Excel Workshop Manual

[Mec]

Hi everyone,

I'm after an Excel Workshop Manual if anyone has one ?

Thanks a lot mike

[rbgosling]

They pop up on eBay occasionally, not that often though, but it's worth leaving a search running. I suspect most of us on this forum who have a manual have no intention of letting it go at any price! But it's always worth asking, it'll certainly make your life a lot easier. The only workshop manual in existence is Lotus' own one, as used by their own dealers/workshops, unsurprisingly the likes of Haynes etc. didn't deem it worth publishing a manual for Excel.

[Zag]

One just been listed on ebay.

[Mec]

Hi mate
do you have link, I cant see anything on there ?

Thanks a lot mike

[rbgosling]

Here it is Mike. It covers models up to '86, which should be good for your car - not sure of the year of yours, but it has the bonnet vents at the side rather than in the middle, so it should be about this era. Currently £39 but I expect the price to rise!

[supraholic]

That's the same one I've got that doesn't include the HA Steering section. Not like somebody took it out and its missing, but actually not even in the table of contents. Might be worth asking the seller to confirm. I wouldn't let it stop you from buying it, but probably worth a little more if its complete.

[Mec]

thanks so much guys, I have it in my watch list, mine is an 86 so should be perfect, fingers crossed

[Zulu 10]

If the bidding goes crazy on the original version on eBay, then you can do as I did, and get a re-print version from South West Lotus Centre for £60 here: https://www.thelotuscentreonline.co.uk/ ... vice-Notes

[TonyL]

Thanks for the tip, Zulu. The bidding did indeed go crazy & ended at £155 + postage. I was expecting it to be under £100, as there's an Esprit S2 manual on there with a buy it now price of £90 & normally, Esprit bits are more expensive than Excel bits.

The SWL version is £71.35 by the time you've paid for delivery. The ad says it includes the steering section.

[Zulu 10]

The SWL version is £71.35 by the time you've paid for delivery. The ad says it includes the steering section.

Yes, indeed, it does contain section HA.

[Zag]

My manual is now probably the most valuable part of my car!

[Mec]

Thanks for the info, I did see the £60 one online, alas I bid up to £150 and was outbid with 2 seconds to go

[TonyL]

I bought the £60 one & now I have it, I'd say £155 for a real one looks like a fair price, by comparison.

The trouble with the £60 one is:

It costs quite a bit more than £60 delivered.

A lot of the text is very faint, although very little is completely illegible, & I must be fair to SWL & explain they mention this in their listing.

Some of the pictures come out so badly there's no point in them being there. The diagrams are fine - it's just some of the photographs that just look like a splodge on the page.

Although it's drilled/punched for a 4-ring binder, you're just buying the pages, with no ring binder/cover.

It's printed on 80gsm copy paper, so I'm going to have to be careful with it or it won't last long. I haven't seen a real one, but I'm sure this would be printed on 130gsm silk or better, which would be much more robust.

[rbgosling]

I haven't seen a real one, but I'm sure this would be printed on 130gsm silk or better, which would be much more robust.

The real one is better than that, it's actually printed on a sort of plastic-coated paper. At least mine is.

[AndyC]

@Mac I'll need to have a look around the workshop, I probably have a spare original and for a reasonable price. It going to be a little while though as my back is struggling so workshop out of bounds.