The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hello,

For sale, one very loved and cherished 1990 (G Reg) Lotus Excel SE in Silver frost.

I’ve owned and maintained this car sine 1997 prior to that it lived in London where it was regularly serviced by HR Owen. The car is in excellent, original, condition despite having covered 98,000 miles. I have always used fully synthetic Mobil 1 or Castrol oil in the car and I was led to believe the previous owner did the same.

Despite its high millage it was last valued at £6995 by Paul Matty a few years ago. I think its valuation caused Paul quite a dilemma as normally you don’t come across such fine examples (especially ones with 98k on the clock).

I’m looking for somewhere in the region of £6500ono for the car (adventurous I know!!) but this is possibly one of the finest examples still in existence. You can pickup one of these on ebay for a few pounds – but I can assure you there is quite a difference And if the worse comes to the worse I'll just have to hold onto her for a few more years.

For your reference this is the Excel that features on The Best of British – Lotus DVD. Many engine shots and the car itself can be seen on that video. I have uploaded some photos onto Picasa, you can find them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/fluidthedruid/ExcelWeb

If you’re interested please email me on lnbower@centilia.co.uk or call on 01909470855. Oh - I am based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire near both the A1 and J30/31 of the M1.

Regards,

Lee.

Very nice example Lee and worth the money! This is the sort of price our cars should be! (see lots of topic threads!)
Interesting to see the MX5 on your drive. We have a Eunos Roadster as well! Shopping car for her, toy for me!
John.

Thanks – it’s a shame they are such underrated cars. In my experience they are absolutely great to own and drive (yet are almost worthless). Mine has been 100% reliable (so far – although I've had a few close calls over the years ). I will be very sad to loose her (assuming she sells).

And as for the Mazda… well another super wee sports car; which is very similar to the Lotus (to drive) and great fun.

Oh - I have an aluminium (front) strut brace for a MK1/Eunos if you want it!!

Best Wishes

Lee.

Thanks for that Lee! Touch wood the Eunos is currently complete unless "her-indoors" does something stupid!! Yes I agree they are great fun to drive albeit a bit go-cartish! I don't think though they are as chuckable as the Excel. It may be the tyres currently fitted but it just doesn't quite give you that "going-round-a-corner-on rails" feeling that the Excel has! Never driven an Elan which they get compared to so can't give a good comparison. Anyway good luck with your sale!
John.

I think I'm in love! Thats a superb example and a credit to you Lee. I thought mine was good but I have to say, if its as good as it looks in the pics, it has mine beaten (just)

I particularly like the very tasteful mods. If I was still in the market for one Id be up to look at it like a shot at 6500

Good luck with the sale!

Regards

Shaun

A fine example. Nearly as good as mine (full leather)!

Yep it has to be said that the better examples rarely come on to the market... it's the dog-eared, musty ones changing hands regularly that have set the current low market value.

Classic car values are still rising so hold out for the top end.

Sorry to see you selling it Lee, I have a friend who needs an Excel, just needs a little convincing to get the moths out of his wallet!

The Eclat is up and running BTW

Really Glad to here you got the Eclat up and running - I hope it didn't prove too problematic!!

Hope you are still please with her!! (no need to respond ) I found some photos of her the other day. I'll scan and email them to you.

Best Wishes,

Lee.

Not problematical just a bit pricier than expected! Where do they get the prices for these parts? Tensioner = £90 odd for a big bearing and some plastic pegs? Water pump the same price? Would be very interested in photos, plus any history documents you find when separating the Excel/Eclat stuff.

Hi Lee

I was showing your pics to my chum and discussing the car, and his responses may help with your sale by being indicative of what others may think but not communicate;

First off he recognised the price was at the current top end, and for that he would want to see a full service/belt change/MOT if it had been standing for a few years. He said the mileage would put him off slightly, but a garage report with some compression figures would reassure; otherwise if taking all the risk of a rebuild in the next few thousand miles he'd look nearer £5k, poss even £4.5k with none of the above done.

Someone else on here is trying to sell a car without current MOT etc and facing the same dilemma, people really are put off by anything they can't drive home. I think most people know that the costs of putting an immobile car back on the road can stack up rapidly, ie I paid £90 on top of the labour just to transport the Eclat to the garage and back for the cambelt.

It all depends on your desire for an easy sale, often people I know spend a fortune "doing up" a car for sale to get the price they need and end up recouping barely the cost of parts, so they have restored the car for someone else with labour/transport thrown in free!

With all due respect if 100k is going to put him off buying a 21 year old car, what does he expect? There can't be many around much lower these days and those with REALLY low mileage we have seen sell for far more than 6.5k

I paid 5800 for mine with 78k on the clock and full service history and I had to wait a long time to find it after being out bid on EBAY for a similar one that went for over 6.25k, never got to see Hodders car as it sold before I could view it for over 6k (over 100k on that one and far from immaculate so I'm told) and not being able to afford three other cars (two were celebrations admittedly) that went for over 7k

From my recent experience of searching for a top example, the actual truth is that if your car is truly one of the best left and has the right spec you can (and all the above sellers did) get over 6k, maybe even 7k.

