At the 11th hour, with everything just about ready to go we discovered it needed a new engine as the turbo had seized as well as the whole engine being buggered due to lack of use. Commissioned a new engine via South West Lotus, same 2.2 turbo but wet sumped rather than dry sumped and kicking out 240bhp rather than around the 200 mark. Car weights about 1100kg from memory.
Still got a few hundred miles of running in but it's nippy at 3000rpm and I can just hear the turbo spooling up and dumping through the waste gate - looking forward to the full effect in a few weeks.
The interior is amongst the best of any car I have sat in, biscuit leather with black alcantara and so comfortable, the pictures don;t really show the colours. Vision is surprisingly good through a decent back window and rear quarterlights.
Will it be relaible? It's been stripped to nothing and totally rebuilt, all electrical connections reterminated. Engine, brakes and suspension are all new, every nut and bolt is where it should be so just maybe it will hold together...
Cool is a subjective term, everyone has a different opinion of what it means. This is, in my opinion, the coolest car I have ever owned