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After 3 weeks from finding the car, having it PPI, finalizing price, and arranging pick up she is finally in my stable 
2000 Esprit
I decided to drive her home instead of usual transport, it is the end of the driving season here so time was perfect.
The trip took me from Nevada through Arizona, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and finally Saskatchewan my Province, 1200+ miles 1800+ km
I arrived in Vegas around 5pm, by the time I reached passenger pick up it was 5:30, I was being picked up in the Esprit. Unfortunately he was held in traffic, I had to wait
I was waiting inside a parkade, I soon herd a rumble and awesome exhaust note coming up the ramps, and there she was -eek--eek--eek- Car was stunning, in way better shape than I realized, I was like a kid on his first date. I was so excited asking a hundred questions and probably speaking a thousand miles an hour :facepalm
We were starting to hold up traffic so the previous owner throws me the key and says "let's go" :shift: Now you must realize this is the first time I drove the car, there are ppl staring at us, and I am heading into rush hour traffic, nervous is an understatement lol
The interior is smaller than I expected, I am 6'1" and if it wasn't for that sunroof I wouldn't of fit, but I knew that going in. The first driving impression I wish I could remember more clearly, I was so excited it's all a blur. I remember talking but about what ???? who the hell knows ha ha ha I do remember all I was thinking about is how bad I wanna try out those turbos, but thats a story for later on.
Drive went very smooth, car handled excellent, responded fantastic on med acceleration. Now my driving left something to be desired :facepalm but it's not my fault (no seriously) You see I also own a Diablo Roadster, it's shift pattern is first gear straight down, the shifter knob looks and feels exactly like the Lotus shifter (you know where I'm going with this). 2 or 3 times I started in 2nd gear stalling it twice in heavy traffic :crazyeyes:crazyeyes that went over real well with the other drivers lol how embarrassing.
We finally reached his home 25 min later, where we went over the car top to bottom, making sure I knew everything about the car as I was leaving Vegas that night. We finished the rest of the paper work, I programed my GPS, said our good buys and I was off. Because I arrived early enough in Vegas I decided to drive and cut my trip from 3 to 2 days. Of course it had to be in pitch blackness, in a car I am not use to, on a 3 hour tour to Cedar City, sounds like a sitcom
I started off following the GPS turn for turn, I was so busy looking at the inside of the car, adjusting my seats, getting comfortable I didn't realize I was driving in a Lotus down the Strip, how friggin cool is that everyone must try it one time or another it's so choice :clap:
I gassed up and hit the road, trip was flawless, there were a couple of speeders that I used as Rabbits, made Cedar City in 2:30, so far so good.
The Hotel was kind enough to let me park right out front under the canopy for the night. After a good meal and much needed rest I set off on Thur morning 8am for Billings Montana. This was going to be my biggest stretch of the ride home, almost 12 hours straight.
The trip was good, not much to tell, car ran perfect, weather was sunny, scenery turned better closer I got to Montana. I enjoy the interstates, I turned my V1 on and away I went :shift:
Now this is where I tried the full power of the turbos and HOLY ****!!! I was shocked at the power ban on this car. I mean I lit up the tires 2nd and 3rd gear no problem and hit well over 140 mph in no time flat -eek- that was it, I was sold and hooked on this amazing machine. Soon after I did notice fuel tank on the Esprit is very very small but the fuel economy compared to my Lambo was awesome lol
At one point my GPS rerouted me through the mountains ???? I was trying to avoid them, but like a robot I followed the GPS, next thing I know I'm heading into snow covered mountains with a small storm brewing up
WTF... no time to turn back now. Traffic was light, luckily so was the snow falling, nothing to bad until road construction IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRIGGIN MOUNTAINS !!!! traffic was backed up for 30 min, I was stuck behind a "Just Married" couple that took turns looking at the car from rear view mirror lol
We soon were on our way, but stopped again shortly after because mountain sheep were on the road, Oy Vey took a pic and nailed it.
