hello, new member with some questions.
Discussion
hello.. Here is my story:
Im right now a owner of a corvette 1991. I hade this car 3 years now. I going to sell this car and look for another sports car. I whant a car with better handeling, and a car that is a littel more "exotic".
So I have looked at the lotus esprit turbo SE, I always loved the look of the car. I have never tried on, but i will, soon.
Now to the questions:
My vette can take alot of abuse (autox/drag races etc). The tranny is a ZF6speed witch can take 600hp without mods.
How much abuse can a esprit take? And do I dare to run it at the local drag strip? Or autox with it?
Does it hold up good?
How is the 4cyl engine holding up?
I love to DRIVE my cars, the vette sees the track once a week. Is the esprit a "more show then go" car? Or is build to hold for "creativ driving"?
Of course you must drive with your "head", let the car cool down etc etc.
But I dont whant a car that breakdown cause you make a burn out or a highway pass.
I always take good care of my cars, and made all the service mysefl, i work as a volvo mechanic so i know my way around a car.
How much is speciall on the lotus? Lets take the gear box, is there something "special" about that gearbox that a certified gearbox mechanic cant fix, syncros etc? And the engine/drivetrain, is it all spec lotus parts?
A egnine is still just a engige so change parts in the eninge should be pretty strait forward, pistons etc, or?
And how about trim? Who sells trim parts for the esprit. I not saying i need them ,but as a car fanatic you always look to moddify and uppgrade.
I would love to own a esprit, but i heard that the car is pretty fragile. Please tell me im wrong.
Thanks for your time..
Im right now a owner of a corvette 1991. I hade this car 3 years now. I going to sell this car and look for another sports car. I whant a car with better handeling, and a car that is a littel more "exotic".
So I have looked at the lotus esprit turbo SE, I always loved the look of the car. I have never tried on, but i will, soon.
Now to the questions:
My vette can take alot of abuse (autox/drag races etc). The tranny is a ZF6speed witch can take 600hp without mods.
How much abuse can a esprit take? And do I dare to run it at the local drag strip? Or autox with it?
Does it hold up good?
How is the 4cyl engine holding up?
I love to DRIVE my cars, the vette sees the track once a week. Is the esprit a "more show then go" car? Or is build to hold for "creativ driving"?
Of course you must drive with your "head", let the car cool down etc etc.
But I dont whant a car that breakdown cause you make a burn out or a highway pass.
I always take good care of my cars, and made all the service mysefl, i work as a volvo mechanic so i know my way around a car.
How much is speciall on the lotus? Lets take the gear box, is there something "special" about that gearbox that a certified gearbox mechanic cant fix, syncros etc? And the engine/drivetrain, is it all spec lotus parts?
A egnine is still just a engige so change parts in the eninge should be pretty strait forward, pistons etc, or?
And how about trim? Who sells trim parts for the esprit. I not saying i need them ,but as a car fanatic you always look to moddify and uppgrade.
I would love to own a esprit, but i heard that the car is pretty fragile. Please tell me im wrong.
Thanks for your time..
All the esprit info you'll need is on www.espritfactfile.com or on www.lotusespritworld.co.uk
There are already answers to all of your questions contained on these web sites.
If you 'abuse' your cars, then don't buy an esprit. Stick with your clunky vette. Ditto for drag racing. If you want real a real track car then the esprit is in a totally different league.
Look at www.hybinette.com/lotus/ for serious performace mods and race expertise. Johan or Larry will tell you everything you'd need to know.
There are already answers to all of your questions contained on these web sites.
If you 'abuse' your cars, then don't buy an esprit. Stick with your clunky vette. Ditto for drag racing. If you want real a real track car then the esprit is in a totally different league.
Look at www.hybinette.com/lotus/ for serious performace mods and race expertise. Johan or Larry will tell you everything you'd need to know.
The diference between se and v8.
Well you get a V8 engine instead of four cyclinder.
The v8 trans is little more built than an se.
