Attaching the European Rear Valance and Bumper

The S1 Lotus Esprit had two styles of rear bumper/rear valance depending on which region of the world the car was delivered. The USA cars had a less desirable style thanks to the Federal bumper regulations back in the day. The bumpers were enormous – so big that it makes the car look out of proportion. The EURO style is by far a better looking option in my opinion so I opted to replace all the old pieces with new bodywork sourced from England.

This introduced several problems though as the EURO bumpers and valance were not designed to bolt directly up to the USA spec body. The solution was to re-work the rear bumper mounting points, fabricate additional support mounts for the rear valance and buy a EURO spec silencer mounting channel (yes, there was a different style for US cars!!) as it makes the exhaust sit higher and clear the opening for the exhaust pipes. At the end of the day, it was really expensive and time consuming to change a USA car over to EURO spec. Hopefully the end result will be worth it!