Marcus Horrell's Eclat Excel V8 "eclacco"

[amarshall]

Link to his Flickr story about it : https://flickr.com/photos/70651819@N00/ ... 2348255005

[KevW]

Thanks for posting that Angus. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article

[Simpatico]

Glad he's updating that - the Flickr photostream was dormant for years and ended just where it got relevant - mating engine to chassis!

You can't argue with the work that's going in but part of me wishes he had stuck to the original bodyshell to create a definitive Eclat/Excel

[bash]

Ditto on that, I thought it might be another stalled project that would never be, its great to see it progressing. I dont know if marcus reads on here but if he does I would like to know what machining was done to the inlet system to get the plenum under the bonnet to see if it is similar to my plans. That is a very cool exhaust manifold system too.

Bash

[dunc]

The manifold itself looks standard to me, but the plenum box looks like it is lower in height than the standard rover efi item. I think this is where the machining has been done.

I personally really, really like what he has done here. The bodymods are improvements to my eyes, particularly from the rear (love those exhausts) and the quality of workmanship is shining through.

Like the others I am desperate to see the finished article complete with shiny paint.

It is interesting that he has kept the longer "serpentine" front end on the rover V8 - most transplant's elect for the shorter SD1 style front end, timing cover, distributor arrangement and remote oil filter. I suppose Marcus's car at least won't leak oil everywhere at the timing cover like the short nose SD1 version does.

Dunc

[don.hasi]

I wouldnt say it is an improvement over the stock design of our famous designer. It is different and it is really interesting. I am curious what it will look like in the end too. Only the middle dashboard, console is not my taste... I wouldnt guess any of us would do such a thing in a Maserati of that time... Maybe it will look different when finished. So go ahead

[Simpatico]

It would be interesting to hear what dear old Ollie thinks. My guess is he would be quite intrigued - he is well known to be a massive fan of Italian styling and Bertone in particular, so the allusion to the Uracco is is probably not something he wuld be offended by.

[amarshall]

No complaints from Ollie when he saw it at the NEC. His only comment was that they "sold it with glass in the holes"

[Marcus]

I have read with interest the various comments and observations and I make the following response:-

I have an Elite which I plan to keep original, so bearing in mind I have one original car, I don’t feel as concerned when it comes to altering another one. On a trip to get some parts from Mike Taylor’s LotusBits for my Elite, Mike was, for a customer putting a Rover V8 into an Excel chassis, and he said that it was not too complicated (really!!) – so this is where it all started from. Mike told me that the Excel was a much better car than the Elite, so I went down the Excel route,

I really like the look of the front half of the various wedge shape Lotus cars, however, I’m not so keen on the back of them. I love the back of the Lamborghini Urraco, so this is where it all started from. Using Corel Photopaint on my PC, I was able to merge photos of the 2 cars together, and was able to prove to myself that the idea would work – so, here we are.

I don’t know how others would work out how to change the body shape, but for me it is a bit of, here is a photo of what I would like achieve or incorporate, and then use whatever type of material you think is appropriate and a couple of tins of filler to smooth the work off. So, there is a large element of luck in how my thoughts would work, and after toying around a bit, one has to make a decision to stick with the design, or else one will not progress to the next part of the project.

As I have said earlier, I had actually seen the Rover V8 going into an Excel chassis at Mikes, but did not realise that most of the conversions (from what I understand) do not have the “serpentine” variant. As I had access to a serpentine engine, that’s what I stuck with, so I took it V8 Developments who said that they could lower the plenum chamber, so I gave them the go ahead to do so.

Because of the sloping bonnet, the highest part of the engine is the alternator, which is about 15mm to high in my conversion. The additional height was disguised by subtly raising the height of the whole of the middle of the bonnet.

