Address withheld

26 March 05


Dear Steve,

Please enjoy the inserted picture of my newly registered Lotus Esprit 79 S2. The achievement of Engineer’s Certification and Registration with a car imported from Scotland, after the last six months of work you, Gary and I have put in, is a moment to revel in.

I must thank you for your professionalism and intuition, recognising my desire to contribute to the project where I had the ability to do so. You quickly established a ‘safety top-down’ list of jobs to do and pushed as much onto ‘my list’ and the difficult or specialized jobs on ‘your list’. This not only saved me a deal of money (I am from Scotland too..), but kept me in the mechanical repair loop, right where I wanted to be.

For your reader’s benefit, I have summarised my project. The process through to registration is the same, but the reader would have to (like me) make an assessment of their own abilities.

Dave Freeman
Address Withheld


25th January, 2007

As a Lotus owning (but penurious) Pom since 1974, I shipped my Lotus Elan to Australia thinking I'd be well and truly on my own. Who'd care about an obscure 30 year old Lotus car, halfway round the world from where it was already hard enough to keep on the road?

Even Chapman didn't claim a Lotus would last forever. Far from it, he was understandably more interested in making you a new one.

But a Melbourne outfit called Lotus Marques goes a long way to bridge the gap. Those of us trying to cherish our cars far longer than any lifetime "Chunky" had in mind are very lucky to have Steve Taylor on our side.

With the latest predictable demise of my Lotus twin cam water pump, it looked like the timing cover (after years of corrosion) was a "gonner" too. Contacting sources in the UK only produced pessimism and much expensive sucking of teeth. I needn't have worried. The team at Lotus Marques restored the casting like new AND fitted a superior ceramic seal, plus pressure tested it, into the bargain. Complete with other parts, the whole project cost far less than a new cover from Britain.

They gave patient advice and invaluable tips as well, while I put everything back together. Despite labouring in his workshop, stocking a comprehensive parts range, developing improved products and keeping up with every new Lotus under the sun, Steve also answers the phone: impressive personal dedication.

In my experience, no similar restoration service is available in Britain. Lotus owners round the world would be well advised to use Lotus Marques. Due to them, my water pump's smooth as silk (and engine nice and quiet with a new timing chain, state-of-art head gasket and one of Steve's space age breather pipes keeping things oil-tight) all for less than UK prices.

Australia's a great place to own and run a Lotus - thanks to Lotus Marques!


Gratefully yours,

DAVE THE HAPPY DROPHEAD SPRINT DRIVER,
Newcastle NSW

I have owned a 1968 S4 Lotus Elan roadster since 1977. That’s 28 years at the time of writing. A fair while!


In that time my Elan has never been spared. It was mostly parked in the open because it has been a daily driver. Being a roadster it has got soaked by rain on numerous occasions. When I lived in the country and worked in the city, I often drove it for 3 hours a day and for a significant amount of that time it was driven at around 160 kph. Those were the days when it was legal…well nearly legal. I have dragged it at Calder Raceway over the 400 metres (averaging 15.0 secs) and raced it in club meets at Sandown, Phillip Island and Calder. The fact is that it has been a very reliable car with very few breakdowns despite what you read about these cars. But because my Elan has been driven constantly and quickly over lots of rough roads, maintenance and repair costs have been high throughout its life.

By 2001 though, which was when the Elan was 33 years old, it was completely worn out. And I do mean everything was completely worn out. There was not a single aspect of the car that was not stuffed and this included the chassis, all the running and suspension gear, the body, the engine and all its parts and all the driveline. I contacted Club Lotus for some recommendations and was warned that restoring it would be a big job. I thought I could get away with a patch up job. How wrong I was!

Initially I did not to use Lotus Marques because it is some distance from where I live.  However, I kept in contact with Steve Taylor for all the parts required. I suppose that’s where my education began! The more I learnt from Steve, the more I learnt that there was a methodical and a better way of restoring my Elan. I should mention that I am not a mechanic and I was soon to learn a lot more about regular mechanics work ethic. After some challenging tasks, my car eventually ended up at Lotus Marques.

Here is what I have learnt over the last four and a half years during the restoration.