RE: Lotus Evora Stratton GT | Spotted

[LotusOmega375D]

I don’t think they’re brand new chassis. These cars have been languishing outside, firstly at Lotus and then at Stratton for several years. In 2014 Lotus selected the best 20 vehicles to be stripped and re-built as GT350/GTE. Another one was sold as a track-only car with its original engine (now road-registered). The remaining 5 were originally intended to be spares donors, but Stratton bought them as a job lot and eventually rebuilt them as the cars featured here. They have all been for sale at the same prices for at least 9 months, so I would expect them to consider offers.

[Cold]

LotusOmega375D said:

I don’t think they’re brand new chassis. These cars have been languishing outside, firstly at Lotus and then at Stratton for several years. In 2014 Lotus selected the best 20 vehicles to be stripped and re-built as GT350/GTE. Another one was sold as a track-only car with its original engine (now road-registered). The remaining 5 were originally intended to be spares donors, but Stratton bought them as a job lot and eventually rebuilt them as the cars featured here. They have all been for sale at the same prices for at least 9 months, so I would expect them to consider offers.

Yep, poorly worded by me. What I was getting at was that Stratton didn't modify cars they took from their own existing stock by bolting on various bit and pieces purchased as part numbers.

[hughcam]

RacerMike said:

You're referencing early 2000's Porches though.....you could equally level it with all the K-Series engine issues on the earlier Elises, but we're talking current 2010's here where pretty much the only significant engine issue on a Porsche has been the Gen 1 GT3 3.8s.

Unreliability is perhaps a bit unfair from me. I suppose I mean usability. There are people who use Evora's regularly, and it can be done, but they don't last as well. A modern Porsche can realistically be used like a Golf....they don't rot, drain their battery or fail to start. They just drive like any modern German car.

Read my reply again and I am not referencing early 2000 Porsches. I am referring to all water cooled era Porsches (Cayenne Gen 1 included). There have still been tales of bore oval ling on 981's and catastrophic engine failure on 991 GT3's (the first easy references that come to mind) - You don't get these issues in a lotus post 2005.

Porsches are epic however to name them as being reliable in comparison to a modern Lotus just isn't factually correct.

My internet whinge over

[leglessAlex]

I feel like I've seen a post on The Lotus Forum that was saying that these run spacers on the rear wheels instead of the longer wishbones of the 'real' GTE cars.

Is this true? Does anyone know what other differences like that there are?

I'm jealous of the engine though. Apparently the Swindon engines are that much more special than the regular V6 engines.

[richb77]

I was at Lotus recently for work and saw several Evora GTs on the line. The nicest was a white one with black accents. It was STUNNING. Hugely underrated car IMHO. Just a shame at 6ft 5in and a little out of shape i cant get in them.

[RacerMike]

hughcam said:

RacerMike said:

You're referencing early 2000's Porches though.....you could equally level it with all the K-Series engine issues on the earlier Elises, but we're talking current 2010's here where pretty much the only significant engine issue on a Porsche has been the Gen 1 GT3 3.8s.

Unreliability is perhaps a bit unfair from me. I suppose I mean usability. There are people who use Evora's regularly, and it can be done, but they don't last as well. A modern Porsche can realistically be used like a Golf....they don't rot, drain their battery or fail to start. They just drive like any modern German car.

Read my reply again and I am not referencing early 2000 Porsches. I am referring to all water cooled era Porsches (Cayenne Gen 1 included). There have still been tales of bore oval ling on 981's and catastrophic engine failure on 991 GT3's (the first easy references that come to mind) - You don't get these issues in a lotus post 2005.

Porsches are epic however to name them as being reliable in comparison to a modern Lotus just isn't factually correct.

My internet whinge over

Bore scoring and ovalling was present on the port injection engines in the 987 and 997 gen 1 cars which were made up to 2009. Second gen 987 and 997s had the DFi engine which, by all accounts, doesn't have any significant engine issues. There's been one or two reports, but per 1000 cars, I'm pretty confident it's no more than any other normal engine.

The 3.8 9000rpm GT3 engine had some early issues with big end caps, but the engines were replaced under warranty, and the later 4.0L engines haven't had any issues.

[Cold]

RacerMike said:

Bore scoring and ovalling was present on the port injection engines in the 987 and 997 gen 1 cars which were made up to 2009. Second gen 987 and 997s had the DFi engine which, by all accounts, doesn't have any significant engine issues. There's been one or two reports, but per 1000 cars, I'm pretty confident it's no more than any other normal engine.

