Thanks

I sold my Exxy tonight.

Quite sad to see someone driving off in her after nearly five years of ownership. She's been excellent and I'm quite sorry that I've not been able to spend more money on her and finish off the last few jobs that needed doing.

The new owner seems to know his stuff. I thought she ran pretty well but he diagnosed a carb' problem I didn't even know was there (confirmed by my garage - so he wasn't just trying to knock the price down ) I think she'll be well looked after and kept on the road for many years to come. Sorting the gearbox and inner wing rust would probably make her one of the better, if not one of the best, unrestored Exxy's around I reckon. Hopefully he'll sort those last few jobs once he's happy he's bought the right car.

I hope the new owner will join the club - I've told him how good everyone is here. He's a bit of an Italian car nut, with five of them! Must have about three inches of rust on his garage floor!

I'm rather an amateur mechanic, so have had much more help from the club than I've been able to offer in return. It's been worth every penny and then some, being a member.

So - all that remains is to say thanks everyone and good luck, all, for the future

All the best Scotty.... but you know you'll be back!!

Btw, what problem did he diagnose on the carb?

Carb problem is basically 25 years of use and needing a rebuild. Always seemed fine to me - probably because I was used to it - but he struggled with the choke. She'd idle at around 1200 revs but when the throttle was blipped she'd drop to 600rpm. Blip the thottle again and she'd be up to 1500rpm.

My GTA behaves similarly so I was blissfully unaware of the problem - just thought it's the way carb'd cars are having had the luxury of smooth fuel injected cars for so long. Lesson learnt - might need to look at the GTA carb's as well.

Didn't help that I reset the CO mixture based on my Gunsons exhaust gas analyser. The car was MOT'd two days later and the CO was really really low. Seems my analyser is very inaccurate - which makes it pretty much useless.

Will I be back? Chances are I probably won't really go away. I probably carry on paying my £25 a year for club membership. I'm still a member of Club Lotus but haven't had one for nearly nine years. I had an Eclat and an Excel - would love an Esprit and all time favourite is the original Europa (pre-Esprit).