Lotus Esprit Turbo race car - raced by Lotus F1 engineer will race again

Lotus Esprit

This is the rebuild of an ex Lotus Engineering Lotus Esprit race car. The Lotus was raced by George Howard-Chappell from 1992 to 1994 in 750 Motor Club events winning over a dozen races. Following on from its success it was converted to a Sport 300 race car by then Lotus F1 race engineer George Howard-Chappell with the support of Lotus Cars. The Lotus and George have been reunited and supporting George’s rebuild is Classic and Racing taking on various sub assembly build areas as well as assisting with the car build.

Lotus Esprit pedal box assembly

Lotus Esprit pedal box ready for some work — Pedal box ready for some TLC.

Pedal box showing master cylinder mounting plate — Special balance bar arrangement

Lotus Esprit balance bar unique — Balance bar guide bush.

Parts post chemical blacking — Parts after chemical blacking.

New brake cylinder mounting plate — Bespoke brake cylinder mounting plate in 2014 Aluminium in place of original.

Lotus Esprit upgraded brake master cylinder mounting plate — EN24 steel posts made to locate plate

Brake reservoirs fitted — Cylinders all plumbed up.

Lotus Esprit brake cylinder mounting post — Extra bracket designed to triangulate mounting plate.

Rebuilt and redesigned pedal box for the Lotus Esprit with bespoke master cylinder mounting plate made on CNC 5 axis.

Lotus Esprit driveshafts

Lotus Esprit driveshaft outer joint stripped and marked up on disassembly — All parts marked on disassembly.

Protecting the boot from the splines — Splines taped to avoid damage to boot.

Tripod joint boot fitted — New boot in place.

Greasing up tripod joints on Lotus Esprit — Tripod regreased using little home made purge tool.

Lotus Esprit CV joint greased — All back together and lined up as it came apart.

New boots and clips fitted — New metal ties fitted.

Lotus Esprit driveshaft outer joint chemical blacked — CV joint after chemical blacking.

Lotus Esprit driveshaft before and after — Before and after, yellow line to show if shaft twists in use, only required for race cars.

Pair of driveshafts ready to fit to Lotus Esprit — A pair ready for dispatch to client.

Lotus Esprit car build

Lotus Esprit seat fit

Fitting a race seat into a fibre glass cockpit is not easy. A bespoke mounting bracket was designed out of Aluminium 2014 to FIA regs. Backwards engineering was required to somehow get the positions of the seat in relation to the chassis. Using some logical methods a design was formulated and the inner mounting bracket was manufactured and mounts to the inner chassis points. Once the inner bracket was fitted the outer brackets were fabricated in situ mounting to the roll cage.