My Lotus Europa 73063649R

For many years I had the pleasure of owning a 1974 Lotus Europa Twin Cam.  I even took to racing the car in SCCA Solo 2 competition and at numerous track days.

The car was for the most part fiberglass with a ingenious backbone frame that was a trademark of Lotus in the day.  At the front it was like the cross on a T to which the front suspension was bolted, and at the back it split into a V where the mid mounted engine lived along with the transaxle and rear suspension. The almost one piece body sat over this and this made for a very light but stiff car.  I remember the class I ran the car in had a minimum weight requirement and at one divisional post race tech weight check the car tipped the scales at just a tick over 1600lbs, with me in it, and yes it was legal.

The car was powered by a rather small 1600cc four cylinder motor based on an English Ford block with a Lotus built aluminum double overhead cam head. Stock horsepower was around 125 hp. At some point I managed to over do it a bit and bent the crankshaft in the stock motor and at that point it was the right time to upgrade the power plant. I built a new motor  adding a forged steel crank lighter pistons, a racing head with bigger valves and hotter cam, and twin Weber side draft carbs.  I figured that pushed the HP up to around a usable 160hp and with a light aluminum flywheel it could rev to over 8000 rpms. But after too many trips to the red line this motor broke the piston rings and so I went back to a more stock engine and sold the HOT motor.

What was the strong suit of the car was it’s handling. Because the car was light and had the mid engine it’s balance was that of a pure race car. And like any good Lotus owner I had tinkered with the suspension adding special springs and shocks absorbers.  Steering was only two or so turns lock to lock and I had a small 12′ wheel. You did have to pay attention because it didn’t take much wheel input to make the car change direction, just thinking about changing lanes and it would do it. Because of the Solo 2 racing I always had the best performance street legal tires on the car. When it came to braking the Lotus could give you nose bleeds, I had also upgrades the front brakes to larger GT-6 rotors and calipers.

My Lotus was great fun to drive on the street but at only 46″ high you had to be real aggressive around other cars. Drive fast and never be along side anyone, best to be in front where they can see you. When passing do it with a quick downshift and pass with intent, When stopping always look in the rearview when you hit the brakes to make sure some big boat like sedan or truck wasn’t close behind you.

Age soon stared to take it’s toll, not so much the car, but me. Oh, sure Europa was a blast but I stared to get a craving for something modern, more comfortable, with air, the Lotus was like an oven in the summer. Forget hearing the radio. SCCA rules were also bumping the car into a higher racing class and the new performance cars coming out in the late 1980′s were very competitive. The new breed of “R” compound “Street Tires” were also an issue, the 70′s suspension was not made for such sticky tires and it was causing undue stress on the suspension parts made for less potent tires.  So I broke down and bought a 1988 Mustang 5.0 and sort of retired the Europa to occasional outings with other English car owners.

After deciding I was not driving the car enough to justify keeping it around I sold it to a guy.  I kind of lost touch with what he was doing with it until I heard from a fellow Lotus owner my Lotus was on the new owners enclosed trailer being towed back from a Lotus track day at Grattan Raceway when it caught fire!  WOW, Grattan is where on my first track day with the car I lost my brakes and stuffed the Lotus into the bushes off turn eight, not a lucky place for the car I guess.

What Now?  Well as luck would have it I did find pictures of the old car . It was bought by a fellow in Michigan after talking to him I am told it proved to be more of a project than he envisioned and so it changed hands once again.  I am in the process of contacting the new owner and may have more word on the Europa in the future.

FYI, John DeLorean had an idea for a stainless steel, gull wing door sportscar.  Being more of a designer and idea man DeLorean had hired Lotus to do the engineering work. And true to Lotus ways of doing things the famous “Back to the Future” car was built on a similar backbone frame and fiberglass body shell to which stainless steel panels were I believe glued. Lotus was not happy with the doors, because the prototype’s roadholding and general rigidity were not helped by the big cut-outs in the shell dictated by the gull-wing doors.

One Response to “My Lotus Europa 73063649R”

1. Oleta Willis says:

   June 1, 2010 at 8:56 pm

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