Lotus Excel SA Part 2

Lotusbits stripped the car ready for the paint shop in Birmingham to paint it. This involved taking off both bumpers, headlights, spats, door mirrors and also provide a "roof" from a scrapped Excel to repair the sunroof hole. Both the sunroof hole and the new panel were stepped so that there was some integral strength build into the repair.


These pictures were taken in the body shop after the respray.







It is weird to see the car without all the components fitted - headlamp pods, mirrors and bumpers. The front bumper is a mix of plastic and fibreglass - the original bumper had a damaged plastic part which is virtually impossible to repair. It was therefore decided to buy a new bumper from SJSportscars using the original as a mold.


























The wheels were also restored by being sandblasted and repainted with a final coat of lacquer.





All the bits and pieces and the car were then taken back to Lotusbits for refitting. There were some faults in the paint from the respray, but it was decided to rectify these after the car was all back together.


The interior started to come together - here is the new underlay and carpets being fitted. Interesting to see the roll over bar "naked".






You have to be careful with the spray on glue as it will give you a nasty headache.

The missing dash with all the electrics exposed makes it look a daunting task to put it all back together. I think the manual would be an absolute must when you take a car apart to this level or really know your Excels from the experience of having done this before.


As you can see the windscreen was removed for the repaint - a brand new one was fitted shortly after this photo was taken.








New carpets fitted and looking good - SJSportscars have found a new supplier.







I have also purchased a set of overmats to protect the new carpets - I will fit these when I pick the car up.






The headlining beginning to come together - it is best to recover all the roof components on a bench off the car and refit them once the adhesive has gone off.

New carpet fitted to the parcel shelf as well.






The wiring hanging down is for the rear seats interior light which someone told me was off a VW Sirocco, but not sure if that is true.


Here is a picture of the newly reconnolised interior prior to fitting.













One of the other jobs was to fit new rear seat belt mounts as the old ones had disappeared. MOT failure if you don't.

Side panels with rear speakers refitted with center console.







The dash and center console refitted.












"New" rear seats fitted - the perforated leather ones - which I think look a lot better than the originals.





Front seats fitted and all center console components.









The car was taken back to the paint shop in Birmingham for all the blemishes to be sorted out. A week later I meet Mike and Dave in Birmingham to check the car over to make sure the blemishes had all been rectified. We checked them all and Dave put the car on the trailer to go back to Lotusbits - however

and we know one brake light not working :-) minor fault

I happened to run my hand down one of the door shuts - the edge of the drivers door - and there was a nasty rough bit of paint. There was also a "new" blemish on the nose cone. The paintshop manager came out and confirmed that the door blemish/rough paint could not be "mopped" out (whatever that is?) and the car would have to be taken back into the paintshop...... Dave was very patient I would have been screaming blue murder if I had just put the car on the trailer. Another week was need but at least the paint shop would deliver it back to Lotusbits.

Lotus Excel SA Part 1

Latest Project in the Houston Petrolhead world is the creation of a new daily driver - one with character but practability and reliability - a Lotus.........no honestly :-)

I sold the Uber Merc 320SL and went on the hunt for a Lotus Excel SA - Lotus made 36 of these - they came with a 4 speed auto box as fitted to Jag XJ6's and BMW's. However, Lotus added a cruise control unit to it.

I looked at a few cars and then found one on eBay in a fetching Petrol Blue colour with white leather interior. I won the bid but the chap had lost the V5 document and had to apply for a fresh one from the DVLA. Here is what it looked like when I picked it up

Looks OK on first inspection but looks can be deceiving - it had one of those tilt glass sunroofs cut into the roof. This had been fitted badly and had leaked for years it looked like all the headlining was damp and rotten - yeuch :-(

In addition when driving the car water would leak through and run down your head - lovely....................... the car had been parked under a tree and the heater vent had filled up with leaves and tree debris so the passenger footwell was full of water and the carpets were ruined. Not a good start but I was undaunted - fool and his money.

