tome.

However, too much work makes for a dull boy, and I've been playing around with my Plus 2 as well. I've invested in a scissor lift which sits permanently under the car and makes life soooo much easier if I want to do anything to it. It did involve a few modifications to the garage electrics,  putting in a dedicated 30 amp circuit and replacing the 13 amp plug which the lift came with with a proper round three pin affair, but other than that its an impressive piece of kit. First job was to replace the eared spinners the car came with with a set of octagonal 'Safety Nuts' that I had, and thats when I did a brake and suspension inspection. The suspension was good, I oiled the front trunnions and then I discovered that the car had rips in the dust boots of both front brake callipers So I ordered up new pistons and seals and whipped off the rather grubby callipers with the aim of rebuilding them. Then I discovered the callipers were different - I had an early on on the left and a later one on the right. Which was odd.

My brake caliber with holes seals!

The pistons and seals were different on the two versions as well, although they were the same diameter so braking performance was OK. So I thought I'd be clever and buy a pair of new callipers which were not a lot more than the piston and seal kits, plus I didn't need to rebuild them. However, these new callipers were the final version, with metric fittings. This meant that my calliper mounting bolts were slightly too small - the imperial bolts were 9/16th and the hole was 12mm. Casting around for the bolt eventually led me to Rimmer Brothers after none of the usual Lotus specialists had any - these were M12 bolts with the 9/16 unf thread, and were fitted to the late Triumph GT6. So armed with a pair of pairs of the new bolts (at four times the cost of 'ordinary' 9/16 calliper bolts) I was able to fit the new callipers, and then had to make up a hybrid brake pipe to connect the calliper to the flexi hose.

So a simple refurb job developed into a bit of a trek but it all worked out OK in the end.

So here is a shot of the Lotus up on the ramp - the extra height is a godsend for preserving my back which is giving me some gype at he moment!

The Plus2 on the scissor lift - it makes life so much easier

I took the Plus 2 to Sunningdale to visit the owner of a very rare Esprit - one of the 34(ish) Essex Turbos - the special edition which launched the Turbo Esprit which placed the Lotus firmly in the Supercar class!

One of the first Esprit Turbos - an Essex liveried special edition