87 Lotus Esprit $2k...

you read it right: http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/cto/1989949748.html not mine, no affiliation...

Okay, Hess, what would I swap into that?

It's very, very close to me. But it's not an '87...

I'm having really bad thoughts about this car. I've sent him an e-mail, and I have the week off.

Ugh....

Woody wrote: Okay, Hess, what would I swap into that? It's very, very close to me. But it's not an '87...

I remember European Car (before the mag sucked) swapped a turbo Isuzu into a Europa and I always thought that would make a helluva fun car. Not sure what you'd swap into a Esprit though...

The styling, to my eye, is more appealing than ever, though.

Did the seller respond?

It's within easy driving distance, have always liked them.... would it have been so hard to put a damn tarp over it. Luckily (?) money going into some medical expenses now. Still, tempting for a track car. Yes, did you hear from the seller?

No response yet, but I'm pretty sure I recognize the building in the photo. I may just drop by.

Oh god, that's the next town over. Woody, you need to get that so I'm not tempted.

Let me know if you need a hand loading it up.

I think Hess has talked me out of it, due to the fragile and irreplaceable gearbox.

Anything is replaceable with the right amount of engineering. I'm sure you could figure out something else to replace it with.

If I didn't already have too many projects I would consider making a road trip to pick that up.

VW/Audi 1.8T with a Passat FWD transaxle. It's north south, hydraulic clutch, cable shift. Do eeet :P

Brotus7 wrote: VW/Audi 1.8T with a Passat FWD transaxle. It's north south, hydraulic clutch, cable shift. Do eeet :P

Funny you should mention that. I was thinking about a VW Fox transaxle with a Golf engine.

The trouble is that the original transaxle has inboard brakes and that would have to be addressed too.

Woody wrote:

Brotus7 wrote: VW/Audi 1.8T with a Passat FWD transaxle. It's north south, hydraulic clutch, cable shift. Do eeet :P

Funny you should mention that. I was thinking about a VW Fox transaxle with a Golf engine. The trouble is that the original transaxle has inboard brakes and that would have to be addressed too.

I've got a 1.8L 16v VW engine in my garage already....

With the fox, you would have to rig up a hyrdaulic clutch, and possibly cable shifter unless you can figure out a mechanical linkage.

I'm pretty sure that car has a cable shifter already, along with a hydraulic clutch. Two large is 1.5 large too much, in my opinion.

The ideal swap would be a Porsche gear box and something in front of it, like a 1UZFE. The ring and pinion are not exactly unobtainium. There's a Dutch guy named Harry that has cornered the market on them. He bought every used Citroen box in Europe, near as I can tell. He is very helpful and reasonable too. That is, he could easily rip off the world, being a monopoly, but he doesn't. Regardless, the gearbox is too weak for the motor that came in that car, much less anything else you would put in it. The inboard brakes make swapping much more complicated. My 89 has outboard brakes and a Renault box. The two frames are different to accomidate the different gear boxes and a few other minor changes.

At LOG 26, I asked the guy from Lotus who led the design team on the Elise and was working on the new Esprit:

DrH: "So, what piece of E36 M3 French gear box rated at 20% under the motor's power output are you going to put in the new Esprit? Mustn't break with tradition."

They went with a Toyota gear box.

SBF and audi 016 transaxle - should be a cheap combo - good to about 300 torques before things start breaking.

Dr. Hess wrote: I'm pretty sure that car has a cable shifter already, along with a hydraulic clutch. Two large is 1.5 large too much, in my opinion.

I meant to have to mate the present system to the proposed swap.

The inboard brakes would certainly add to the challenge. I wonder if the axles are extra beefy for the inboard brakes? I know they've been used on alot of race cars, but something about a CV breaking causing a corner of the car not to slow down scares me a bit.

Oh well, he probably won't take a few hundred for it, and it probably is a bad project/idea.

Alfettas/GTV6s/Milanos use a DeDion transaxle w/ inboard discs... not sure how/what you could mate to it though.

Audi V8/transaxle swap. Moved the rear brakes to the hubs.

http://www.motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?t=9648&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

This has also been inspiration for planned LSx/Audi/Porsche V8 swaps into a Boxster.

jeffmx5 wrote: Audi V8/transaxle swap. Moved the rear brakes to the hubs. http://www.motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?t=9648&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 This has also been inspiration for planned LSx/Audi/Porsche V8 swaps into a Boxster.

That's a good build thread. Thanks- it's relevant to something I'm building.