I eventually (weeks later - thanks DVLA) picked it up and took the car up to Lotusbits in Marton near Rugby - this is Mike Taylor and his guys - and what they don't know about Excels is probably not worth knowing.

The plan was to "gently" restore it - here are a couple of shots of it outside Lotusbits

Still looks OK but as I said before looks can be deceiving........... we got it on the ramp to create the job sheet for the work to be done. This took a few hours.......Argggghhhh I should have known better.

It is quite sad to see all the "dead" Excels at Lotusbits, but it does mean they have a vast stock of every part for any model of Excel. I counted about 20 on the tops of the containers with another 6/8 whole cars parked alongside :-(

I want the car to be my daily driver so I want a number of things to be top notch and "reliable". Here is the job sheet list from the session on the ramps - hydraulic engine mount, new brake disks, pads and calipers with braided hoses. Replace rear silencers and one pipe to the Y piece, new ignition leads, take out sunroof and reglass roof and paint. Replace door beam on drivers side, fix electric windows and mirrors, sort cruise control, refit airbox and get rid of K&N's. Sort engine oil leaks, replace all shocks with adjustables poly bush the rear end. Fit new carpets, regas aircon, renew headlining, new front bumper, refurbish all alloy wheels, fix horn/wiper stalk replace wiper/wiper motor/washers etc and some more jobs I've forgotten. I will update the list over time as things come to light!

It then went into a container for a few weeks as Mike and the guys had to finish some existing Customer's cars - which was fine by me. Timescale was it would be ready in about three months - GLOL.

I then went to look for a "cheap" daily driver until the Excel SA was ready - that is another story I will post at a future date.

Once the Excel came out of its container and work started more surprises emerged - it was agreed there were too many oil leaks on the engine and problems with the starter so it was agreed it had to come out. This meant it the engine and engine bay could be steam cleaned and all the relevant oil seals could be replace much easier.

A number of other jobs then emerged...... like replacing the belts and fitting a new timing belt.

Here is a picture of it all clean and shiny - doesn't it look better. At some point in the future I will have the cam covers repainted in crinkle red, but that can wait.

First Job was to remove the drivers door and replace the door beam with a shiny new one - this means dismantling the door completely. Here is the new door beam, hinge etc fitted to the car - there are quite a number of adjustments on these doors. Mike explained to me the processes required to achieve the perfect close, but after about 15 minutes I lost the will to live :-( sorry Mike. He is the expert and if you really want to know ask him - I would suggest that it is a banging head against wall job for someone of my diy capabilities.

Fitting the carpets involved taking out the interior - OMG!!! what has happened to the car. The dash came out because I got a call from Mike with a suggestion - LOL - kerrching

A 1992 Excel with the new style perforated leather had just arrived with a badly "broken" body, but the interior was in good condition. Mike's suggestion was to buy this and fit it into my car. He sent me some pictures to think about the suggestion.

Here are the original pictures - a bit grubby but in good condition....

A deal was struck and it was also decided to clean and reconnilise (spelling?) the interior with the results shown below:-

Part 2 to follow shortly...................

E30 M3 Group Ring Trip

The weekend started with a trip to Camberley to meet up with a mate who was towing his M3 out for the weekend - I had left mine at the ring three weeks previous.

we were taking out a replacement diff 3.64 ratio to be fitted to my M3 - Olli was also fitting a new prop shaft and two drive shafts - Oh and a new starter motor & spark plugs ........

Olli fitted the Diff and I picked the car up at 330pm drove (gently) to Adenau to book into the hotel and then drove back straight to Olli as there was a strange noise coming from the back :-(

We got in the car for a run so he could listen to the noise - but we could not go anywhere as one of the new shafts had snapped!!!! Olli took them off and put the old ones back on :-( - so I did not get on the Ring until 540pm so lost 20/25 minutes - did 4/5 laps - going well. Last lap and parked up to have a coffee - went back to the car and the battery was flat again.......?

