Vehicle Description
Complete Professional Restoration, Excellent Condition
This Lotus Europa runs and drives perfectly.
One of 3,130 Big Valve Twin Cam cars
Meticulous Over the Top Professional Restoration
Built to be a race-motif driver and show car
Never raced
Twin Cam 1558cc Big Valve 126hp with you 4 Speed Transmission
Fully Sorted and Dialed in
Fantastic Car for all Driving Events and Concours Showing
Shown at La Jolla Concours and Rodeo Drive Concours 2018
Many upgraded Features for Safety and Reliability
Seats modified and lowered to accommodate more cabin room
Pedals Shorted and Flared out to Accommodate more foot room
Custom and hidden roll bar for stability
Upgraded wheels for more road control
Custom fire extinguisher system
Custom Road lights and Headlight covers
Fully sorted by a Lotus expert in December 2018
The tiniest Ford GT40? The Europa concept is believed to have
originated during 1963 under the direction of Lotus founder Colin
Chapman. Drawings had been done by Ron Hickman, then director of
Lotus Engineering, for Lotus' bid for the Ford GT40 racing car
project. When that contract was lost to Lola Cars, Chapman chose to
use Hickman's highly efficient aerodynamic design, which had a drag
coefficient of only 0.29, as the basis for a new mid-engined
production model originally intended to succeed the Lotus 7.
By the mid-1960s, the mid-engine vehicle configuration was
well-established as the optimal design for Grand Prix cars, however
almost no road vehicles yet used this arrangement. Lotus planned
the Europa to be a volume-produced, two-seater mid-engined sports
coupe built to reasonable cost, quite an ambitious goal for the
time. Like all Lotus vehicles of the era, the Europa was designed
and built following Chapman's oft-stated philosophy of automotive
design: "Simplify, then add lightness". To this end, a number of
ingenious design approaches were made by Lotus to allow it to
economically overcome the many challenges presented by the novel
mid-engined arrangement.
The Series 1 Europa measured 42 inches in height and weighed 1350
pounds. Structural strength came from a lightweight fiberglass
body, molded as a single unit to which the doors, hood, and rear
hatch were attached. The hatch was large and provided good access
to the engine. The fiberglass body was resin-bonded to the
steel-backbone chassis, which made the car light and stiff.
The third-series Europa (1971-1975) featured a redesigned body
shell helping improve rearward visibility. The Renault engine was
replaced by the more powerful 1558cc Lotus-Ford twin-cam motor,
producing 126 horsepower.
The Big Valve version was aspirated by a Dell'Orto carburettors
version of the same engine. It weighed only 740 kg (1631 lb). Motor
magazine famously tested it to a top speed of 123 mph (198 km/h),
0-60 mph in 6.6 seconds, and the 1/4 mile in 14.9 seconds. This at
a time when all road tests were carried out with both a driver and
passenger. With only a driver on board the 0-60 mph time would have
been well under 6 seconds, a phenomenal performance for the
period.
