Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT The Lotus Basement

[111R]

I guess the Bimmer Basement was already taken, but that's okay as there's been a Lotus in it longer than my BMW.

Many homes in the Metro Atlanta area have basements - some finished as home theatres or in-law suites, others just holding junk. A few gearheads out there take advantage of the constant temperature vs. the varying conditions of garages on the main floor to set up a workshop/garage in their basement. When we built our house around 25 years ago, I did just that, as I had a Lotus Elan project car that was in pieces and thus needed somewhere to put it back together.

We didn't have the funds to finish out the workshop at the time, but used a combination of drywall and pegboard to finish the walls in order to keep the cat out, etc. Lighting was poor, the floor was unfinished, but it got the job done. I finished up the Elan in 1999, but sold it in 2005 in order to someday get a Lotus Elise. The Elan wound up on the cover of Hemmings Motor News, which resulted in numerous phone calls from around the globe. It ended up in California with an engineer who did his own wrenching - just the right man for the job.

In 2007, I picked up a 2005 Elise with 2,000 miles on it. It was equipped with Sport Package and Hardtop, along with dealer installed driving lights and a few other goodies. No Touring Package, so crank windows, cloth seats, and very little sound insulation. Attached are a few photos.

 

[111R]

Here's a photo at Talladega and another showing the truck driver unloading it when it arrived from California in 2007. The third photo is shown *******, while the last one is of the garage on the main floor for daily drivers (taken a few years ago).

 

[111R]

A couple of years ago, we decided to renovate the daily driver/main floor garage. The floor coating company ground the concrete floor, taped off the base moulding, then put down 4 gallons of epoxy base. They then saturated the wet epoxy with chips, which they allowed to dry overnight. The next day, they buffed/vacuumed the excess chips, then put down 4 gallons of UV resistant clear coat.

The result is a durable coating that has a nice texture so that it's a relatively non-slip surface. They even coating the steps to the house, which turned out great. It's been around two years with little degradation other than the areas outside of the garage doors. Since the coating comes with a lifetime warranty, the company recoated those areas with a better UV resistant product.

Sorry for the crummy cell phone photos! We've since install LED lighting, which gives much better illumination of the garage.

 

[Natha]

Hello from another Lotus enthusiast !
Will follow this thread for sure.

Do you track the Elise ?

 

[111R]

Back in 2011, our daughter was teaching English in a French village west of Paris. We were going to visit at the end of her 9 month contract, then visit Salzburg, Austria. My wife and daughter wanted to see where The Sound of Music was filmed. My daily driver was 15 years old and I had wanted some sort of BMW since drooling over then-new 2002's back when I was in middle/high school.

Since we were flying into Munich as a hub for this trip and I was not having any luck finding any used manual 335i sedans that hadn't been thrashed, I decided to go with European Delivery of a new E90 335i. I actually got a pretty good discount, plus we were going there already, so why not?

We waited to pick it up towards the end of the trip, as I didn't want my OCD to ruin the whole experience. We did drive down to Garmisch on the autobahn, but the engine felt very tight and the delivery reps at BMW Welt said not to exceed 4,500 rpm/100 mph until after 1,200 miles. If I were leasing it, I'm sure it would have been different, but I tend to keep cars a long time. Attached are a few photos of experience.

A few are of the delivery center at the BMW Welt (or World, in English). The food was free - all you had to do was buy a car - so my daughter decided to have 'The Breakfast of Champions'. Dizzy Dean was once asked during a live radio commercial for Wheaties what a champion had for breakfast. His answer? "A hard boiled egg and a bottle of beer!"

We drove to Garmisch, then drove back to Munich the next day and dropped the car off at the Munich Airport drop off site. The car showed up about a month later at the dealership in Atlanta.

 

[111R]

@Natha, I've done a few parade laps, but as both the car and I are getting older I'm a little nervous about beating up such a nice car. If I do decide to track something, I may go for an Elise that's been totalled, then set up as a track car. Either that or an old E30 or E36 BMW like some of my friends have done. If I put it against the wall or other damage, it would be no big loss. The Elise/Exige are no longer available in the USA since 2011, so only 6,000 cars came over. I've read that about 30% of those have been wrecked to some degree, so this one is too nice to risk it.

 

[111R]

The basement garage was kind of a mess, so last year we decided to renovate it. I no longer do much restoration work, but just want to keep my cars in good shape and drive them.

I had to revise some of supply and return ductwork for the main floor in order to better finish the garage ceiling. The ductwork in the house is all sheet metal, which is externally insulated. The whole house is done this way, as I paid extra to have it done when it was built. Flex is really only supposed to be used for vertical transitions to drop-in diffusers in lay-in ceilings, but residential contractors discovered it was easier to run and thus it's become more common. It's not a good long-term solution in my opinion.

Once that was done, I hired a contractor to box in the ductwork, then install/finish/paint drywall and install trim. I installed LED lighting, a workbench I built, and some Gladiator wall cabinets. I also had the same contractor that did my main floor garage floor coating put the same material down in the basement garage.

 

[111R]

More photos.

 

[CN Spots]

That floor turned out awesome!

 

[111R]

A few more showing the clear coat going down. Overall they used 6 gallons of clear and the floor turned out great.

 

[111R]

Here are a few exterior shots. The house plan is from Southern Living and was designed by architect William Poole. It's called Blackberry Lane was their 'plan of the month' in October, 1994.