The 3.8 9000rpm GT3 engine had some early issues with big end caps, but the engines were replaced under warranty, and the later 4.0L engines haven't had any issues.

So apart from some catastrophic failures (including the flagship model which involved a Do Not Drive notice to owners) Porsche engines are very reliable.

[smcsales]

Hi everyone,

Its interesting to see everyone's views on our Stratton GT's and my apologies we haven't been involved in these discussions.

We have been going through a shake up on the social media front and internet front recently and are now at the point where we will hopefully be getting more involved in as many of these forum discussions as possible.

Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to answer as much as we can on these amazing Stratton GT's.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus (Stratton Motor Company)

[RacerMike]

Cold said:

RacerMike said:

Bore scoring and ovalling was present on the port injection engines in the 987 and 997 gen 1 cars which were made up to 2009. Second gen 987 and 997s had the DFi engine which, by all accounts, doesn't have any significant engine issues. There's been one or two reports, but per 1000 cars, I'm pretty confident it's no more than any other normal engine.

The 3.8 9000rpm GT3 engine had some early issues with big end caps, but the engines were replaced under warranty, and the later 4.0L engines haven't had any issues.

So apart from some catastrophic failures (including the flagship model which involved a Do Not Drive notice to owners) Porsche engines are very reliable.

Plenty of cars on sale today have had less well dealt with engine issues. Focus RS and various McLarens to name just two. The guy who's Senna burnt down, resulting in McLaren then threatening him by saying that 'if he'd done something wrong they'd find out' springs to mind in particular.

The bulk of Porsche's cars are incredibly reliable. Add the practicality, residuals and perceived interior quality into the mix and it's not that surprising why more people buy Caymans and 911s than Exiges and Evoras.

[Cold]

RacerMike said:

The bulk of Porsche's cars are incredibly reliable. Add the practicality, residuals and perceived interior quality into the mix and it's not that surprising why more people buy Caymans and 911s than Exiges and Evoras.

Lots of people buy Vauxhall Novas too.

[RacerMike]

Cold said:

RacerMike said:

The bulk of Porsche's cars are incredibly reliable. Add the practicality, residuals and perceived interior quality into the mix and it's not that surprising why more people buy Caymans and 911s than Exiges and Evoras.

Lots of people buy Vauxhall Novas too.

• Corsas

Point I'm making is that the reason Lotus' don't sell is because it's a small market that they appeal to, who often don't have the means to buy one. It's all very well people making comments like 'If I had the money this would 100% be on my list'. Well yes....but the issue is they don't have the money, and the people who do, buy different cars because they have different priorities.

To be a profitable car company, you have to make things the majority of consumers want. If you don't, you cease to exist. Ideally, you make enough money from car sales that you can do the occasional enthusiasts car that doesn't have to sell in volume. Lotus did this in the late 90s and early 2000's with the Elise....it happened to arrive at a time when people bought lots of sports cars, and because it was pre slush moulded dashboards and sat nav, the fact it had bits of MG Metro in it just added to the paired back feel which people accepted then because normal road cars were equally unrefined.

With Geely in charge and the new product plan underway at Lotus, I have confidence that they will succeed....but that's because those cars are likely to be very different to the Evora and Elise which just haven't sold in significant numbers due to what I've explained.

[lukelovescars]

smcsales said:

Hi everyone,

Its interesting to see everyone's views on our Stratton GT's and my apologies we haven't been involved in these discussions.

We have been going through a shake up on the social media front and internet front recently and are now at the point where we will hopefully be getting more involved in as many of these forum discussions as possible.

Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to answer as much as we can on these amazing Stratton GT's.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus (Stratton Motor Company)

Hi Marc, can you confirm the point made in an earlier post about the spacers/wishbones? And how old are the donor cars? Thanks

[smcsales]

lukelovescars said:

smcsales said:

Hi everyone,

Its interesting to see everyone's views on our Stratton GT's and my apologies we haven't been involved in these discussions.

We have been going through a shake up on the social media front and internet front recently and are now at the point where we will hopefully be getting more involved in as many of these forum discussions as possible.

Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to answer as much as we can on these amazing Stratton GT's.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus (Stratton Motor Company)

Hi Marc, can you confirm the point made in an earlier post about the spacers/wishbones? And how old are the donor cars? Thanks

Hi, so in actual fact it's to do with the wheels. We have 5 cars. The No.1 car (Green), the car we use to showcase the Stratton GT's has the correct wheels that are made for a GTE which means they have a wider offset on the rear only. Whereas the other 4 we have are using standard Evora wheels due to no supply left of GTE wheels so they are standard offset with an extended hub spacer.