Down Pistenklaus for dinner with the crew - no beers no wine as driving to Adenau - at the end of the night went out to the car - flat battery again - jump start and off to Adenau - pulled into the Aral garage and bought and fitted a new battery.

Up in the morning and out to the car - guess what - flat battery..........................

Lex at the enroadcafe jumped me and I was off down to the track few good laps and then up to Olli's to put the R888's on - noticed the cooling fan was staying on a long time mmmmmm Olli checked it out and found a loose wire - he sorted this and problem solved. However, all the jump starting had effected the ABS - i.e. it no longer worked - tried cleaning the sensors to no avail - so no ABS

Did some fast laps and really getting into the groove - funny thing though all our cars started running rich? nobody could work it out? Front nearside tyre was very worn (even driving on three wheels wasn't helping) by now so I went down to Olli's to change it but I missed him....damm - he had said he would be in Sunday so I thought OK go down in the morning but sadly no Olli - he eventually turned up at lunch time with his Mum and Dad going to the DTM race but it meant I only got passenger laps in the morning. He fitted my spare R888 and I was off for some more laps

I was being chased by a GT3 for most of a lap but the extra power of the GT3 on the straights meant I let him by :-) He came up in the car park later to say I was on good lines but the car was doing a good impersonation of a flame thrower. LOL

My brakes started to rumble badly again with pad transfer - I thought I had cured this with the new pads ....

One of the guys who was in a 540 saloon (he is rebuilding his M3) had a video cam in the car and followed me for most of a lap when I get it from him I will post it on Youtube - decided against this since a guy I know got a one day ban for doing this.

We were going out for a lap about 5pm with all the M3's in convoy I was behind Kevin at the front of the convoy and we were going strong but going down to Briedshied bridge the gear lever detached from the box and I had no gears - fortunately it had come out of gear and I was able to brake, put on the hazards and steer thro the gate into the car park at Adenau..

Phoned ADAC and they came and picked me up ( eventually - about 1 3/4 later) and took me to Munch where some of the damaged cars from the day were stored - the red Swedish 911 RS 964 was particularly sad - I believe he came together with an Mitsibitsi Evo in Wipperman which spun him backwards into the Armco

ADAC then delivered the car to Olli's in the morning and I went down to Mullenbach and they had a gear lever which Olli adapted and fitted to the car - works fine but it has changed the throw which feels odd because I have been driving it with the previous throw for 7 years.

Then while having a coffee and a piece of cake - a German asked me a question and I turned to answer and then took a bite of cake - something buzzed and stung the inside of my mouth - a f*****g wasp - I did kill it with my chewing :-(at this point I did think of flying home and leaving the car there :-(

Drive home in convoy with a couple of mates - delays on the Brussels RO meant we missed the 2000 and had to wait for the 2200 - got home at 0200 knackered. Good news the pads/disks seemed to have cleared.

BMW E30 M3 Ring trip in June

Quite a few E30 M3 owners decided to have a long weekend at the Ring so we all made our arrangements to get out there for the weekend of the 15th June.


I was catching the 8am ferry from Dover to Dunkirk - I packed the car up the night before after the garage had checked it all over and given it a clean bill of health.

Therefore, I was less than pleased to go out at 5am in the morning to a flat battery :-( the neighbours must have loved me (not) I had to start the Audi A8 in order to jump start the M3 - so both cars rumbling away on the driveway......


I then drove down to Dover with no other incidents and boarded the ferry with no further issues - apart from a strange resonance from the exhaust.


Drove through France and up into Belguim where the road through Eupen was closed and had to take a detour through some backroads. I met up with some fellow Northloopers at a service station in Belguim - I had a bit of confusion trying to fill the car with petrol. The pumps I was trying to use are specifically for Belgians with Belgian credit cards!!!! with no signs to inform you of this oddity.