The interior is based upon the original Elite / Excel. I like wood, so I wanted to have a wooden dash board. What we expect in a car today has moved on from when the Excel came into production – the ice detection probe was most probably state of the art, but today, we have bumper beepers, Sat Nav, cameras all over the place etc. For many of these things it is relatively easy to incorporate into a car – find and space and install a couple of wires – these are the type of things that I have fitted into the car. I have created space by taking the original Elite dashboard, and moving things around in it. (not quite as easy as it sounds) The other thing is that one has to find a way to make and build the various alterations to the car – its just not practical for me to have one off complicated shapes in moulded plastic, so this tends to restrict what one is able to do – (I suppose that if we wait a few more years, it will become possible with new materials and 3D printing, but we have to work with what we have)

Some of the complicated stuff that is fitted to cars today is just not possible for me to even consider – air bags, ABS, catalysts etc. so these are not even on the agenda.

So, this is some of my thinking!

Marcus

[amarshall]

Welcome to the forum (at last), Marcus. Great to have you here.

FWIW, I'm not a huge fan of the Excel's rear either. That huge expanse of nothing above the waistline just doesn't satisfy me.

However, I can't see it when I'm driving it - so I leave the aesthetics to others. (that's my excuse for any complaints about the appearance of my car, btw )

It's your car. It's still based on Lotus' engineering, but with a lot of personalisation. When you first described it to me, I was mildly horrified, but having seen it "in the flesh", it's actually a very nice interpretation. Probably uneconomic for Lotus to have produced it in that style, but definitely still spiritually from Hethel, IMHO, with a few nice mediterranean flourishes.

[Hawaiis0]

Stop talking - get it finished.

The disruptive paint pattern to keep the journalists at bay is working. Let's see it in its full glory of pink - sorry Red.

[KevW]

Thanks for the update Marcus, very interesting.

Speaking as an Excel owner who is possibly a bit OCD about keeping modifications easily reversible I really like what you are doing with your Excel. The overall design and concept looks very professional to my eyes. It's a car I'd be happy to drive

[dunc]

Hey Marcus,

Nice to hear from you!

My observation on the non-serpentine front end was merely that most people fitting a later 10 bolt 4litre or 4.6 rover V8 ditch the serpentine front end as its longer, and retro fit the older SD1 style timing cover and ancilliaries. It makes the engine a bit shorter and easier to fit in and gives you a simple distributor arrangement.

The downside is that almost all of the sd1 timing covers weep a bit of oil, whereas the serpentine unit is (I believe) much more oil tight.

My car uses a 10 bolt 4.6 (also from v8 developments of lincoln), converted to a non-serpentine front end.

When the water pump bearing failed, I thought my engine had blown up as it deposited oily spots all over the windscreen. What I didn't realise was the water pump was shooting a jet of hot water and steam cleaning my oily sd1 timing cover, with the particles being blown up through my bonnet grill by the airflow of the fan.

phew!

replaced a £100 part rather than a £4K part.

[Marcus]

Looking forward to meeting many of you again at the NEC Restoration Show on 23 to 25 March.

As so many say, is it really 12 months since the last one? Answer, Yes, nearly 365 days have gone by.

I was hoping that the car would be finished by now, but its not quite there – Never the less, work has progressed on the car. Progress is hindered by the fact that there are so many bespoke parts. One has to accept that they take about 10 times longer to make and fit than what one would normally anticipate. So, over the past 12 months, the car has gained VW door mirrors, Range Rover door handles, a homemade windscreen water bottle, Apple car play stereo system, mood lighting, a set of Colonel Bogeys etc

Much of the wiring is bespoke, and that is all finished. The engine has been started, the engine bay all painted.

Now progressing on tidying up the bodywork and getting it ready for painting, which is the condition that I expect the car will be at the Restoration Show.

See you soon - Marcus

[Simpatico]

An epic project Marcus, the underbonnet view is very appealing and shows what how a small block V8 could/should have been done by Lotus. A missed opportunity sadly.

Can I ask a couple of questions;

Why the sump heater? Just in the interests of engine wear?

What is the moulding in the spare wheel well for?