When you dragrace a lotus the trans will not last.
It is more for road racing. The cars are only as reliable as the person who last took care of it.
SE vs s4. Well except for a remap of the computer and new skins all the way around they are pretty much the same.
I have draged raced in the lotus Turbo, the cars are alot harder to get going. If you are on the freeway trying to pass some one Down shifting is all you need to do.
I do not now how they drag race in sweden, but in the U.S all you have to do in a lotus is Rev the egine To 2500rpm And on the last yellow amber you floor it.
Because by the time it turns green you should have most of your boost and not trip the red light indicator you should win.
But most of all it is how you fell about the car.
Well you get a V8 engine instead of four cyclinder.
The v8 trans is little more built than an se.
When you dragrace a lotus the trans will not last.
It is more for road racing. The cars are only as reliable as the person who last took care of it.
SE vs s4. Well except for a remap of the computer and new skins all the way around they are pretty much the same.
I have draged raced in the lotus Turbo, the cars are alot harder to get going. If you are on the freeway trying to pass some one Down shifting is all you need to do.
I do not now how they drag race in sweden, but in the U.S all you have to do in a lotus is Rev the egine To 2500rpm And on the last yellow amber you floor it.
Because by the time it turns green you should have most of your boost and not trip the red light indicator you should win.
But most of all it is how you fell about the car.
The difference in the SE to S4 is not much. Mostly cosmetic. The S4 does have power steering, and I think Brembo brakes. It also has what some people consider and unusal mid hatch mounted wing that looks odd from certain angles. That is just a personal preference. The car is still an Esprit and still looks very nice. 89 1/2 to sometime in the late 90 MY SE's does not have ABS. Although the clutch is better on the V8's the pedal pressure is less than the SE clutch system but is more digital. It feels more on/off with less middle ground. Just something to get used to in a V8. There is a trick in getting low 0-60 times in the mid 4 sec. range with the SE. By flooring the gas pedal prior to the actual accelleration you can fool the ECM in to releasing just over 1 bar of boost for several seconds. I think that the engineers programed it that way to so they could drop the published 0-60 times. This type of thing is to be frowned on as the transmission is fragile for this type of thing. You could to serious damage esp. to 2nd gear and syncro. So to do a lot of drag racing use another car. You can however do a lot of 60-150 racing against sport bikes as SE's are very good at this speed. Drop into 4th and floor it at 60. Everytime a sport bike shifts he drop further back until he is just being wind buffeted by high speeds. Unless he is in full leathers he will have to back off while you are in comfort with the windows rolled up. You can take on all but the fastest of bikes this way. Also you have higher top speed than most cars so if you are going more than 1/4 mile you will win by attrition.
Calvin 90 SE
Calvin 90 SE
I have to agree here. 60 and up, the car is a beast. From a dead start, she isn't all that, because of the tranny. If my SE is at all warmed up, I can't rev higher than 3500 RPM without grinding my 2nd gear synchro. However, once I'm in second, and that boost kicks in, I'm off like a shot.
I was driving on the DC beltway this weekend, doing about 80. Passed a crotch rocket bike. He decided he wanted to show me who was boss, and tried to fly past me. As soon as I saw him approaching in my rear view mirrors, I downshifted into 4th and gave it hell.
I started to leave him in the dust, and he QUICKLY gave up.
Once you are moving, the SE is very fast.
I was driving on the DC beltway this weekend, doing about 80. Passed a crotch rocket bike. He decided he wanted to show me who was boss, and tried to fly past me. As soon as I saw him approaching in my rear view mirrors, I downshifted into 4th and gave it hell.
I started to leave him in the dust, and he QUICKLY gave up.
Once you are moving, the SE is very fast.
One other thing...for road track driving, it is a dream. I was driving in Southern MD, and a gent on a Ninja 1100 crotch rocket wanted to drive with me (was drafting me doing 120 MPH). On those straights, I'm sure he could have killed me, but he just wanted to drive with me. Then, we turned down some side streets to get to my house. Nice windy stuff. On the straights he had been right on my bumper. However, on the windy stuff, it was a different story. I took the last turn and looked back, and he was nowhere to be seen. A few seconds later, he appeared, way back in the distance. Followed me to my house, and I gave him a beer as he marvelled at the car. Very cool day of driving.
Devil fish:
I am a former Muscle car guy turned Lotus owner.
I sold my 10.71@126 99 Formula Firebird for my Lotus Esprit S4.
In terms of Drag racing, I would make sure that your car is in very good running order before taking it to the track. I mean if you buy a used esprit let it spend some time with the mechanic first. I ran mine at Cecil county north of baltimore and made one decent pass at 13.8@103. Not bad for a bone stock esprit S4, but I ended up having a weak valve that sheared off on the drive home. This really had nothing to with with the passes I made but I think all of the air flow that day might have contributed to it shearing off.
When the car is back together I am very confident it will run great. The trannies are way weaker then the T56 or the trans in your L98 vette. So you really cant speed shift it like your vette. A nice flat foot shift from 1-2 is the smartest thing, and then a quicker shift from 2-3 is fine and on up.
I have found on the 4 cylinder cars mine is great out of the whole actually one the street. I can let the clutch out at about 4,500 rpms and it stays right in the boost. My roomate has a high 12 second TA and we are dead even through 1st gear with the Lotus actually getting out on the torquey LT1. I have actually found the opposite of what mad mike has mentioned about the top end characteristics. I feel that this car loses abit up top. That could be because my car was not in the best shape when I was driving it hard the that intake valve might have not been seating right all along.
I have a hard time getting the car quick down low at the track though. The track is so sticky that a higher RPM launch will bog it pretty bad, hurt parts, and hurt my ET's. On the street I get allittle tire spin which keeps me from breaking parts, and it keeps the motor up in the boost better.
So anyways I hope this helps. As far as racing newer crotch rockets up top dont try it unless you have a car that traps around 125 in the quarter. Beleive me I used to street race tons in my formula for money.
Or get a V8 swap out the ECU for the red one and have a high 11 second car for a modest investment.
I am a former Muscle car guy turned Lotus owner.
I sold my 10.71@126 99 Formula Firebird for my Lotus Esprit S4.
In terms of Drag racing, I would make sure that your car is in very good running order before taking it to the track. I mean if you buy a used esprit let it spend some time with the mechanic first. I ran mine at Cecil county north of baltimore and made one decent pass at 13.8@103. Not bad for a bone stock esprit S4, but I ended up having a weak valve that sheared off on the drive home. This really had nothing to with with the passes I made but I think all of the air flow that day might have contributed to it shearing off.
When the car is back together I am very confident it will run great. The trannies are way weaker then the T56 or the trans in your L98 vette. So you really cant speed shift it like your vette. A nice flat foot shift from 1-2 is the smartest thing, and then a quicker shift from 2-3 is fine and on up.
I have found on the 4 cylinder cars mine is great out of the whole actually one the street. I can let the clutch out at about 4,500 rpms and it stays right in the boost. My roomate has a high 12 second TA and we are dead even through 1st gear with the Lotus actually getting out on the torquey LT1. I have actually found the opposite of what mad mike has mentioned about the top end characteristics. I feel that this car loses abit up top. That could be because my car was not in the best shape when I was driving it hard the that intake valve might have not been seating right all along.
I have a hard time getting the car quick down low at the track though. The track is so sticky that a higher RPM launch will bog it pretty bad, hurt parts, and hurt my ET's. On the street I get allittle tire spin which keeps me from breaking parts, and it keeps the motor up in the boost better.
So anyways I hope this helps. As far as racing newer crotch rockets up top dont try it unless you have a car that traps around 125 in the quarter. Beleive me I used to street race tons in my formula for money.
Or get a V8 swap out the ECU for the red one and have a high 11 second car for a modest investment.
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