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Alan Croft's 1989

Alan Croft from England owns a 1989 Turbo in White, with a Blue interior.

Model:

Turbo
Year: 1989
Colour: White
Interior: Blue
Driving Style: Fast
Miles per year: 4,000 - 8,000
Owned Since: May 2002
Purchase from: Private Sale
Serviced at: Local Enthusiast
Other Cars: Mercedes 190, Audi A3 (fiancee's)
Previous Lotus': An copy Lotus 7 Kit Car called a Locust
Why an Esprit? Love the Shape
Upgrades: Tyres. Would like an S4s spoiler and 5 spoke alloys, which I have now fitted. Also new side indicators and lip spoiler. Fitted a Dump Valve as well
Problems: Tyres were flat spotted, Some crazing of the Gel Coat
Info: Car came with full service history, nearly all the receipts and MOT's. Still has original tools and bag for the sunroof, also the little lip spoiler too.

  

Since purchasing my car I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of ownership of such a fantastic car. It did begin life as just a standard carb turbo but despite what some people think of the practice I have enjoyed doing various modifications to the car. My first mod was a stainless clutch hose to try and cure the reverse crunch syndrome. This was followed by a Sport 300 style spoiler and some mods to the rear valance to accept a custom built stainless exhaust produced by Blue Flame. I have always hated the huge kit car looking side indicators and these were replaced with some rather nifty clear LED ones. Very simple and required no drilling to fit (always a scary prospect). I also removed the large front fog lights and replaced them with some small hi-intensity ones. This was done with the intention of allowing the fitment of some fresh air ducting for the brakes in the resultant holes.. I think this about covered my first year of ownership.

  

Thanks to a friend from the group (Dave Walters) I got some black dye to redo my steering wheel to very good effect and I also removed the crash padding to go with the plain Nardi wheel. I had an alloy piece machined up to cover the wheel nut. I then fittted some Alloy pedal covers. These were slightly large so required a bit of filing to fit comfortably. Moving to the engine I was determined that it must be possible to fit a dump valve to the car somehow. After much effort I sourced a fitting kit and was successful in fitting the BOV. This kit is now supplied by PNM Engineering. It works a treat and gives the nice shhh noise and I think helps the turbo spool a bit quicker. I’ve also fitted some GT3 17” 5 spoke wheels. They have made the ride a bit more choppy but I think improve the look of the car and make it more modern. I also fitted some 20mm spacers to push them out into the arches a bit more. At the front I have custom made a front bib spoiler. I wasn’t sure if the one from the sport 300 would fit the different front of the turbo and it was also in black which I wasn’t keen on. I made a cardboard template and then built the one to fit. With this I was also able to choose the height so I can get in and out of the garage without grinding fortunately it came in a white of very similar shade to the car so didn’t need painting which was a bonus. Back to the engine and I had fitted a dual boost control which at the flick of a switch allowed me to run a slightly higher boost setting for short bursts of acceleration. This has since been disconnected at present (another upgrade). I also had to fit a new clutch slave cylinder and a wilwwod race master cylinder (PNM again). This again improved the clutch response. That about sums up the second year.

        

During this period I started thinking about how to retro fit a chargecooler to the car and started sourcing the main bits I would need. Just before xmas 2004 saw it fitted and running perfectly. It is plumbed in through the aircon rads. When I got the car the aircon wasn’t working and instead of going through the process of rebuilding it I chose to disconnect the compressor and drier and use the rest of the system. Fittings were purchased from hydraulic hose manufacturers to utilise the existing fittings. The chargecooler is mounted in exactly the same way as the injected cars and just needed a few brackets to fit. An electric pump was sourced and fitted and again thanks to Dave Walters for coming up with a small alloy header tank for the water. It was all plumbed in and wired up and after the first spirited run when I put my hand on the chargecooler is was cool to touch. Fitting this has meant I can run a higher than stock boost and so I have also fitted a Forge Race Actuator. This has somewhat increased the power output.

 

My next task on this is to take the car to a rolling road to have the carbs set up and balanced properly for my new output. At this point I have also had an upgraded clutch fitted by PNM Engineering. One thing I have disliked about the car since getting it has been the poor braking performance. This is something I had always promised I would improve at some point. The opportunity arose when PNM asked if I would help develop the Hi-spec Monster 6 caliper racing setup. This would utilise 323mm vented and grooved discs on the front and would also mean swapping the rear calipers for Brembo items and increasing the rear disc size to 321mm grooved and vented discs. This has now all been fitted with new braided hoses and I am very impressed with the results. It is still not fully bedded in but the stopping power is so much better. The feel is still a tad wooden but I think there is a bit more feel and so far I don’t seem to have suffered any fade. Waiting for a track day to test fully though. I have also done the clear indicator mod as shown on LEW. Quite simple and on a white car very effective. I have also fitted a smooth rear licence plate plinth as well. I guess I have taken away some of the originality of the car by carrying out the mods I’ve done but on all of them the car can be fairly easily put back to the way it was (not that I’d ever want to). There’s quite alot more I would like to do with the car and I have a fair sized list of the next set of mods. I’ll keep you all updated as to how it goes.

 

PNM Brake Upgrade

  

  

 

alan@joal20.karoo.co.uk

 
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