The Lotus Grand Tourers

Well it appears he’s given up after destroying anything useful and seems to be wanting to make a £1500 profit from it !!!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 828772112/

I did get a sense that this was one of those over-ambitious projects that was highly unlikely to reach a conclusion. Still, depressing to see him give up this soon. I'd be astounded if anyone would even take this off him for free, given the state it's now in, the butchering it's received, and the lack of even any usefully salvegable parts that could be sold on.

Hi Tony, there isn't a tread on elsewhere. 'Absolute Lotus' mag ran a few pages in it Oct / Nov 2021 p38-p43. I feel I have slightly more freedom to put some stuff on here now we have 'embraced' the Esprit into the fold and are talking here 'Crazy hatchet man' projects. Basically it is a Europa type 62 silhouette shell, on an ex race Esprit chassis fitted with a twin turbo Rover V8. It is roadgoing (on a Europa V5C) but mainly used for Hill Climbs and Sprints. I'm currently changing the Esprit / Citreon / Quaife / Harry Martens trans for an Audi O1E unit to try and improve durability (and get a tall 6th gear). This is why the Elite is staying 'un-molested' .....thanks for the interest in it ... Andy

A few snaps from the last 10 years or so with it:

The Yellow Elite should be declared by the Forum to be a very dangerous bodyshell and and in no way can it be compared with the Esprit configuration.
The windscreen in an accident would guarantee the death of the driver by decapitation, assuming with an engine fitted it actually would not collapse before getting out of the gate.

The Elite should be declared a part of British Heritage and such butchery should carry a heavy fine. As Milligan said...with fines rangeing from a shilling to hanging.

Dave the cog

Love the Espropa Andrew - brilliant! Can't wait to see/hear it

Pete

Thanks Pete, some say 'Ebitsa', or even 'Ebaysa'.

Andy

That's quite a machine you have there, Andrew. It would be good to see it some day. I did a few sprints & hillclimbs (Harewood being my favourite) when I competed in the Caterham Academy championship, back in 2001. I absolutely loved it.

You're right Dave: in an ideal world, classic cars would be like listed buildings & once there were only so many of a particular model left, you'd need permission to mess with them. Andrew's project would be allowed, & the joker with the Elite would not be allowed to destroy any more classic cars. My theory is he's not as stupid as he's pretending to be & he & his mates were in a competition to see who could garner the most negative comments on Youtube.

Although his Facebook add for it says no engine it also says it is a 1 litre, maybe he cut that in half as well. Also says new tyres, the video shows ex breakers yard and different sizes..... still I suppose they are new to the car....

Alan_M wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 10, 2023 23:15

Well it appears he’s given up after destroying anything useful and seems to be wanting to make a £1500 profit from it !!!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 828772112/

There's a new YouTube video up, in which he defends his decisions to do what he's done to the car. Interestingly this was posted several days after the car was advertised on Facebook, he makes no mention of attempts to sell it and still appears to have plans for the car (albeit both vague and probably unrealistic).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K22r4QTqYo

Apparently he has a Scimitar to mess with too.

Bash

The Butcher claims that the fibreglass roof was disintegrating, this will be the first time I have heard of fibreglass collapsing.
If this really is the case the Butcher should scrap the lot as the only thing left after his ignorant hatchet excercise is the bottom half of the fibreglass body.

We also need to call the Aston Martin Enthusiast Club to stop the butchering this person intends for the Aston M.

Dave the cog.

We may not like it, but these cars belong to this guy, and he's free to do what he wants with them. Moreover, by the looks of the chassis, and his other projects, they are cars that the majority even of enthusiasts would deem beyond viable repair and would just scrap, so if they survive in any manner that's still more of a survival than if they'd been binned. And if they don't survive his delicate restoration work, well at least we've had more entertainment watching him than if they'd gone straight to the scrappy.

Also noteworthy that he's saved all that Elite brightwork, and recognises that it is hard to find and therefore valuable, so hopefully he'll sell it and someone else will benefit from that.

Just been reminded of this daft project when it was mentioned on another thread, so I thought I'd check back and see if anything more has been posted. 7 months later, there's nothing further to see - either he's given up, or at least he's given up sharing it on YouTube after all the advise/abuse he's been getting!