Sunday, April 14, 2013

Passed California Smog

Passing California smog wasn’t easy. Even though the engine and Dellorto carbs were fully rebuilt, and even though I had a modern cat converter welded into the exhaust system, it still failed. In fact it failed so badly that my car was classified as a Gross Polluter. It’s the curse of death for any old car where the engine or emission systems aren’t working near perfectly, because now I needed to take the car to a certified referee. It turns out these guys go through your car with even more tediousness, as if their sole goal is to find something wrong and to send you home.

Luckily I have some good friends at British Sports Cars in San Luis Obispo who helped me tune the Dellortos, which had a number of issues I wouldn’t be able to figure out on my own, and then I passed. I can’t thank them enough. Now the car is all but done. A few small jobs like a 4 wheel alignment and it’s on the road for good!



6 comments:

  1. Congrats Renn! A great end to a great project ! Still using this blog as a guide to rebuilding my s2

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  2. What an amazing restoration!! Congratulations.

    I need to ask for a favor. Any higher resolution photos of the restoration? Looking for as much as detail as possible for when it is my turn to restore an S1. A friend recently bought one that suffered an engine fire and it might end up in my garage after he gets it running again.

    Thank you!

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  3. If you ever EVER want to sell this work of art, please let me know.

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  4. Hello

    This is an impressive restoration, better than new, I will say. I do own a Europa S2 1969, if you are interested have a look here http://lotus-europa.com/regs2.html#541651, I did also a restoration not at your level, I wish I have the time to do it as you did, the Esprit is part of my automotive dream since the Bond film. Congratulation for your job on the car as well as on the photos which are taking also a lot of time to shot.
    Lotus cars are the best.
    Olivier Beboux, Switzerland

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