This Lotus Eclat S2 chassis, enginge and gearbox rebuild was commissioned by one of our
customers. In this time lapse video you can watch it come together in the
Lotusbits workshop.
Lotusbits offers a wide range of new, used and
reconditioned Lotus parts, full workshop services, performance upgrades and
competition vehicle development. If you require any advice please contact our
team of Lotus specialists who are happy to help.
Father's
Day is fast approaching on Sunday 21st June 2020 and we have
the perfect book in stock for any motor racing fans – Remembering Elio
by Lorie Coffey.
Including
an exclusive foreward by Nigel Mansell O.B.E., Remembering Elio follows
the life of Formula 1 driver Elio De Angelis from his school years, through
his racing career with Lotus to his tragic death in 1986.
Featuring
stunning photography this detailed account of Elio's life makes a perfect
present for Father’s Day.
We have a
number of these hardback books in stock, they are brand new and still in their packaging.
Available
for just £15 including free postage and packaging. To purchase directly from Lotusbits
on eBay click here. Or call us on 01926 633211.
The Lotusbits Rally Team visited Donington Park for the final round of the 2019/20 Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship in March. Mike Taylor and Martin Haggett were fighting for an overall championship podium, while Cathy Sewart and Colin Stephens were looking to secure the Class C victory.
Find out how the team got in in their Lotusbits-built Talbot Sunbeam Lotus cars by watching the latest TV footage below:
The Lotusbits Rally Team competed once again in the
Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship with Mike Taylor and Martin Haggett running
the 2.6 litre Talbot Sunbeam-Lotus in class D1, and Cathy Sewart and Colin Stephens
in the 2.0 litre version in class C.
Mike and Martin finished 3rd overall
This was the team's fifth year competing in the championship and their hard work paid off with both crews achieving their best results yet. Mike and Martin were delighted to finish 3rd overall while Cathy and Colin went one better than last year, winning class C!
Highlights from the season include Mike and Martin
finishing an incredible 2nd overall at Cadwell Park and Cathy and
Colin taking four class podiums from eight rallies in a class that often had upwards of 20
entries.
Cathy and Colin won Class C
Well done to both teams for achieving their
best results to date in what has been one of the toughest seasons. The Lotusbits
Rally Team have competed in every season and every round of the MSN Rally
Championship since it started in 2015 and this year was
particularly testing. The condensed calendar meant that other than a break over
Christmas the team were out competing every weekend from November to March, with eight events across the UK from Knockhill in
Scotland to Anglesey in Wales, and the team’s local event at Donington. The weather also added to the challenge with unpredictable
conditions all season, especially at Knockhill where the crew withstood
torrential conditions all day.
We would like to thank the crew for their hard work all
season – with such limited time between rounds they often had to work late into the night to ensure both cars were prepared for each round. Special thanks to Keith for working all hours to ensure that both cars were ready and in great shape for scrutineering at each round.
The Sunbeams held their own all year, with their speed and reliability
demonstrating their capability against more modern machinery, as a result of
the engineering development by Lotusbits.
Unfortunately rallying is currently on hold for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus but the team are working hard in the workshop on rebuilding and upgrading the cars ready for next season.
2019/20 Motorsport News Circuit Rally
Championship Lotusbits Final Team Standings:🏁🏆
Mike Taylor - 3rd overall, 3rd in D1 class, 3rd Michelin Cup
Martin Haggett - 3rd overall, 3rd in D1 class
Cathy Sewart - 1st in class C, 8th overall (tied on points
with 7th place), 3rd in the Protyre
Challenge
Lotusbits features alongside FJ-RS Engineering in the April edition of “The Engine Rebuilder”. Click here to read the full feature about how Lotusbits was born and how owner Mike Taylor grew the company, along with the progressive engine development which has been an ongoing obsession of his. Mike was determined to produce an engine for his rally cars that is not just fast but can compete at the top level of Clubman Stage Rallying. This has been the driving force behind the latest offerings in Lotus engine upgrade options, now available for customers' road cars and competition race/rally cars. Lotusbits works symbiotically with other companies on-site and locally to produce the 2.6 litre engine that has more than proved its performance this season on the UK rally scene, with Mike and co-driver Martin Haggett finishing 3rd overall in the competitive Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship.
latest addition to lotusbits brake upgrades for the m100 305mm vented discs aluminium bells and mounting brackets as per kits for esprit elite excel and sunbeams kits come with pads hoses and bolts to mount the kits please call for more information
The eighth and final round of the 2016-17 MSVR Circuit
Championship was held at a sunny Cadwell Park circuit on Sunday 9th April.
An event organised by the Borders Motor Club, with Mike Taylor and Martin
Haggett planning to consolidate their positions in the overall championship and
in class D1.
This was a well run event with no delays, even though there
was no shortage of work for the recovery crews between stages. The organisers
made the most of Cadwell’s dips, crests and fast sweeping bends. At times, the
Team Lotusbits Sunbeam was hitting the rev limiter in sixth, which is a speed
of 137 mph.