Arrived in the Eifel area and stopped of at Marc Ludemann's place TTE- Technics to check out the exhaust noise and put on the other wheels with the R888's. As usual Marc and his guys were very helpful. It looks and sounds as if the baffles inside the central silencer are adrift/loose so I will need to get it changed when I get back to the UK.

Went down to the Ring for a few laps before checking into the hotel - it felt good to be back.

We then all meet up at the Pistenklause for dinner and drinks and a laugh. as usual we all had the steak on a stone - we are so predictable - but it is a great way to eat a steak especially with a good glass of Multipulciano.

The next day was a full open day at the Ring but the weather was looking a bit dodgy. The rain came and went and we managed to get lots of laps in - here is a typical picture as you can see this was a dry period. there were a few stoppages but nothing major.

Spotted Sabine in a Maclaren Mercedes SLR 722 queing to get onto the Ring for some practice, but did not have my camera so could not get a picture. Here is one of her - one of the photographers took of her on the Ring in the SLR 722 - this is the number Stirling Moss had when he won the Mille Milgia in the original SLR in '56 I believe.

Aparently on the Monday morning she was going to race a plane along the Dotting Hohe straight. I had to pack and get on the road to the ferry at this time so I was going to miss this event

Steve from Scotland had come along on his newly repaired and repainted M3 CSL - in White - in paint unlike another Northerner who had his wrapped in vynal.


He had some problems with the car on the way over and not far from the Ring - Alternater, battery and water pump. The car had to be recovered to BMW "Dawn" a very good BMW garage and dealership that has helped me out in the past. It was warranty work and they said they would do their best to get it back to Steve for midday the next day.....

However, true to their word the car was ready and Steve went and picked it up.


There were quite a few exotica there and one of them was a Lamborghini Murcielago and it was been driven by a guy who knew the Ring and could drive. Perfect positioning in the Karrousel :-)















I met up with Thor an Icelandic chap who has a white M3 with a supercharged six cylinder BMW engine putting out 470bhp - that's correct 470bhp! He has traction control fitted.

I went out with Thor in the car and I think it is too much power and there were a couple of instances where I thought we were not going to make it round some of the corners! Thor really tortured those R888's.



You can see he has a very appropriate number plate

Since then Thor has discovered his rear subframe was broken in two! :-( no wonder it felt loose at the rear.



I spotted this E36 M3 in the car park with a very interesting paint job of the Ring with a lot of the corners named.

It was a very well executed paint job - I was impresssed

Another interesting car brought along by "big Dave" was an Audi RS6 with Nos injection - over 700bhp, Movit big brakes and I think 20" wheels.........

The next day was gorgeous dry and sunny with high temperatures - excellent for lapping the Ring. Unfortunately this meant lots of incidents and stoppages - more than in the wet/dry changeable conditions of the previous day :-(

People obviously pushing themselves in the dry conditions beyond thier (and thier machines) capabilities.

It was Kevin's special birthday and wife Gill had got some special stickers for his car for the day - LOL. This meant we would all gather at the Pistenklause again that evening to celebrate the special occassion.

At one point myself, Kevin and Uwe were in convoy in our Black E30 M3's doing a lap of the Ring - all with Carbon fibre airboxes and engines at full chat - it must have been quite a sight and noise from outside.... Here is myself and Kevin and another with Uwe catching up behind.

At one point all three of us blasted by James in his 968CS like an express train (his words).

Some more exotic cars on the day - I must admit the Ferrari 308GT4 is one of my all time favourites - this one has been fully rebuilt by a Scot and good play to him he takes it round the Ring and he does not hang about.

The Ultima driver knew what was what as well and the car went beautifully.

My power steering belt came off when I was parking so a trip down to Ring Racing to have it sorted was neccessary - but it happened the next day as well. Kevin had a new one which he lent me and Olli who has set up premises opposite the Zur Burg fitted it for me. He spotted what the problem was the Alternator bracket was chaffing the belt on full load - something to get sorted when I get home.

It was time to pack up and head for Dunkirk and catch the ferry home - time was a bit tight what with Olli having to fit the new belt. I set off and made the ferry with 15 mins to spare having had no hold ups on the road.

