Lotus Elan M100 Power Steering pipe kit

New to Lotusbits for 2014, Lotus Elan M100 power steering pipes (RHD only), the kit comprises the 3 pipes shown below £220 (ex VAT)

Lotus inlet and exhaust valves | Designed by Lotusbits

Lotusbits designed waisted inlet and exhaust valves, designed, tested and used by Lotusbits in both Lotus Sunbeam rally cars.
Designed to fit in standard guides, they are an oversize direct replacement. Nitrided and lighter than standard, exhaust and inlet are the same weight. £15 each (ex VAT).

Lotusbits 2014 Rally Calendar

Lotusbits are running two cars in the 2014 REIS Asphalt Rally Championship and the 2014 ANWCC Stage Rally Championship.
Mike Taylor will be running his 2.5 ltr Lotusbits Kingsway Insurance Lotus Sunbeam, with Peter Grant as co-driver sitting alongside.
The second car is an all-girl entry, Cathy Sewart and Samantha Bartlett, also in a 2.5 ltr Lotusbits Kingsway Insurance Lotus Sunbeam. Similar specification as Mikes car, but Cathys has bright pink wheelarches and shiny new paint following its winter rebuild - (it's straight now too)!

Cathys car during winter rebuild

Pink finishing touches

Another service barge

2014 REIS MSA Asphalt Championship events calendar

March 9 Tour of Epynt
May 9/10 Manx National Rally
May 30/31 Jim Clark National Rally
July 6 ALMC Stages
August 3 Tyneside Stages Otterburn
August 24 Mewla Rally
Sept. 13/14 Wexford Stages Rally
November 9 Cheviot Rally, Keith Knox Stages, Otterburn

2014 ANWCC Stage Rally Championship events calendar

Feb 7/8 North-West Stages
Feb 22 Jack Neal Memorial
Mar 2 Roskirk
Mar 9 Tour of Epynt
Mar 16 Lee Holland Memorial
Mar 23 SMC Stages
Mar 23 ﾮ AGBO Stages
Apr 6 Lookout Stages
Apr 26 Horiba DﾒIsis
May 4 Harlech Stages
May 4 ﾮ Hallamshire
May 9/10 Manx National
May 17 Cetus Rally Stages
May 25 Twyford Stages
Jun 8 Keith Frecker Memorial
Jun 28 JRT Enville
Jul 19 Opposite Lock
Aug 10 Gareth Hall Memorial
Aug 17 Centenary
Aug 24 Eventsigns
Sep 6 Promenade 
Sep 7 Vale of York
Sep 7 ﾮ Pendragon
Sep 28 Heroes Stages 
Oct 10/12 Mull Rally
Oct 12 Adgespeed Stages
Nov 1/2 Glyn Memorial
Nov 7/8 Pokerstars Rally
Nov 22 Neil Howard Memorial
Nov 22 Hall Trophy

8 events count towards the championship, rallies highlighted in green are likely to be contested.

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Breaking Lotus Elan M100 now too!

Due to increasing customer demand, Lotusbits are expanding their product range to include Lotus Elan M100 parts.

Click to view larger image

A comprehensive parts list will be published on the website soon.

Lotus Esprit sunroof bag

Lotus Esprit (X180) sunroof bag, very good condition - £70

Lotus Esprit exhaust manifold

Lotus Esprit X180 / Stevens exhaust manifold - £400

Lotus Esprit Turbo exhaust manifold

Lotus Esprit Giugiaro Turbo exhaust manifold  (LC) - £400

Lotus Esprit heater control panels, brand new, remanufactured, exclusive to Lotusbits

Lotus Esprit Giugiaro and Esprit Turbo SE heater control panels. Brand new and remanufactured exclusively by Lotusbits, due to overwhelming demand. £40.00 each +V.A.T.

Backlit authentically, i.e. glows in the dark!

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Lee Holland Memorial Stages – Anglesey Circuit, 17th March 2013

Cathy had driven the Sunbeam (with Sam O’Keeffe co-driving) at 3 Sisters two weeks beforehand so we had limited time to prepare the car for the Anglesey event.

