I ended up getting an Exige S1 as well…in fact you might know it, it belonged to the chap who owns Revolution, the performance car parts outlet on Gateshead Quayside. He lived up in Darras Hall…it wasnt my first colour choice but the history, spec and condition meant i just had to have it!
Yes I spoke to him about some wheels he was selling shortly after I bought my car. Like you, silver wasn’t my first choice but I found a nice car and am pleased with it. I’ve done about 3000 miles so far and nothing has fallen off yet (probably will tomorrow - MoT day).
Not yet! Hoping to get a Honda compressor first, then see if it can be made to work. I’m not banking on it, just that it would be good to have it if available
Not yet! Hoping to get a Honda compressor first, then see if it can be made to work. I’m not banking on it, just that it would be good to have it if available
I wouldn’t bank on it. The S1 exige aircon is of a type that can no longer be made and AFAIK isn’t compatible with current technology.
There are a number of bits otherthan the compressor that would be needed, the pipework it’self is very expensive. This was discussed briefly on SELOC recently and SimonS said that there is one car with a Honda conversion with Air-con, but it was expensive to do, he didn’t say if it was a S1 or S2 but I’d guess S2 as that has a more upto date system fitted.
I had all the aircon stuff removed from mine.
I’m rather hoping that it will pay for an Land Rover 101 Bryn
interesting choice of vehicle - always thought one would complement my Lightweight quite well but then got to drive one and found it quite uncomfortable, plus the cost of fuelling a V8…still love seeing them on the road. Have a few links to some good info on them I can dig out if you are interested. Would you be offroading it?
interesting choice of vehicle …still love seeing them on the road
Agree. I’m from Solihull originally and my parents both worked for Land Rover. I used to go Lode Lane quite a lot as a kid in the late seventies and there always used to be loads of 101s parked up around the canteen. I’d more or less forgotten about them until a few months ago when saw one on the road. Been doing a bit of googling since then (101 register etc.) and it seems that they go for about �4k although, as you say, the fuel use can be very high and some spares can be scarce. I’d appreciate any links that you have though.
Hadn’t really thought much about what I’d do with one once I’d got it and I’m not sure quite how serious I really am. This time last year I really wanted a hovercraft!
I think we met once at a trackday - did you have an Exige break its rear suspension at Elvington a couple of years ago? If that was you, I was in the orange Elise parked next to your Discovery.
That was indeed me at Elvington - the balljoint on the rear toelink sheared across the shank so I upgraded to the uniball variety. Being an adopted Yorkshire man it was an easier upgrade moneywise knowing I had broken the part!
I have wondered about Hovercraft - saw a really good one last summer in Norway and believe that the RNLI have a variant in service. Not sure about how you would make it road legal though.
Upgrade for the 101 though is a Unimog…on my list!
I’ll dig out the links, one was particularly excellent, detailing the original evaluation reports for the MOD plus lots of service & maintenance manuals.
I think a good example private sale one might be a bit cheaper now, especially the GS version rather than the hardtop, which looks particularly sexy when fully stripped down ala the 1970’s East West Sahara expedition version.
I’ve seen a few toe-links go on that same corner and getting a beefier set fitted was one of the first things that I did after buying my Exige. That said, Elvington is just about the best place I could imagine for it to happen!
Unimogs are nice too - one of the local tree surgeons has a yellow one - but they really pretty sizeable. Then again, my wife’s only criteria for a car are that it should have 4WD and be “practical” i.e. you can pick up floorboards etc. from Wickes and take stuff to the tip in it, so a Unimog/101 should fit the bill nicely.
my mate drove a Unimog in Kosovo (Army one) and he said it was amazing especially traversing inclines. It was also full of propane/butane cylinders so they weren’t hanging about… plink plink BANG etc…
can you tell as to how Emerald managed to make their ECU work with aircon? Was it a new unit or something they just rigged up externally to work the aircon?
Just spoke to the original owner and he has explained how this has been solved. hope this helps you emerald guys out.
"When the emerald was fitted it didnt drive the A/C. At the time Karl at Emerald was working on a fix. In June 05 the software fix was available and Karl emailed the fix to me. This involved a firmware update for the Emerald ECU which was done via my laptop linked to the ECU.
The complicated bit was wiring in the A/C to the Emerald, this took about half a day.
With the software fix and the wiring the ECU now could drive the A/C clutch and adjust revs to compensate.
The mistake I made was not have the A/C serviced before applying the fix. As the A/C hadnt run for a few months it blew out a sensor and discharged its gas. This was expensive to get fixed.
People with Emerald ECU should email or call Karl at Emerald. If they have the ECU serial number he can sent the software fix to them. The wiring should be done by someone that knows what they are doing."