Next trip is 3rd August but prior to that there are a few mods to do and a trip to North Yorkshire to Croft to fit in .................................

Lotus on Track trip to Folembray and Abbeville

Surprisingly my wife, Jane, agreed to come with me on this trip but not to attend the track days!

We were staying at a nice hotel in Albert which is mid way between Folembray and Abbeville but close to Amiens and Arras.




We had an uneventful trip down, but a problem emerged whereby the expansion bottle would overheat and water would escape out of the cap :-( just keep an eye on the temperature and kept topping up the water at petrol stops. also carried a couple of big bottles of water in the boot, just in case.






The car is a Lotus Elan SE Turbo - which is a fantastic little sports car. It is easy to get in and out through conventional doors, the seats are very comfortable (but being leather are very slippy in hard cornering), the windscreen is a long way away giving the impression of more cabin space and the boot is a decent size (two peoples bags for the weekend, some tools, the water bottles, helmet, racing boots/gloves, spare wheel, oil, camera, wind break) this is because it is FWD! the only one Lotus ever made.







On the Saturday Jane and I went to visit the Medieval walled city of Laon which is on the top of a very large hill. The views on a clear day must be fabulous but when we were there it was a bit misty but very hot about 26 degrees.








Had to put on sunscreen and a hat - fair skinned and burn and end up like "roast beef" as the French affectionately refer to us. Also gave me a chance to wear my Lotus on Track cap - which my wife loves - NOT!



Took loads of photos of the views and the medieval streets which I wont post on here, but the cathedral is breathtaking and I will post a couple of those. It is worth visiting Laon just to see the Cathedral.














Now my previous impressions of France had been that lunch was a long drawn out affair which coould last into the late afternoon? However, in Laon everything is over by two and all you can get is a snack! albeit in a very friendly bar with some other "roast beefs". Every other establishment gave you the mad British look - you want to eat lunch now? You sometimes get this look in the UK too :-)


Here are some pictures of the outside of the cathedral which was equally as fascinating.





















and yes !that is a hippopotamus on the building - there were lots of strange creatures on the walls of the cathedral.















Next day I went off to Folembray to the trackday and Jane went off by train to Amiens for a tourist day and some shopping.


Folembray is a lovely little circuit hidden away in the middle of a forest at the back of the town. It is short but quite challenging and loads of fun. There were obviously a lot of Loti there but only two Elans; mine and Monty's (from the Forum - Lotus Elan Central). The Folembray sign and entrance gate can be seen in the background.
















There was a contingent of fellow Scots who had come down in a few Porsches and a couple of Loti - one of them a Honda VTEC powered Exige - Wow.


It was a lovely sunny day with temperatures in the high twenties again - so time for the suncream and hat :-)




Monty's car is a bit special, lowered, adjustable suspension and a very "bling" engine bay - looks and goes really well. Dico his friend was there, but was a bit off colour from the night before - enough said!












Here are some of the other cars there on the day













The first one had come over from Belguim for the day.






There were even two BMW's and one of them an E30 M3 like mine and in Shwartzmetallic - also like mine.























Unfortunately, the expansion bottle problem got worse and a blown head gasket was the general consensus of opinion :-( and in addition the Hall Sensor was giving problems along with the fact that the two coils are underneath the expansion tank and were being soaked. Boo Hoo as children say - needless to say this put an end to my track day and I cancelled going to Abbeville the next day opting to spent the time with my wife sightseeing on the way home.



Unfortuantely it rained all day and after looking around Arras for a short while and having a marvelloous lunch just off the main square - we headed off to Dunkirk to see if we could catch an earlier ferry.

Unfortunately the ferries were full so we had to wait around Dunkirk for hours - not the best place to spent 3 to 4 hours in my opinion, but I did get a new battey fitted to my watch.

Apart from the car problems it had been an enjoyable weekend - good food and wine and very good hotel.