The clutch and the diff had done ten events since they were last inspected so the engine, box and diff all came out. The clutch plate nearest the flywheel was cracked but only half worn so both plates were replaced. The diff was stripped and inspected and the backlash measured – no change from last inspection so refitted as was. 

The poly-bush engine mount had melted again so we re-manufactured the engine mounts to use Excel rubber rear suspension bushes which we have an abundance of… Hopefully these will survive the heat better. Then down to Northampton Motorsport to try out a new 8 injector setup on the rolling road – this gained 7bhp but we need to modify the air filter and fit a cam sensor to make it work properly – no time before Anglesey so again no change for this rally. We also tried mapping the car on 102 RON FIA fuel and again saw no power or torque improvement so back to 97 Octane BP Super Unleaded.

After a quick spanner check the car was put on the trailer and dragged up to Anglesey bright and early as the Scrutineers had to head off early. It was a good run up the motorway apart from an accident holding us up on the M6 for an hour. 

We were expecting Scrutineering to be difficult as we had changed the induction system to a straight down set up with the air filter poking through the bonnet into a cold air scoop. Ronnie Roberts is renowned for picking up discrepancies, so we were expecting some interesting discussion. As it happened Ronnie was busy with another car so we passed with no issues other than the cover had come off the battery terminal. 

Our paperwork was in order but you never know…

This year we had an international addition to the service crew, Andreas, who has joined us from Denmark was helping Sam and Dave in the service crew for the first time. We were not sure if Sam liked being back on the spanners after co-driving for Cathy 2 weeks ago.

Unfortunately the only Hotel we could find was a Pub in the centre of Llangefni and the Welsh won the rugby so it was a noisy night….

Up bright and early to a very wet Anglesey Circuit and a brisk walk round to remind us what it looked like and we were ready for SS1. We decided to be brave and go out on X22 slicks rather than wets as there was not too much standing water. This was very entertaining with very little rear grip and resulted in 2 spins. We set a time of 6m18 which put us in 3^rd place behind the M3 and Will Owen in the Millington Mk2. We thought about going back out on the slicks as it had warmed up by the end of the stage, but then the heavens opened forcing us to very quickly change to new wets.

SS2 was much less entertaining as the wets worked from the off, but we were disappointed to find we had dropped 9 seconds on our SS1 time dropping us to 4^th o/a. What to do? Stick on wets, go back to slicks? Sam piped up with what about the worn wets – good idea – we fitted them and went back out.

The worn wets worked well for the rest of the day until the back ones were to the canvas – cheap rally on tyres!!

Howard Potter in the Red Lotusbits 1600 Sunbeam was lying 7^th overall after SS2 when he had gearbox issues on SS3 and was forced to retire.

On SS3 we overcooked the entry into a chicane and put a big dent into the driver’s door with a truck tyre.

We continued stage by stage to take time out of 3^rd overall Mathew Roberts until we moved up to 3^rd after SS6. After SS7 we only had 3 minutes in service so were a little rushed getting to the start only to find that Car 1 the M3 was not there so we re-checked our timing – all correct so went though the passage control to stage as first car on the stage. The M3 appeared behind us 3 minutes later but then got pushed back out of the control. This moved us up to 2^nd overall going into SS8 with 25 seconds safety behind us to 3^rd. 1^st overall was a minute ahead of us – so no realistic chance of catching him unless he retired. So a nice clean stage was required – and delivered, the only issue being the alternator dying on the first bend! Fortunately the battery was fully charged and lasted fine with the rad fans turned off.

Result was 2^nd overall equalling our best ever finish at Weeton last year!!

We're back to Weeton on Sunday for the Merrills Motor Services SMC Stages

Lotus Sunbeam and Talbot Sunbeam lightweight roll cage

Ultra light 45mm and 32mm T45  weld-in roll cage for Talbot and Lotus Sunbeam, developed by Lotusbits, as fitted to the successful Lotusbits Sunbeam rally car. Prospective customers are welcome to visit Lotusbits and view the fitted item in the Lotusbits Sunbeam which has completed 19 events to date.

MSA certificate, £1500 + V.A.T. (4 weeks lead time). 

(Click image to view larger size)