Introducing myself and my Europa

[buzzer]

Yes welcome on board. While you’re doing your house refurb do a weekly hunt for the parts you need. I’m sure you know but some parts are very rare, gearbox bits and trim parts particularly.
Welcome on board. Look forward to progress reports.

[EcurieEcosse]

Still feeling good about this forum :-)
Yes - as someone is suggesting I'll be spending time behind the PC in the evenings looking for parts for the Europa.  I've done that for years for the other restoration projects as well.  For the Esprit I've been finding out stuff, solutions and the use of non original parts all the time.  The latest aquisition for that project was a set of four bespoke brake disks, with AP Racing 320 mm rotors and aluminium center bells with the proper Lotus PCD, inset and center bore, but with standard AP Racing bolt pattern for the rotors. The equivalent Lotus disks have a special to Lotus bolt pattern for the rotor, which means they can charge you 2-3 times the money for new rotors also from AP Racing.

My daily driver is a 21 years old E39 BMW 520i and for the house building I often use a Chevy S10 Blazer that I'm installing front and rear locking differentials on. And since I'm passionate about cars I think that it's better to gather old cars than money in the bank for my pension.  The "interest" (added value) is better if you buy wise and the prosess is MUCH more fun :-)

I now have
An E34 BMW 525 iX (4wd) saloon
A Citroën CX Prestige (triple black)
The Esprit and Europa projects
and
The Marcos 2 litre V4 (picture taken on a drive up the Prescott Hill hillclimb course during the 50th anniversary for Marcos in 2009)

And seven motorbikes all in all.
Just ordered a new BMW G310 (commuter bike)
A Yamaha TT600 enduro
A Moto Guzzi 1000 Le Mans
A Yamaha XT600 project
A Honda XR600 cafe racer project
A first year (1994) all original Ducati 916 Spada (monoposto) under restoration
A Moto Guzzi 750 project
A BMW R120RT project (1200 oilhead engine / box in a R100RT chassis)

So it's only natural that my 72 square meters garage is way too small, and why I need a new place to live and tune :-)

Geir

[BDA]

All those vehicles will definitely be very cramped in 72 square meters. Maybe you can get a lift or two and ease the need for square meters!

Is that frame for the Esprit? You'll want to make that garage very comfortable because you'll be spending a lot of time in it between building the Esprit and Europa as well as maintenance on all the other cars and motorcycles!

[EcurieEcosse]

  The frame with front- and rear suspension is indeed from the Esprit.  This is an S2, but I bought the complete front and rear suspension from a burnt out Esprit S350 (V8) and the rear fitted directly - with a welded in anchorage point for the upper arm.
On the front the upper and lower arms fitted, but I had to make (weld) a new point for the front leg of the lower arm. This way I now have an upper arm at the rear (came from Lotus in the S3) and outboard brakes (came in the S4). The inboard brakes give less unsprung weight but also a lot of "hazzle" with less choice regarding parts and maintenance.

The 72 square meters is todays garage.  The new one will be 130 + 45, and I allready have a stage 2 planned - with a separate parking garage for "ready" vehicles.

And I haven't mentioned my two tractors - one with a back hoe as an important element of the building work, and one International Harvester for snow plowing and general maintenance on the new property.  And a couple of trailers and a caravan 

All this needs parking space under a roof.

But the workshop is the "heart" of the new place and to me restoration and tinkering with special vehicles is kind of a recreation - it gives energy.

G

[buzzer]

Marcos  . Always liked the shape cool car.