With regards the donor cars, we bought from Lotus parts and rolling chassis's to enable us to build 5 cars. These are rolling chassis's from when the GTE's were made.

I hope that answers those questions.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus.

[anonymous-user]

Cold said:

Lots of people buy Vauxhall Novas too.

Typical nonsense,

Lotus Evora - great cars because nobody buys them.
Alfa 4C - not great cars so nobody buys them.
Toyota GT 86 - great cars but nobody buys them.
Toyota Aygo - not great cars so everybody buys them.
Mazda MX5 - great cars so everybody buys them.

Porsche - one of the world's most successful sports car manufacturers? Naaah, no good at all.

[Cold]

rockin said:

Cold said:

Lots of people buy Vauxhall Novas too.

Typical nonsense,

Lotus Evora - great cars because nobody buys them.
Alfa 4C - not great cars so nobody buys them.
Toyota GT 86 - great cars but nobody buys them.
Toyota Aygo - not great cars so everybody buys them.
Mazda MX5 - great cars so everybody buys them.

Porsche - one of the world's most successful sports car manufacturers? Naaah, no good at all.

Why are so many Porsche enthusiasts so insecure about their favoured marque they feel compelled to write about them on a Lotus thread? This is a consistent and puzzling phenomenon on here.

Oh and these days Porsche are a 4x4 SUV manufacturer.

[RacerMike]

Cold said:

rockin said:

Cold said:

Lots of people buy Vauxhall Novas too.

Typical nonsense,

Lotus Evora - great cars because nobody buys them.
Alfa 4C - not great cars so nobody buys them.
Toyota GT 86 - great cars but nobody buys them.
Toyota Aygo - not great cars so everybody buys them.
Mazda MX5 - great cars so everybody buys them.

Porsche - one of the world's most successful sports car manufacturers? Naaah, no good at all.

Why are so many Porsche enthusiasts so insecure about their favoured marque they feel compelled to write about them on a Lotus thread? This is a consistent and puzzling phenomenon on here.

Oh and these days Porsche are a 4x4 SUV manufacturer.

I really like Lotus'. I just couldn't justify buying one though, so my money went into a GT4. This is the problem....they're great cars but hard to justify when you're actually looking at getting one.

It's great to say 'I'd definitely have one of these if I could afford it', but the point I've been making is that it takes a braver man than me to do that. And that's the problem Lotus have.

[gigglebug]

smcsales said:

Hi everyone,

Its interesting to see everyone's views on our Stratton GT's and my apologies we haven't been involved in these discussions.

We have been going through a shake up on the social media front and internet front recently and are now at the point where we will hopefully be getting more involved in as many of these forum discussions as possible.

Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to answer as much as we can on these amazing Stratton GT's.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus (Stratton Motor Company)

I don't suppose that you have any videos of the cars do you, possibly GT no.1 as it has done some mileage?

[anonymous-user]

rockin said:

Porsche - one of the world's most successful sports car manufacturers?

Zzzzzzz

[SMCNorfolkLotus]

gigglebug said:

I don't suppose that you have any videos of the cars do you, possibly GT no.1 as it has done some mileage?

Yes I can certainly get a video to you.

We are in the process within the next few months of getting videos on our website of all cars but in the mean time if you have WhatsApp then that is the easiest way for me to get you a Video of this Evora.

Stratton GT No.1 has approximately 1000 miles on the clock at the moment so still fairly unused.

Please message me on the Norfolk Lotus mobile on 07983716487 and I will then get a video done and sent to you.

Many thanks,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus

[lukelovescars]

smcsales said:

Hi, so in actual fact it's to do with the wheels. We have 5 cars. The No.1 car (Green), the car we use to showcase the Stratton GT's has the correct wheels that are made for a GTE which means they have a wider offset on the rear only. Whereas the other 4 we have are using standard Evora wheels due to no supply left of GTE wheels so they are standard offset with an extended hub spacer.

With regards the donor cars, we bought from Lotus parts and rolling chassis's to enable us to build 5 cars. These are rolling chassis's from when the GTE's were made.

I hope that answers those questions.

Regards,

Marc @ Norfolk Lotus.

Thanks Marc - much appreciated.