Strategizing

Not much has happened over the last few weeks. I received the interior carpet kits from Tony Grasso, and I must say, I am very impressed with his work. I ordered a set of black and a set of grey, so I can do both Esprits. Now I have to decide which color goes into which car. I had planned for a long time to convert the black '83 Esprit interior from tan to grey, which is why I had the headliner redone in grey instead of the original tan. That would leave the black set for FrankEnSPRIT, which may not go quite as well with the metallic blue exterior. Ah well - that's a decision I don't have to worry about for a few years.

I also received some gearbox mounting brackets. There was a bit of confusion on both sides when I went to buy them from a guy in the UK who is parting out an Esprit V8. I wanted the mounting brackets, he thought I wanted the gearbox mounts - which are rubber donuts that fit into the frame to which the mounting brackets are bolted. Fortunately he still had the brackets and he even picked up the shipping tab from the UK. So it all worked out.

Yesterday, Tim, Dave C, Clark and Karl came down from the Twin Cities to pick up Dave's part of the shipment from Bell & Colvill and to take a look at the project. Tim has some '86 Esprit fibreglass parts he was going to use for his Series II Esprit, but has changed his mind. We think we can use these parts (a radiator duct and a chin spoiler) combined with the later radiator duct I got from Lotus and some creative fibreglass work to come up with a radiator duct/chin spoiler combination that would match the '87 front body work better and be easier to install. We also think this could become the basis of a kit for others interested in putting a chargecooler into an earlier G-bodied Esprit withought going to the same lengths that I am. Time will tell. It could be an interesting way to earn back some of the expense of the conversion and help out the rest of the community with some quality parts. We have some other kit ideas, namely a later V8 shifter conversion kit, a frame strengthening kit, and some suspension modifications that could be added to the early cars.