Hello all,

The V8 is now in Phoenix with a happy new owner, but I wanted to say it has been an incredible honor to be part of this group. The last five and half years have been great and I have a lot of great memories. Sharring information and improving our cars has been great as well as the meets I attended such as The Dragon, Texas Motor Speedway and the run to Lockenback (spelled wrong for sure) with the Austin folks. I shared some good meals at Babe's and discovered a special kind of Apple Pie thanks to 32Crazy. I will still be around and checking in here. I will never forget the reactions by those who I gave a ride to... especially Pizza. at one point I wasn't sure if he was excited or about to die. Thankfully he was just having a great time!

It is nice to now have two cars so I don't have to worry about getting every project done before Monday morning. I now have a CLK320 for daily driving and the '89 Lotus as my new project. I was at Cars and Coffee this past Saturday and the North Texas Lotus club gave me a warm greeting. I am not sure the Lotus guys are ready for me I am already stirring things up. Get this... The best suspension setup is considered to be a combination of Bilstein's with 2.5 inch Eibach coilovers. You have to buy this directly from Lotus as a package for $3,300 plus tax! Many people have done this. Guess what?, by calling Bilstein I figured out what the components are and the shocks run about $450 on Ebay and standard 2.5" coilover springs are dirt cheap in any spring rate you could want. have looked into this becuase the racing coilovers on the car now is beating me to death. this car was raced on a regular basis. the nice thing about buying a racer is getting all the spare parts with it!! This car came with its own parts store! Here is a picture of the Esprit from last Saturday. I will be doing all the same mods I did on the Crossfire including the V8 swap. Take care everyone and take care of those beautiful Crossfire's.

Lotuscarsandcoffee2_zpsc6bcc216.jpg

 

Nice job on the pick up! Im sure that thing is going to be a beast. Were going to need updates periodically to see progress, if not a whole build thread .... You gave inspiration to a ton of people through what you did to your crossfire, and you better be on here every now and again because I know I will be needing your help here pretty soon LOL. Best of luck on the new project.

 

Congrats on the new ride. Enjoy the mods

 

Good luck with the new car.. I've always been impressed by your work.

 

Going for a ride in the FIRST V8 Crossfire in North America was a highpoint of that Dragon, thanks for the memories.

Make sure you stick around and keep us updated, my friend.

 

happy trails bob! of course this crowd still lets me hang out at the dragon with my porsche so bring the lotus!!

 

Planning on it! Just bring some of that great apple pie!!

 

Hell Bob. We are all car guys. Where are you going. lol.

 

Bob, looks like you have picked up an awesome new project car! Hope to see you at the Dragon again or at TMS.

 

Bob,
Thanks for the update here
Looks like ya got another neat project on your hands....very cool for sure !!
Best of luck and bring that Lotus out to play on the 318 curves in 11 miles
Yup you know where...lol

Gary

 

Bob, I look forward to you trying to keep up with us Crossfires in that at TMS.

Saweet!

 

Sorry to hear you have given up on the XF. The Lotus is a great car and will be great fun. What V8 is going in? Would love to see it!

 

Doncha just wish you still had one? Come on, really, I know you miss it... If the winds and the spirits are in sync, maybe, just maybe, you'll have the opportunity to grab another and I am sure, yes totally sure, you'll be welcomed back into the owners fold with open arms! Few have made the strides for XF owners like you. Your inspiration had given many the will to try. That accounts for something. I just cannot find the right words to express it that would do it justice. Maybe someday you'll have another, that is my dream. Come back often and please keep us updated!

 

This one! The new Ford 5.0 Coyote V8 puts out 412hp bone stock at 7,000 rpm. The '96-'04 twin turbo V8 Lotus Esprit put out 350hp and pushed the 2800 pound car to 178 mph and got to 60 in about 4.2 seconds. The Ford engine is actually 35lbs lighter than the Lotus 3.5 twin turbo V8. I am expecting to be quicker than the production Lotus V8 Esprit. the engine below is mated to the Lotus (Renault UN-1) with a custom bellhousing from Tornado Sports Cars UK. The nice thing about using this bellhousing instead of an adaptor plate is that you can use the full size Ford clutch. I spent a couple of hours in the garage tonight taking measurments and it looks like it will fit but is just as tight as the V8 in a Crossfire.

 

I miss the Crossfire very much, but in the meatime I will try to sneak into events with the Lotus. Hey 32Crazy gets away with that!

Here is some info on the car. It is an '89 Turbo. the PO was the second owner and bought it with 7400 miles on it. It was his daily driver for over 20 years and was raced on the weekends. It has many upgrades effecting handling and power. The engine sounds wicked with the custom header and Stebro exhaust. It doesn't sound like a car but rather a F1 bike. It is very quick but does have 129K miles on it. the car came with boxes and boxes of spare new parts including another set of factory wheels like the ones on the car except they have DOT race tires on them.

The only problem with the car is paint and interior which is well worn. You can see on the tailgate above that the clear is flaking off. Yes looks like reflections of the sky/clouds but it is the clear coat. the plan for the car is:

Repaint car all black (no two tone) all black will make the car look lower.

Every inch of the interior will be redone in Ultra leather, softer and last longer than real leather. This is the hot setup in the street rod community and you would never know the difference.

Suspension will be changed to Bilstein coilovers instead of the rock hard suspension on the car.

I will make up my own big brake kit using toyota TT Supra rotors and Willwood or Outlaw calipers

Bigger brakes will require at least 17 inch wheels (currently 15 and 16) Wheels for the Esprit are really tricky and you pretty much have to go with someone who makes custom wheels to order. ESM has some decent wheels that will work and Budnik and Coddington have some that would look good on the car.

Any weird unreliable British crap will be changed to proven reliable parts.

The heating AC system may get tossed and replaced with something from Vintage Air. The lotus system is marginal and really weird. I almost froze to death on the intial drive home from Houston becuase I couldn't figure out how to operate it.

I intend for the car to be reliable and bullet proof.

And of course the Coyote V8 I am holding off a long as possible on the engine becuase the price is coming down as more Mustangs get wrecked.

That is the plan as of now for the car.

 

Hate to see you move on but such is life. Sounds like you'll make another really scary machine. Good luck.

 

Once a member..Always a member..But remember this as you drive into the sunset with your new Lotus....

"the first rule of fight club..."

 

Yea, I will always be interested in what is going on here and look forward to the new owner becoming more active, so I can keep up with the car.

 

Bob, just going by your past track record with British designed cars powered by muscular Ford V8's, I'd have to say your newest project should be nothing less than EPIC.

 

The lotus Esprit was my first dream car and now if I could afford it I would have a lotus myself ,good buys on your part , and good luck with the new cars but one question
Do you miss your xf yet ?