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Garry Hodges' 1994
Garry Hodges from Bristol England owns a 1994 S4 in Norfolk Mustard, with a Black & Yellow piping interior.
Model:
S4 Year: 1994 Colour: Norfolk Mustard Interior: Black Leather with yellow piping Driving Style: Fast Miles per year: 2,000 – 4,000 Owned Since: 2003 Purchase from: Private Serviced at: Esprit Engineering Other Cars: Merc CLK, Smart Roadster Coupe Previous Lotus': None Why an Esprit: The road presence, I remember seeing one for the first time when I was 7 in Torquay, Me & My Dad just looked at it for ages! Pound for pound, the performance for cost of ownership, it can't be beaten, the feel good factor when you park it up walk away & look back at it.. Upgrades: Upgrades and modifications
High Torque Chip. (3)
S/steel custom Longlife 'federal style' exhaust.
K&N air filter
Braided clutch hose
PNM Hispec front brake upgrade
Greenstuff rear pads
Layers & layers of polish...Problems: Clutch slave cylinder seals.
Sagging brake pedal causing the brake lights to stay on.
Front wheel bearing.
Worn engine mount causing bad knock on gear changes.
Passenger window has never worked.
It has always (over 3 years of ownership) ran rich. Dirty black sooty smoke when cruising about 80, the 3k stumble causes it to smoke like a train, the new chip hasnt fixed it, Williams the Bristol Lotus dealer cant fix it, Geoff at E.Engineering cant fix it, Interpro, a rolling road near Bristol cant fix it. I need Freescan to see whats going on & thats the next thing i need to get for it.
Reconditioned starter motor.
Lots of other little things that Geoff at EE just fixes!Info: See below!
Like most Esprit owners I wanted one from an early age. I saw this S4 & it was local, I didnt know to much about them, I didnt get it checked out & didnt really do any research, I was very lucky as its been a gem.
We entered Britballrun 2005 as Ghostbusters & came 6th, Entered Britball again in 2006 & came 4th. On both occasions the car ran perfect. covered about 1,400 miles in the 3 days of the event. Glad to say all the stickers came off with no damage to the paintwork!.
This year 2006 we raised money for Muscular Dystrophy, the car (& us as escaped convicts) spent a day raising money the the Galleries shopping centre in Bristol. Just asking for change we raised £525! Peoples reaction to the car ranged from a 30 min chat as they aways wanted one & wanted to know about it to some people refusing to give us any money as they thought it was the prize in a raffle & really didnt want to win! All in all we raised £1,112 that will go towards a new faster electric wheelchair for a car loving 10 year old boy who has out grown his old one.
If you can help others just by owning an Esprit surely theres no better feeling than that.
Had the car over 3 1/2 years now & with tyres, brakes etc i worked out i've spent about £6,500 on it, thats not so bad as I bought it at 58k & its just now reached 76k. The only thing i'd ever swap it for is a new Esprit. I often think about a V8Se but I've had the S4 a while & I know its character, its moods, I know when it wants to be driven & when it wants to sleep, its been reliable & I wouldnt want to swap it for something I dont know & get burnt. I'm staying with the S4 until the new Esprit is released then maybe... just maybe..
In the 3/12 years we have attended Donnington 3 times & all bar one of the Oxford meets, various car shows including supercar sunday. The Esprit community is a great bunch, its good seeing the same faces & discussing issues with the cars, we have all had the same problems! Esprits have character & everyone of them is an individual, theres still a buzz when you open the garage door on a cool Sunday morning & take it for a blast, call me sad but the best drives we have had have been at 6am Christmas morning, the roads are deserted, everyone is at home, time to drive, its Esprit time... can you tell we have no kids!
Update
June 2007
Just thought I’d sent you a few pics of our wedding on 2nd June. I proposed to Mary on the Britballrun last August so we have been planning this all year. The weather was perfect & the locations made it a very English wedding, St Mary Redcliffe church in Bristol, followed by Leigh Court for the reception.
To ferry the guests we hired a Routemaster London bus, the wedding party had a classic Rolls & we of course had the trusty Esprit S4, how very English!
In cases anyone is considering using an Esprit for a wedding car but worried about the room, I can confirm Mary was more comfortable & had more room in the Esprit than she did sitting in the Rolls on her way to the church!
Hope you like the pics, see you all at the next meet.
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