Well (for anyone who cared/noticed 
)...
After MONTHS of preparation, including the $350 purchase of a 1992 Mk2 Uno 60 (*rare* in NZ!) and the towing it home on a trailer, pulled by a borrowed Citroen BX on an eight-hour round trip...
After scrutinising all the frontal parts and checking the match of the white colour to my Uno Turbo...
After agonising over photographs until 2:30AM looking at how the bumper has been RAISED on the Mk2 to make the headlights smaller... kinda like the old joke about the Irish farmer who built a fence that the council decided was too tall, so the farmer bulldozes dirt up around the posts, and the fence is no longer too tall...
After all this, I've decided NOT to convert my Mk1 to look like a Mk2!
The final straw was the front bumper - the rounded bib of a standard Mk2 just doesn't look as good as the spoiler on the Mk1, and there's no housing for the foglights on the Mk2 - they're also a different shape, and there are no vents for the intercooler/oil cooler.
Also, the side mouldings on the Mk2. Ever noticed how they're stuck on above the ridge in the sides? That's to disguise the fact that the bumper join to the bodywork is actually above the level of the ridge in the sides. And in turn, the front bumper doesn't line up with the back. Now see, you never needed to know that.
I don't like side mouldings, so they were never going on. Without them, that height mismatch looks awkward to me.
Further style analysis for you. The Uno Mk2 bonnet has a depressed centre section. Very few cars do (original Lotus Esprit springs to mind - the 1987 re-style brought a "softer, yet more masculine" look with a raised centre, like the Mk1 Uno has). Anyway, that depressed centre along with the rounded-off front actually gives a demure, almost delicate appearance. Not really the general aim for the styling of the Uno Turbo!
I've decided that the best Uno is the original. The Mk2 - although it looks better initially, is just a series of bodges to make the Uno resemble the Tipo (which was NOT styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro but instead by IDEA - an industrial design house!)
Unfortunately I gave away my good white Mk1 bonnet on the Mk1 Uno I sold recently. I kept the less-good one. I looked over it last night and circled the dents with marker pen in the shadows... there are 21 dents, it turns out. That is going to take a while to bog all those out... grrrr... particularly where the front of the bonnet has been wrapped around the underlying metalwork!
(shameless plug: if anyone wants to buy any Mk2 Uno bits, and lives in NZ, please message me - sorry Louie, I know this goes in 'classifieds' but I'm not sure that other NZers would look there!)
Thanks!
-Alex
)...After MONTHS of preparation, including the $350 purchase of a 1992 Mk2 Uno 60 (*rare* in NZ!) and the towing it home on a trailer, pulled by a borrowed Citroen BX on an eight-hour round trip...
After scrutinising all the frontal parts and checking the match of the white colour to my Uno Turbo...
After agonising over photographs until 2:30AM looking at how the bumper has been RAISED on the Mk2 to make the headlights smaller... kinda like the old joke about the Irish farmer who built a fence that the council decided was too tall, so the farmer bulldozes dirt up around the posts, and the fence is no longer too tall...
After all this, I've decided NOT to convert my Mk1 to look like a Mk2!
The final straw was the front bumper - the rounded bib of a standard Mk2 just doesn't look as good as the spoiler on the Mk1, and there's no housing for the foglights on the Mk2 - they're also a different shape, and there are no vents for the intercooler/oil cooler.
Also, the side mouldings on the Mk2. Ever noticed how they're stuck on above the ridge in the sides? That's to disguise the fact that the bumper join to the bodywork is actually above the level of the ridge in the sides. And in turn, the front bumper doesn't line up with the back. Now see, you never needed to know that.
I don't like side mouldings, so they were never going on. Without them, that height mismatch looks awkward to me.
Further style analysis for you. The Uno Mk2 bonnet has a depressed centre section. Very few cars do (original Lotus Esprit springs to mind - the 1987 re-style brought a "softer, yet more masculine" look with a raised centre, like the Mk1 Uno has). Anyway, that depressed centre along with the rounded-off front actually gives a demure, almost delicate appearance. Not really the general aim for the styling of the Uno Turbo!
I've decided that the best Uno is the original. The Mk2 - although it looks better initially, is just a series of bodges to make the Uno resemble the Tipo (which was NOT styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro but instead by IDEA - an industrial design house!)
Unfortunately I gave away my good white Mk1 bonnet on the Mk1 Uno I sold recently. I kept the less-good one. I looked over it last night and circled the dents with marker pen in the shadows... there are 21 dents, it turns out. That is going to take a while to bog all those out... grrrr... particularly where the front of the bonnet has been wrapped around the underlying metalwork!
(shameless plug: if anyone wants to buy any Mk2 Uno bits, and lives in NZ, please message me - sorry Louie, I know this goes in 'classifieds' but I'm not sure that other NZers would look there!
)Thanks!
-Alex
Last edited:
