replace fragile parts ?
Discussion
Hi,
What parts are you referring to? There are no real inherently bad parts in these cars. Certainly many parts are sourced from the 1960's and metalurgy has improved significantly.
The gearbox can be troublesome, but this is mostly due to either poor driving habits or abuse. Citroen, the maker of the box, as well as Lotus have racked up millions of miles on these boxes. In the Lotus application, some care must be exercised as you are approaching the design limits of the gearbox. Synchros do wear, but that is their design function. They are a friction part and eventually do wear out.
The only real 'flawed' part in the 907 engine are the cast aluminum pistons. They are fine in the S1,S2 and S3, but when Lotus put them in the excessive environment of the Turbo, they do fail after about 35-40k mi. The fix is fairly easy and cheap - a set of forged aluminum pistons. From 1986 onward, Lotus adopted a forged aluminum piston along with a Nikosil coated cylinder liner which has the advantage over the past Iron liners in that it expands at the same rate as the pistons allowing for tighter manufacturing tolerances and therefore higher compression.
But a properly driven, well sorted and maintained 'G' model Esprit will be about as reliable as any high performance car of it's era.
Everything is relative, remember, you are dealing with a 25 years old design. Due to advances in Manufacture, Design, Engineering, Metalurgy and Materials Science, by comparison, today's cars are vastly more reliable. But, they will seem delicate, fragile, poorly constructed and engineered when compared with cars 25 years in the future.
Also, contrary to popular belief, it isn't Engineering which produces better designs, it's funding. And, Lotus has never had the resources it truly needed to compete with other car makers in every respect. As an example, the early 3 and 9 series Porsches were as cantankerous as they come, but Porsche infused lots of funding into their continued development and produced a high performance car with respectable reliability.
The Performance Car market is driven primarily by Performance, not reliability. Given their meager resources, Lotus quite properly, chose to spend their money on maintaining their performance edge.
Remember, most of us are not the original owners of our 10+ year old cars. Lotus hasn't sold us a thing. The original owners, as a demographic, sold these cars and bought new ones as the models improved and performance increased. For them, these cars were pretty reliable.
We have inherited cars which have been driven harder than the average used Saturn, so it's not surprising that they require significant amounts of upkeep. Still, I wouldn't trade mine for the world. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE
What parts are you referring to? There are no real inherently bad parts in these cars. Certainly many parts are sourced from the 1960's and metalurgy has improved significantly.
The gearbox can be troublesome, but this is mostly due to either poor driving habits or abuse. Citroen, the maker of the box, as well as Lotus have racked up millions of miles on these boxes. In the Lotus application, some care must be exercised as you are approaching the design limits of the gearbox. Synchros do wear, but that is their design function. They are a friction part and eventually do wear out.
The only real 'flawed' part in the 907 engine are the cast aluminum pistons. They are fine in the S1,S2 and S3, but when Lotus put them in the excessive environment of the Turbo, they do fail after about 35-40k mi. The fix is fairly easy and cheap - a set of forged aluminum pistons. From 1986 onward, Lotus adopted a forged aluminum piston along with a Nikosil coated cylinder liner which has the advantage over the past Iron liners in that it expands at the same rate as the pistons allowing for tighter manufacturing tolerances and therefore higher compression.
But a properly driven, well sorted and maintained 'G' model Esprit will be about as reliable as any high performance car of it's era.
Everything is relative, remember, you are dealing with a 25 years old design. Due to advances in Manufacture, Design, Engineering, Metalurgy and Materials Science, by comparison, today's cars are vastly more reliable. But, they will seem delicate, fragile, poorly constructed and engineered when compared with cars 25 years in the future.
Also, contrary to popular belief, it isn't Engineering which produces better designs, it's funding. And, Lotus has never had the resources it truly needed to compete with other car makers in every respect. As an example, the early 3 and 9 series Porsches were as cantankerous as they come, but Porsche infused lots of funding into their continued development and produced a high performance car with respectable reliability.
The Performance Car market is driven primarily by Performance, not reliability. Given their meager resources, Lotus quite properly, chose to spend their money on maintaining their performance edge.
Remember, most of us are not the original owners of our 10+ year old cars. Lotus hasn't sold us a thing. The original owners, as a demographic, sold these cars and bought new ones as the models improved and performance increased. For them, these cars were pretty reliable.
We have inherited cars which have been driven harder than the average used Saturn, so it's not surprising that they require significant amounts of upkeep. Still, I wouldn't trade mine for the world. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE
LotusACBC,
Metallurgy is the science of metals. To be more precise: The science that deals with procedures used in extracting metals from their ores, purifying and alloying metals, and creating useful objects from metals. The study of metals and their properties in bulk and at the atomic level.
Advances such as the various electron microscopes and other testing devices has allowed scientists to make better, stronger, lighter metals than were available even 10 years ago. This allows a manufacturer to make a better, lighter part which is then less prone to fatigue or failure. Hope this helps. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE
Metallurgy is the science of metals. To be more precise: The science that deals with procedures used in extracting metals from their ores, purifying and alloying metals, and creating useful objects from metals. The study of metals and their properties in bulk and at the atomic level.
Advances such as the various electron microscopes and other testing devices has allowed scientists to make better, stronger, lighter metals than were available even 10 years ago. This allows a manufacturer to make a better, lighter part which is then less prone to fatigue or failure. Hope this helps. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE
lotusguy said: LotusACBC,
Metallurgy is the science of metals. To be more precise: The science that deals with procedures used in extracting metals from their ores, purifying and alloying metals, and creating useful objects from metals. The study of metals and their properties in bulk and at the atomic level.
Advances such as the various electron microscopes and other testing devices has allowed scientists to make better, stronger, lighter metals than were available even 10 years ago. This allows a manufacturer to make a better, lighter part which is then less prone to fatigue or failure. Hope this helps. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE
Nice, thank you!! By the way, are you a rocket scientist?
LOL 
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