Now this is where the car hiccuped, it had a slight loss of power at top end of the revs and hesitated slightly, enough to throw a code. Now owning several exotics I know not to panic when a CEL light comes on lol. I kept my eyes on the vitals, and made sure all was OK to continue. She ran great otherwise, just slight hesitation on heavy power shifting, I realized I was in high altitude so I assumed it was a mass air flow sensor tweaking up.
By the time I came out of the Mountains and got into Billings the light went out on it's own, and no more hesitation in high revs woo hoo. That was a long trip to be in a car, and I will be honest but my lambo is waaaaaay more comfortable on long trips thats for sure. It's the seats they are not the best for long trips, 2 or 3 hours fine but you get a soar butt after that, try 12hrs straight -eek-:no: The Lambo seats are like recliners, so comfortable :up:
Friday I head form home, weather was good, roads were clear and perfect. At least thats what I thought until I entered North Dakota :evil::evil::evil: What a **** hole especially the roads. I hit no less that 18 construction zones, including one that was 6 miles of pure dirt, hills, ruts, stones, mud etc... it was so bad at one point my nose dug into a clump of mud that shot all over the car, I was only doing 15 miles per hour GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
That slowed me down by an hour overall, I had to make up time to reach the border to meet my broker in time. Luckily I did make up lots of time, taking alternative route, reached border at 3 pm. And who was there waiting for me but my friends in my RG Exotic car club 5 of them drove over 2 hours to meet up with me and give me a proper escort home
Ferrari 328
Maserati Coupe
Porsche TT
Gallardo LP 560
Gallardo Superlegera
Now thats the way you get a proper escort :bow: Sure enough as usual not even 10 min in our trip we get stopped by Police, because ppl on the roads said we were speeding like mad men, ha ha ha of course that was not the case, but we get this all the time traveling as a group. No tickets, cops were cool, took some pics and headed for home.
And now there she sits with my other silver siblings in my compound and I couldn't be happier, truly
Sorry for long winded story, but I always think this might inspire a new enthusiast to take the plunge in the exotic world that we all love very very much.
Cheers
2000 EspritI decided to drive her home instead of usual transport, it is the end of the driving season here so time was perfect.
The trip took me from Nevada through Arizona, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and finally Saskatchewan my Province, 1200+ miles 1800+ km
I arrived in Vegas around 5pm, by the time I reached passenger pick up it was 5:30, I was being picked up in the Esprit
. Unfortunately he was held in traffic, I had to wait I was waiting inside a parkade, I soon herd a rumble and awesome exhaust note coming up the ramps, and there she was -eek--eek--eek- Car was stunning, in way better shape than I realized, I was like a kid on his first date. I was so excited asking a hundred questions and probably speaking a thousand miles an hour :facepalm
We were starting to hold up traffic so the previous owner throws me the key and says "let's go" :shift: Now you must realize this is the first time I drove the car, there are ppl staring at us, and I am heading into rush hour traffic, nervous is an understatement lol
The interior is smaller than I expected, I am 6'1" and if it wasn't for that sunroof I wouldn't of fit, but I knew that going in. The first driving impression I wish I could remember more clearly, I was so excited it's all a blur. I remember talking but about what ???? who the hell knows
ha ha ha I do remember all I was thinking about is how bad I wanna try out those turbos, but thats a story for later on.Drive went very smooth, car handled excellent, responded fantastic on med acceleration. Now my driving left something to be desired :facepalm but it's not my fault (no seriously)
You see I also own a Diablo Roadster, it's shift pattern is first gear straight down, the shifter knob looks and feels exactly like the Lotus shifter (you know where I'm going with this). 2 or 3 times I started in 2nd gear stalling it twice in heavy traffic :crazyeyes:crazyeyes that went over real well with the other drivers lol how embarrassing.We finally reached his home 25 min later, where we went over the car top to bottom, making sure I knew everything about the car as I was leaving Vegas that night. We finished the rest of the paper work, I programed my GPS, said our good buys and I was off. Because I arrived early enough in Vegas I decided to drive and cut my trip from 3 to 2 days. Of course it had to be in pitch blackness, in a car I am not use to, on a 3 hour tour to Cedar City, sounds like a sitcom
I started off following the GPS turn for turn, I was so busy looking at the inside of the car, adjusting my seats, getting comfortable I didn't realize I was driving in a Lotus down the Strip, how friggin cool is that
everyone must try it one time or another it's so choice :clap:I gassed up and hit the road, trip was flawless, there were a couple of speeders that I used as Rabbits, made Cedar City in 2:30, so far so good.