Apart from a minor brush with a first stage chicane, which
was an issue for most of the top competitors, there were no real problems over
the nine stages for Mike and Martin, with little for the service crew to attend
to during the service halts, except wheel changes and spanner checks.
Mike and Martin finished ninth overall and once again collected
the trophy for third in class.
The final championship points tally puts Mike in sixth
overall and Martin third equal on points, but losing out under the tie break
rules to finish fourth. Mike is fourth in the Michelin Cup for those drivers
who use that company’s tyres. Final class positions are first for Martin and
second for Mike.
Team Lotusbits are looking forward to a third running of
this popular and competitive championship starting in the Autumn.
The Alan Healy Memorial Rally
Cadwell Park
April 9th
So the final round had arrived of the Motorsport News
Circuit Championship for 2016/17 season and Team Lotusbits had arrived at the
stunning picturesque venue of Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.
With a couple of non-finishes on earlier rounds in the
season, Cathy and I came to Cadwell Park not under any real pressure, but just to go and have some fun and see where we could end
up.
As all ready mentioned the stunning picturesque venue of
Cadwell Park with its hilly undulating track was only enhanced by the hot sunny
weather and we set off from Service up to the Stage 1 start, hoping we were on
the right tyres for the conditions, it was warm but not as warm but was set to
get hotter during the day.
From the moment the lights went green the car felt good and
I could tell Cathy was enjoying the car and the car suited the conditions, the
grip was there and we could push on round the long sweeping corners and on the
brakes a bit later into the chicanes. Being
a nice day the public had turned up in there masses and at one point on the
stage we leave the fast flowing track and enter a public viewing section, of
twisty low speed corners, only just wide enough for one car to pass through,
here the car was doing what was requested by Cathy, all was good, in fact very
good we were 13th after the first stage.
Starting the second stage our first stage nervous had left
us and we were ready to push on and see if we could gain on that 13th
position, all was good for the first few corners, leaning on the tyres and
pushing the car and using every inch of available track out of corners, then as
we entered the spectator twisty section we had marshal’s waving to us to slow
down, Unbeknown to us the car in front of us clipped a tyre going through a
narrow gateway, causing his front right wheel to point 90 degrees to his left
front wheel and after trying to carry on up the stage found he couldn’t steer
and ended up blocking the way, we arrived behind the car with nowhere to go. It’s strange how seconds lost can feel like
minutes when the adrenaline is pumping and you are staring at the rear end of an
escort, by now we should of been half around the stage. We finally got free of the escort blockage
and powered on around the stage to the finish but looking at the times, we had
lost 20seconds and were now down 22nd Overall, one unhappy crew!
We set about making the time back over the next couple of
stages and with a change of tyres to a harder compound and a sneaky small
suspension change (unbeknown to Cathy) implemented by myself and our chief
Mechanic Keith, the car had less roll in the corners and more grip and by
dinner we had moved up to 16th.
With a change of direction for the afternoon, we were now heading
the correct way around the circuit, as if it was being used on a normal racing
day’s event, but this didn’t change anything in the style or commitment to
Cathy’s driving, if anything she was going quicker still chasing down cars and
passing a few in the process, this was no Sunday afternoon driver here!
We had moved up to 15th with a couple of stages
to go and to be honest we didn’t really know where we could go much quicker, so
the last two stages we decided to drive it fast but don’t take any unnecessary
risks, which is just what we did and finished the day 15th Overall
and 7th in our class on the day.
Thanks again to all the Lotusbits Team for all the work they
have done over the year to get the cars ready so we can go and play on the
weekends and has resulted in the team due to be awarded various Driver and
Co-driver prizes at the Motorsport News Circuit Championship Awards night in
June. There may be a write up from this
evening, but it may be in the form of photos as I won’t be remembering much the
day after.... Hic- Hic!
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
The
Motordrive seats Lee Holland Memorial at Anglesey Circuit
on the 19th March, was the next round on the MSN championship.The circuit has to be the most
picturesque venue we visit, with views over the Irish Sea and beyond.
Cathy
and I generally have a good run here, so we were hoping again we wouldn't be
disappointed.
On
the Friday before the event there was a rally track day a day’s event where you
can do a bit of a shake down and test the car.
The tyres Cathy went out on during
the day were just not working and she was spending more time going sideways
than forwards, the life of the tyres had expired.
EXCELLENT!
New tyres for the rally.
Sunday
morning was overcast, drizzly and windy on go the new wets.
We
sat at the start with our normal first stage nerves eyeing up the competition.
The
great thing about rallying is that you compete against various makes of cars, today
we had MK2 Golf’s, MK2 Fiesta’s, Nova’s, Saxo’s, Peugeot 205’s all front wheel
drive, there was Paul Shead in his Mazda MX5 which is rear wheel drive, a very popular
weapon of choice are the MK1 and MK2 ford escorts which are also rear wheel
drive like ourselves. One driver that
Cathy likes to compare stage times against is Jade, another very quick female
driver, who was out playing in a 4 wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo and it was nice to
see her out again after a year out of the car.