The problem is, a lot of sellers think their car is one of the best when, in reality it isnt and these are the 4.5 k ones, good but far from perfect. Thers a couple of examples on Pistonheads at the moment that I would put in that class. I agree though that for 6.5k and with a cloth interior it does need to be genuinely superb and be up together in terms of cambelt, tyres etc.



Regards

Shaun

I've seen the car up close, bar an ever so slightly warped dash top it's possibly the best I've ever seen and close to brand new. Still a full MOT (which it may have, just assumed not from the description above) would go a long way to reassure buyers and help see it fly out the door. Do you recall that member Paulo a few weeks back, let that mint widebody LC go for a couple of grand for want of a belt service?

Sellers really need to remember "Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious" and take every step they can to persuade potential buyers that their car is the exception. Anyone looking at any Lotus forum sees a lot of posts about problems, but far fewer about how good the cars are. It's only when you live with an 4-seater wedge that you find out the truth about them.

Should have mentioned a few other things:

• the car has a valid MOT - till approximately the 13th of April 2012 and will be taxed for around six months
  it has passed every MOT for the entire period of my ownership and has been on the road continuously
  it's currently on the road, fully insured, mobile and running (available for test drives)
  I don't believe the dashboad is warped (having looked at it this evening)
  the only fault with the interior is the headlining (damn that foam backing) . I have a roll of material ready to replace/cover it.
  the engine is old but fine - it's had an easy life - I haven't tested the compression in a number of years, however, if someone wishes to do this I'm happy for it to be tested.
  the exhaust manifold is blowing, very slightly - I intend to have a look at this in the next few days - if it's cracked I have 2 spares (which would have gone with the car)
  she may be 21 going on 22 - but she's definitely wearing better than me
  it has never broken down - YET!!
  I intend to replace the timing belt myself, later this week.
  it was serviced, by myself a few weeks back (new plugs, distributor cap/rotor, oil filter and Castrol fully synthetic oil)
  the engine does rattle when cold but is quiet when warm - it does not smoke and pulls like new
  the front brake callipers were replaced a few years ago
  it has an alarm and separate immobiliser (very well hidden).
  the fuel pump was recently converted to use a magnetic switching system (owing to problems with the mechanical points in the original). the internal seals were also replaced.
  I have quite a few boxes of spares including carbs, rear lights, ignition modules and exhaust components (e.g. down pipe).
  the front suspension was totally rebuild a few years back - by myself.
  it has sony radio (with 10 CD changer). The head unit drives two amps (one mounted under the drivers seat and another under the passengers). One amp does the 4 main speakers and one drives a sub woofer that's mounted on the read parcel shelf. I think the amps are both Alpine (certainly one is)
  the AC still works
  I was told the clutch was replaced at around 60K
  the car has been garaged for most of it's adult life. It does occasionally go out in the rain (but not if I can help it).

I might be able to supply a spare 900 series HC engine with this car (potentially in with the price - i'll have to check) - however it needs a different crank shaft in order to work with this late excel... the pisons and liners are either new or in A1 condition. It was bought many years ago to fit in another SE which my father and I fuel injected. Unfortunately there was a slight oversight and we didn't realise that there are two different HC engines (different cranks). Hence the entire bottom end of this engine had been rebuild before we realised it didn't fit (well the toyota gearbox won't engage with the bearing in the end of the crank). It's a long story....

Overall this car is a very fine example (one of the best), I'm not claiming she's perfect - after all she is in her twenties. For me this car has been reliable and a pleasure to own and drive. I was looking for an Excel for a very long time prior to finding one in this condition. I would hope the car will be fine for many years without significant expenditure.

Maybe, if one of you lives close by (nr Worksop, Nottinghamshire) you'd like to undertake an independent review .

P.S.

Does anyone here own and Excel with reg beginning F38...... in pacific blue.. a 1989 model with Webber Alpha fuel injection? It would be nice to know if she's still alive and kicking.


Regards,


Lee.

Now with new:

timing belt;
timing belt tensioner;
AC, Water/Power steering and Altenator belts;
AC tensioner;
Radiator water + antifreeze (as flushed when changing belts).

I've also checked/reset the ignition timing and have balanced the carbs to within an inch of their lives (actually a couple of millimeters) using my highly toxic four column mercury manometer. And I wonder why my teeth are dropping out

Did all of this on Monday and it only took 11 hours from start to finish and about one pint of blood. I'd forgot how easy it was. I'm expecting to be able to walk again early next week once my back has recovered from bending over the cars nose.

Regards,

Lee.