The Hotel was kind enough to let me park right out front under the canopy for the night. After a good meal and much needed rest I set off on Thur morning 8am for Billings Montana. This was going to be my biggest stretch of the ride home, almost 12 hours straight.
The trip was good, not much to tell, car ran perfect, weather was sunny, scenery turned better closer I got to Montana. I enjoy the interstates, I turned my V1 on and away I went :shift:
Now this is where I tried the full power of the turbos and HOLY ****!!! I was shocked at the power ban on this car. I mean I lit up the tires 2nd and 3rd gear no problem and hit well over 140 mph in no time flat -eek- that was it, I was sold and hooked on this amazing machine. Soon after I did notice fuel tank on the Esprit is very very small
but the fuel economy compared to my Lambo was awesome lolAt one point my GPS rerouted me through the mountains ???? I was trying to avoid them, but like a robot I followed the GPS, next thing I know I'm heading into snow covered mountains with a small storm brewing up
WTF... no time to turn back now. Traffic was light, luckily so was the snow falling, nothing to bad until road construction IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRIGGIN MOUNTAINS !!!! traffic was backed up for 30 min, I was stuck behind a "Just Married" couple that took turns looking at the car from rear view mirror lol
We soon were on our way, but stopped again shortly after because mountain sheep were on the road, Oy Vey
took a pic and nailed it. Now this is where the car hiccuped, it had a slight loss of power at top end of the revs and hesitated slightly, enough to throw a code. Now owning several exotics I know not to panic when a CEL light comes on lol. I kept my eyes on the vitals, and made sure all was OK to continue. She ran great otherwise, just slight hesitation on heavy power shifting, I realized I was in high altitude so I assumed it was a mass air flow sensor tweaking up.
By the time I came out of the Mountains and got into Billings the light went out on it's own, and no more hesitation in high revs woo hoo. That was a long trip to be in a car, and I will be honest but my lambo is waaaaaay more comfortable on long trips thats for sure. It's the seats they are not the best for long trips, 2 or 3 hours fine but you get a soar butt after that, try 12hrs straight -eek-:no: The Lambo seats are like recliners, so comfortable :up:
Friday I head form home, weather was good, roads were clear and perfect. At least thats what I thought until I entered North Dakota :evil::evil::evil: What a **** hole especially the roads. I hit no less that 18 construction zones, including one that was 6 miles of pure dirt, hills, ruts, stones, mud etc... it was so bad at one point my nose dug into a clump of mud that shot all over the car, I was only doing 15 miles per hour GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
That slowed me down by an hour overall, I had to make up time to reach the border to meet my broker in time. Luckily I did make up lots of time, taking alternative route, reached border at 3 pm. And who was there waiting for me but my friends in my RG Exotic car club
5 of them drove over 2 hours to meet up with me and give me a proper escort homeFerrari 328
Maserati Coupe
Porsche TT
Gallardo LP 560
Gallardo Superlegera
Now thats the way you get a proper escort :bow: Sure enough as usual not even 10 min in our trip we get stopped by Police, because ppl on the roads said we were speeding like mad men, ha ha ha of course that was not the case, but we get this all the time traveling as a group. No tickets, cops were cool, took some pics and headed for home.
And now there she sits with my other silver siblings in my compound and I couldn't be happier, truly
Sorry for long winded story, but I always think this might inspire a new enthusiast to take the plunge in the exotic world that we all love very very much.
Cheers