It
was a good first stage but not right, we both felt we could go quicker the
tyres were not giving the performance we had hoped, maybe because they were new
and needed scrubbing in, either way up to 26th mixing it the escorts
but had also gone 9 seconds slower than Jade but only 4 seconds behind Paul in
his MX5.
SS2
was better but still felt we couldn't push on, the decision was made to come
off the wets and go to softs.
SS3
was better again but it was one of those days were we just couldn't put our finger
on the problem, but must be doing something right as we were now only 4 seconds
behind Jade in the Evo and still 4 seconds behind Paul who was going to by our
target for the day.
SS4
was much the same, but again felt we needed to change tyres to a harder
compound for the next stage, but unfortunately for Paul on that stage he had
mechanical issues and that was the end of his rally.
Queuing
up for SS5 after a long break whilst the juniors did there runs the sun was
starting to break through the clouds, good choice of tyres we thought. We then waited
and waited, there was a delay getting the stranded cars off from the previous
stage and the set up crew changing the layout for the next 2 stages.
Glad
we had put the medium compound tyres on “I said” It was at that point the welsh
gods must of heard me and sent in the next band of rain. Great, wrong tyres
again. With the strong winds it will
soon blow over, well the wind needed to be stronger than it was, so the
decision was made to do a late tyre change back onto the wets we had on for
stage 1. Unfortunately by the time the
light went green it had stopped raining and again we were fighting for grip,
but still better than staying on the mediums. We had lost time now running
around 20th which to be fair we were really happy with but looking
at the time we didn’t think we could hold onto that with some fast cars coming
up behind us after they had problems on previous stages like Peter Jackson in
his MK2 Escort, he had gone 51 seconds quicker than us and we were now around
10 seconds behind Jade.
By
the time we got to SS7 and SS8 the rain was torrential, on go the Michelin wets,
after all we had tried all the other tyres we had so didn’t want to leave these
out. The stages were good and we felt a
lot quicker, the car felt like it was cornering on rails. Finally we were on the correct tyres for the
conditions and the times were proving it, 11 seconds quicker than Jade but 22
seconds slower than Peter. On the last stage
Cathy moved us up from the high teens to finish the day 14th Overall,
holding on to our position just ahead of Peter by 5 seconds and 18 seconds
ahead of Jade. We had a fun rally and
enjoyed getting some air time over the Anglesey Yump.
The seventh round of the MSVR Circuit Championship was at a
wind-swept Anglesey race circuit on Sunday 19th March. An event
organised by the Pendle District Motor and Garstang & Preston Motor Clubs,
with Mike Taylor and Martin Haggett planning to consolidate their position in
the championship overall and in class D1.
The circuit ran a novel and very welcome rally track day on
the preceding Friday, allowing Mike to sample some new parts of the circuit
that would be used on the rally and experiment with the amount of speed to
carry into the specially constructed “yump”. Unlike a typical circuit track day
run on a normal circuit, perhaps with some chicanes, Anglesey was set up in a
stage format with splits and merges, and changed during the day, including the
direction of travel. It is to be hoped that the concept spreads to other
circuits, as this could be an ideal introduction to the world of single venue
stage rallies, but with less expense than the real thing.
This extended test session wasn’t without its problems for
Mike and Martin, an electrical problem meant a tow in from the circuit, a
steering issue was resolved by a power steering pump change and some
particularly exciting runs over the yump bent the damper bolts in the rear
suspension. Thanks to Keith for changing the steering pump and spending
Saturday morning checking the car over and replacing the bent bolts.
The weather was always going to be a feature of this event,
with the wind never dropping all day. The Lotusbits pair made a steady start, finishing
the first stage in eleventh place. With the wind drying the track the slick
tyres went on to take advantage of this for the later morning stages.
Going into stage five, Mike changed to harder slick tyres,
not expecting to wait 30 minutes at the stage start, during which the first
rain started. Grip was a challenge throughout the stage, with rather more space
needed to slow the car down at the first split than was available. In the
excitement, a cone became stuck under the car, leading to a smell of burning
plastic for the rest of the stage. All this drama meant a loss of around 30
seconds, putting the pair down to twelfth overall.
As with Donington, it was other competitors who dropped down
the order or retired, broken transmissions, blown engines and a missed split
being typical problems. All this and a push by Mike on the next two stages
moved the team up to seventh going into the final stage. With the next crew
just three seconds behind, this meant Mike had to keep the pressure on, so more
crushed traffic cones, after the first run through the jump.
Mike and Martin held seventh and again collected the trophy
for third in class.
In three weeks, team Lotusbits will be in Lincolnshire at
Cadwell Park for the last round in the championship. Mike is still sixth
overall and Martin has moved up to third.
