Lotus Esprit - The Official Story

[Ozzie Osmond]

Greetings mid-engine fans!

There are a couple of brand new copies of Jeremy Walton's book on ebay for just £29. These usually cost £125 or more.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Esprit-The-Officia...

You'll need to be quick!

OzOs

[Yuxi]

Nice one!

I have a copy already, but have just bought another one.

My car is shown on page 18...

[Ozzie Osmond]

Very nice! Is that (white 1986 turbo HC) a car you owned back in the day or do you have it now?

One thing the book really brings home is the hand-built nature of Esprit and low production volume with a big proportion of the cars heading to USA.

[Yuxi]

I own the car now, I bought it from Lotus in August 2014. It had stood for 4 years with nothing being done to it, so I did all the normal things, brakes, belts, oils, coolant, spark plugs, fuel lines, carb accel. pump diaphragms, tank breather pipes, vacuum hoses and other things I have forgotten about.

Its done about 3000 miles since I got it back on the road, mostly at full boost!

Still has Brian Angus's name on the keyring!

[Ozzie Osmond]

Very well done! Absolutely brilliant motor.

[Yuxi]

Cheers chap. Received the book today, a real bargain, new ones are £200 plus on Amazon.

[Hedgerley]

Just picked up on this thread and had a look at the prices on eBay and Amazon. I have one of the 100 Publisher's Editions bound in leather, in its own hard case with a bunch of extra pages including a fold out of GG's original hand drawn S1 design. And signed by Mike Kimberley, Jeremy Walton and William Taylor. I wonder if its worth serious money?

[Ozzie Osmond]

I'd imagine the "value" signatures from Lotus on that one would be Giorgetto Giugiaro and Colin Chapman, with perhaps bonus points for a John DeLorean (with a smudge of white powder).

Mike Kimberley was around for a long time but I'm not sure anybody really cares. Most particularly, I don't think he had any involvement with Lotus' most successful cars - the Elise and its many derivatives.

[Yuxi]

That book signed by Colin Chapman would be very special indeed.

First time I met Mike Kimberly I was working in the machine shop on a Sunday on double time, machining 4 cylinder heads on a big horizontal machine. I had the radio on full volume, ear defenders on, sitting with my feet up on the bench reading a porn mag. I looked up and mike was there looking into the machine. When he saw it was running he walked out without saying a word, I never heard any more about it

[Impasse]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Mike Kimberley was around for a long time but I'm not sure anybody really cares. Most particularly, I don't think he had any involvement with Lotus' most successful cars - the Elise and its many derivatives.

GLOL. Check your history. And I think you'll find there are many people who frequent different forums that still hold MJK in high regard.