1981 Chassis Scraping Plastic Plough Lotus VIDEO OUT THERE:

[naki]

always loved these wedges car, juts so different to any other car out there (except for a Countach maybe). it does look cool all slammed, but somehow i prefer the original look.

maybe a silly question, but do you fit in the car? they look so tiny, especially under the car park barrier! would a 6ft guy fit in one?

so rare to see one in the flesh these days.

congrats on the start prize btw.

[vdubnutz]

Really liked this one at the gathering mate! First car that really caught my eye!

[g111mds]

i saw this, and then went to straight to ebay to see how many are listed. brilliant!

[deanchad]

Aug 19, 2012 23:53:31 GMT naki said:

always loved these wedges car, juts so different to any other car out there (except for a Countach maybe). it does look cool all slammed, but somehow I prefer the original look.

maybe a silly question, but do you fit in the car? they look so tiny, especially under the car park barrier! would a 6ft guy fit in one?

so rare to see one in the flesh these days.

congrats on the start prize btw.

Not forgetting the tvr tasmin..... Thats a wedge and a half. The previous owner was 6'3 and didnt have a problem.

[Karate Dan]

38 - Retro-Rides Gathering 2012 by DanBewsey, on Flickr

Winning

[wheeler]

Oh sweet Jesus and all the other sons of gods, this looks so SICK

Jealous!

[luap]

This Lotus stopped me dead when I saw it, and that's saying something considering the amount of stonkingly good cars at RR gathering this year. I didn't even look back to see if my Mrs was there when I said "I just found my favourite car of the day!"
Always had a soft spot for these, and at just an inch taller than the previous owner... there's still hope I'll fit in one too.
Awesome car, so simple!

[AtomicRooster]

Thought i'd bump this for those that haven't seen it. As soon as i saw this i immediately wanted to do the same thing until i found out how much they go for! not a low cost build it seems!

[rstaaron]

This car has won the Internet. Congratulations! curse word stunning!

[luckygti]

Sept 11, 2012 21:09:08 GMT AtomicRooster said:

Thought i'd bump this for those that haven't seen it.

And I must say thankyou kind sir. I'd been away before the Gathering so when this won best I was a bit (Not because of the car you understand, but because I hadn't seen anything on it!) Having looked at it in passing there and now seeing it on here, I fully concur with the decision ;D Now, we need more pics please..... Engine, suspension, car etc etc. (I need a new background on the garage laptop!)

[deanchad]

Its been a while since Ive posted on here, its been manic! Ive used the car nearly every time I can with the exception of the torrential rain days.

Really chuffed with how the shoot went, pretty good write up too. Cheers Simon

Here is the front page of this month mag and my car with its standard guise in the background (esprit bbs rims & standard tyres for winter)


Those of you with a keen eye may see what could be happening during the winter months. See if you know what it is?

I will add more pictures of all the work that Has been done and will be done over the coming months. Now that I have had a few thousand miles driving, its time to carry out all the jobs over the winter including the interior which will probably be done by Auto trimmers in Bromsgrove who infact, have their car on the front page of this month retrocars too. More soon

[tailslide2]

mmmmmmm alfa ?

[garrett]

Amazing.

[deanchad]

So whilst putting the compo's back on today for a last minute photoshoot, I took a photo or two to show the rear set up. This was the easy bit as nothing needing adjust except the centre silencer was removed as it was to close to the bag. Doesn't sound too bad with the straight through either



Also chucked the daimlers on to see what was needed to get them to sit right. Probably not to everyone liking but I love these monoblocks. It just makes the car look like something from back to the future. I'm sold, so over the winter they will be getting a refurb and some rubber, probably no stretch.


The upper control arms were modified to give good clearance to front bags, 3/8 lines run through the inner part of the chassis, clean.


I'm missing the lower control arm photos but you can see the clearance of the bag in its extreme postion with the origninal lower control arm setup. Notice the width of the shock? This ment a large amount of material was removed to allow for movement of the shock. Although I was happy the arm didnt lose any intergrity, I still wasnt happy with the overall front ride height. A new control arm was fabricated to lower the strut lower eye height. I could have Just bought shorter shocks but that ment the ride height would always be too low for practical. Also with the longer shock means more travel AND plush ride.


On to the air system............

I wanted a base that could be removed, what with the gearbox being underneath and the batteries being stored deep in the rear.

I mocked up the base with a bit of card and got to it.


Made it out of MDF, where a mask kiddies.... this gets dusty.



Routed out a hole for the auccuair system and voila! Smoothed off the angles and screw holes and covered it in stonchip to match the matt back rear (or as close to). I'm not completely happy with it but at least I can put my shopping in! Besides I havent seen the accuarair solenoid valve mounted like this before, it hides all the hoses. The complete system is removable including the compressor and tank. Pratical, if a little heavy. The compressors mount behind the numberplate. I may change this at a later date.

Thats it for now

[deanchad]

oooooooh, I was handed this today too ;D

[deanchad]

So my plan, over the coming months will involve removing the engine to carry out some repairs including crankseal, broken manifold to downpipe bolt and might as well change the cambelt.

Whilst carrying out work on the lotus 912 engine, it would be rude not to try something else in its place! The weather was pretty poor yesterday, so the v6 collected from Scunthorpe last Thursday had a bit of an inspection.

Set up and took some photos for future reference



Removed the inlet plenum, nothing really of interest, just a little oil which isn't too serious.


After that was the chrome inlets, fuel rail and inlet runners. The inlets have very little dirt in them ad infact, are in great condition. No signs of foul play through the exhaust ports either.


Next, remove the coil/spark plugs so the internals could be inspected. I fired a torch down the inlet, turned the engine over so inlets were fully open and the endoscope through the plug orifices with a nifty 90degree mirror attached. With this you can inspect the bores and valve seats which you can maybe see the cross hatch + valve seats in the pics. Actualy everything seems to be totally fine. Infact I am dead impressed with this engine, you can cleary see the cambelt and water pump was changed recentley (6k). Well looked after, even decent oil dropped into a bucket.




crosshatch


The right hand side will be a piece of p**s to mount


The left might well need some head scratching as the driveshaft and filter housing run through the mount.. hmmmmmm

ready for the next step........ see how it fits!

[Seth]

Great to see some of the thought process and work that's gone on under this. Definitely something space-ship going on with those Daimler wheels.

[xrmike]

I hope this engine goes in easy for you, I rekon you get the cam covers machined down and Lotus ensribed!

[sonus]

Love the car and if possible it will be even greater with that Alfa V6

Are you planning on mounting the Alfa V6 as the Lotus engine? If so you could get a sump/engine mounts from a 116 GTV6 maybe?

[joostvdw]

I'm not quite sure why you would want the alfa v6? Is it more powerfull, more reliable? Or is it actually the same engine in a different guise which makes mounting quick and easy whilst you sort out the original lotus engine? Just trying to understand what you're doing;)

Love the rest of the car though! (I own a Subaru XT, also very wedgy and I've dreamt of putting air in it, so I can only approve of this car;))