 

[Natha]

Very nice place and great basement to work on the Lotus.

I understand why you want to preserve it. A well prepared E36 can be a track beast, we see so many of them around here.

 

[111R]

Exactly, as there are plenty of inexpensive E36s to choose from. Even M3's are relatively cheap if not in pristine condition. One of my friends has about $10k in his old E30 track car, but no longer tracks his really nice E30 M3 street car due to its value.

 

[111R]

Here's the other cars in the fleet. My wife has a 2017 Audi A4, which is front wheel drive only, as she wanted fuel economy that wasn't too much worse than the A3 TDI that Audi bought back from us. Also shown is my dad's old Nissan D21 pickup that he gave me when he could no longer drive. I had it painted and did a few other things to it before he passed away in his late '80s, as he got a kick out of seeing it somewhat restored.

 

[111R]

I'm not the nuttiest guy in my community, as my pal Steve has several interesting cars in his garage and in storage. Shown in the following photo is his Ferrari Testa Rossa replica, which was built on a '61 Ferrari chassis with a '63 Ferrari Lusso engine. The body is all aluminum and was commissioned by a wealthy Texan back in the '80s if I remember correctly. It's pretty authentic, down to the gated shifter, Borrani wire wheels, and lots other old Ferrari bits.

The most interesting thing about it is that the engine sound from this car was recorded and used for the Ferrari noises in the recent movie Ford vs. Ferrari. Here's a link with an interview of the owner:

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/co...ar-nominated-film/NIQ27S6X55A4TBDLTRDLAMCCT4/

Steve took me for a white knuckle ride on public roads before he even got a license plate for it. Now, he mainly uses it on a local private track.

 

[111R]

You don't really get a feel for how small the Elise is compared to other vehicles until you see them together. My E90 335i isn't exactly a large car, but compared to the Elise it is.

 

[111R]

Quick photo after a long drive.

 

[111R]

Just picked up a new addition for the Lotus Garage, although this one will stay in the daily driver garage on the main level:

 

[joey1320]

Awesome collection of cars. The garage looks like a phenomenal space.

 

[111R]

Many thanks. Unfortunately, I didn't have space for the '87 Nissan Pickup, as it had some head gasket issues and is moving to Minnesota. I sold it to a good friend who has always liked it, as he had the resources and garage space for 10+ cars. I had intended to upgrade to a Tacoma or similar eventually, but it happened sooner than I had planned.

The Tacoma is much larger than the Hardbody, which is one feature that I'll miss about the latter - its size. The Tacoma is Toyota's 'small' pickup and I went with the smallest cab/largest bed I could. Still, it's kind of ponderous in comparison to the old truck, but feels much safer in our crazy metro Atlanta traffic. The size inflation of pickup trucks in the US market is sort of an arms race - everything has to get bigger with more towing capacity - even if you don't need it.

 

[111R]

 

[111R]

Finally got a foam gun for car washing. Works great!

 

[111R]

One of my friends picked up this Lista 9-drawer cabinet at an auction and I paid him $350 for it. It was covered in paint/sealant and the drawer slide bearings needed to be cleaned/relubricated. This thing weighs around 570 pounds empty per Lista's specs and new ones go for around $3500. It has some patina but that's okay. The first photo shows an example of the 'before' condition. The other photos show the cleaning/reassembly plus a few examples of drawer organizers.

 

[111R]

Over the years I've been given lots of Lotus models/other paraphernalia plus collected car-related junk since childhood. My pal who found the Lista cabinet for me has a collection that makes mine pale in comparison. He bought a metal/glass display cabinet from IKEA to put some of it in. I ordered one and put it in an unused corner of my shop.

 

[111R]

I sold my larger air compressor a few years ago since I didn't use it much anymore. I have a pancake compressor/hose reel that I purchased for my Dad years ago for inflating tires, etc. He gave it back to me when the folks moved out of their house. I was inspired by a GJ poster from California that made a shelf for his air compressor in a corner of his small garage. I have a similar corner that seemed ideal for such an installation. I mounted it on two 3/4" plywood sheets glued/screwed together and attached to wall-mounted framing. I secured the compressor with U-bolts. The compressor sits on rubber mounts from the factory, so these isolate vibration. The hose that connects to the reel passes through a sleeve so the hose isn't damaged.

 

[M-technik-3]

Great space you have their and love the E90 M sport, I have an 11 M Sport that's space Grey and an E91. E36's make a nice track toy and are more forgiving due to the more modern rear suspension than the E30 rear trailing arm design. Have two E30'S and an E36 as well.

Loved the Elan and the Elise both great drivers cars, I'd take either one in a heart beat.

Floors look fantastic.

 

[111R]

Many thanks. I almost ordered a 2011 E91 M sport rwd manual with no Idrive but was lured by the power and bigger brakes of the E90 335i. In hindsight the E91 in that spec would be a unicorn but the N55 hasn’t been as unreliable as 2007-2010 N54 cars.

E9x cars are great daily drivers that stand at the crossroads of old school steering, other features but modern in other respects. I’ve recently upgraded suspension with an OEM M3 control arm kit. i also ditched run flat tires, going with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Alignment is somewhere between M3 and 335i M sport, done by an independent BMW shop who have done this conversion before. It transformed how the car handles without changing the ride much at all.

I have room just barely for an E36 M3 but am also considering a Series 1 Elise now the 25-year rule limitation has passed for these cars. First world problems.