I have to admit to grinning from ear to ear all the way from Stanstead to Kendal, upon which point my grin dissipated as the temperature gauge went through the roof, all coolant ended on the road, coming to a very quick standstill at services on the M6 nr Kendal. I'd been unfortunate enough to be caught up in numerous accidents on the M6 on a Friday night, and the 1.5 hours of 5mph took a toll on the radiator pipe which split, leaving the bleed screw to exit, depositing all the coolant everywhere.
A quick phone call to Robin diagnosed the problem within minutes and the AA were duly called at 8pm. By 4.30am i was back in Edinburgh and asleep in Benny's house, equipping myself with a few hours kip for an all day session with the SE boys in EDI that day. However, a quick phone call to Craig at MMC at 9pm, meant i had clearance to deposit the car at MMC with the AA, and a very generous promise of looking at the car first thing on Saturday. Having only had a few hours sleep my phone went at 9.30am from Craig to say the car was on the ramps and the problem diagnosed and a fix was being done. At 11.30am, Craig called to say he would pick me up from Benny's on his day off, and would drop me at the garage to collect it. Absolutely top class service, and I joked with Craig that unbeknown to myself, i would also be posting so early on, on the 'I LOVE CRAIG AT MMC thread!' Thank you once again to Craig and his team at MMC, as to this day i have not received such service from a main dealer that went well above and beyond the call of duty like he did.
Anyway, a few pics, and a video put together by Ed at Castle Lotus due to my impatience to hear and see it after transformation!
RIP YK03 MGC
An awesome first experience of Lotus ownership after my VX and very little if nothing went wrong with her. Didn't skip a beat on Frolic and with the Nitrons on it was handling like a dream. I could have happily held onto it for another good few years.
Anyway, having driven Benny's SC, and having tried beyond belief to get him to sell me his whilst in various states of sobriety and drunkenness, i guessed there was something special about the SC that meant he didn't want to part with it. Andy G and Ed both raved about how good the SC was, and i admit to a few moments on FF 2011, whereby i was very jealous of the pace Bennoire could carry on the straights on track and exiting junctions on the French road network, leaving me for dead! Much browsing of PH lead me to the below, and wondering if i could live with something as stealthy as RA10CER, so instead i made a few improvements and went the other way, turning the wheels matt black and the standard diffuser became an Exige diffuser already in black. A lengthy test drive a few weeks ago made my mind up, it was for me, and on the whole an amazing upgrade and a worthy predecessor to the 135R. I didn't like the silver wheels, nor the diffuser, and even with the TRD box, it was not loud enough, cue a stage 3 being fitted before collection!
Anyway, from phoning Ed from Castle when i arrived at Stanstead, after a tactically placed work meeting on the Friday in London, i was from phone call to collection and handover, out of there in 45 minutes, looking to be home by 10pm in Fife, not to happen as it turned out!
What a car though, no more keep fit windows, no more chucking the keys over the roof to the wife, no more hypothermia, no more kicking the arse out of every last RPM, effortless motoring, combined with a very agile and good looking Elise. Yes the new shape has taken some getting used to, but overall happy as a pig in sh*t! Having discussed it with Peter B, he agreed that the SC with the stage 3 leads you to drive like a hooligan everywhere, I am hoping that the novelty of the noise may wear off, and i can stop looking for the overrun pops and bangs which happen all too frequently! As for lending my car to Benny to test drive for 10 minutes on Sat, he came back informing me of at least two people who were unimpressed by his antics, which he blames solely on the noise of the car! I am still awaiting my AndyG ASBO warning in the post!
Quick Video...http://youtu.be/VkNSr_b3C50?hd=1
Cheers,
Dave
