The Elise/Exige predecessor

[Bavarian Motorist]

And it's gotta be fun as hell to drive!!!! I want one No more thumbs up and positive comments, just, "WTF" stares and gawks.

[cdn_alien]

Originally Posted by Bavarian Motorist

You know, if they really wanted to save weight, they could have cut those huge walls off behind the windows and just gone all-out El Camino.

They need the "flying buttresses" for aerodynamics. Otherwise, there'd be a huge wake behind the car, that it will literally suck the car back from reaching it's top speed.

Regarding the aesthetics, I guess you had to be there when the car came out in the 60's/70's. The Europa Twincam was the first Lotus I ever fell in love with. I thought it was the most beautiful thing on four wheels.

[Westrock]

Originally Posted by Robissimo

Why do I get an El Camino vibe from the Europa?

I thought the same thing about these cars, they look very odd in pictures. But then I saw one in real life and it all makes sense. These things are actually smaller then an Elise. So in real life the proportions make alot more sense....you notice not so much that the rear is huge, but that the front is tiny!

[lotusforsale]

Originally Posted by cdn_alien

They need the "flying buttresses" for aerodynamics. Otherwise, there'd be a huge wake behind the car, that it will literally suck the car back from reaching it's top speed.

Regarding the aesthetics, I guess you had to be there when the car came out in the 60's/70's. The Europa Twincam was the first Lotus I ever fell in love with. I thought it was the most beautiful thing on four wheels.

Well, if you loved the Twincam, then you know they didn't need the flying buttresses, 'cause the TC didn't have them.

[Westrock]

So since all you old farts are here

Why did they use a longitutdly mounted engine? I can think of 2 possibilities.

1. Since the engine accounted for a large percentage of the total weight (10-20%) they wanted to put it as close to middle as practically possible.

2. At the time there was not a big selection of readily available high performance transversly mounted engine because FWD were not a popular option yet.

[cdn_alien]

I can only speculate. Having mid-engined sports cars were the "in" thing back then. The exotics, like the Maserati Bora and Lamborghini Muira, all had huge V12's which would only fit longitudinally. So, they must have followed suit. That and what you said... transverse front wheel drives weren't that common at the time.

[Tristar Racing]

Originally Posted by Bavarian Motorist

And it's gotta be fun as hell to drive!!!! I want one No more thumbs up and positive comments, just, "WTF" stares and gawks.

Yea, like, wtf, why is that guy driving a kit car, haha. Awful build quality. A guy in Akron had a special edition one (John Players colors) and it really went like hell, but what a slapped together car. Anyone ever has an issue with Elise build quality should visit a Europa owner, haha.

[elise24fps]

Well, you need to jump onto the Wayback machine to about 1963. Ford asks Lotus and Lola to design a car for the LeMans 24 hour race. Lotus thought they had the inside road given their Indy 500 connection with Ford. But the contract went to Lola, which became the the first GT40.

So Lotus has this concept doing nothing and they come up with a plan to do a CanAm car, a GT version, a streetable version with a small engine and another streetable with a larger engine.

Out of this was born the Lotus 30 and the 40 CanAm types, which were failures compared to the Lola T70, McLarens and Chaparrals. The 30 and the 40 were based on a backbone frame like the original Elan, but turned back to front.

Then around 1965 they thought about a replacement for the Lotus 7, and needed to keep it as inexpensive as possible, cheaper .than the existing Elan. They looked at various engine-transaxles available, but there was nothing. Until The Renault 16 arrived. Lotus wanted to buy the R16 transaxle and bolt it a Ford 4 cylinder engine, but Renault made them a deal they could not refuse. Engine and transaxle for the price of the transaxle. But when the Europa was introduced in Dec. 1966, it wasn't as cheap as they hoped.

The first couple of years it was available only in Europe, but some were imported to Canada, US and Australia. Then in 1968 a version was built for the UK. Finally in late 1971, The Renault motor was dropped in favour of the Lotus Twin Cam Ford unit used in the Lotus Elan. At this point the rear sails were cut down to help in 3/4 visibility.

The Europa ran from Dec. 1966 to mid 1974 in various versions.

There was also a Type 47 for racing, with a Hewland and Lotus Twin Cam, 1967-1968. It did ok in racing but not great.

Also later was a Type 62 for racing, which sort of looked liked a Europa, but spaceframe and different engine.

Then in 1975 or so, Lotus sent a stretched Europa frame to Guigiaro in Italy. Result was the Esprit prototype. The Esprit continued till 2004, but went through various body design changes, but the original concept goes back to 1963.

FYI.. DeTomaso and Chapman knew of each other. DeTomaso cars in the late sixties also had backbone frames with a mid-engined engine. The Mangusta, the Vallelunga and his CanAm design.

Also, Lotus was not the first to use a backbone frame. MG had in it the 1930's. Deutsch-Bonnet in the 1950's.

I've owned three Europas, I think the Elise is a new Europa, and I'm glad they didn't call it a Europa, and I hate the NEW Europa.

[Bavarian Motorist]

Well, if you're gonna make all that extra truck-like space out back, might as well throw an in engine there

[codymac]

Originally Posted by Tristar Racing

No matter how much I like Lotus, no matter how many pictures I look at, no matter how many I see in person, I cannot say anything nice about the Europa. I mean that is possibly the nicest example I have ever seen, and it still looks incredibly cheap, ugly, and fragile.

Look at the side profile, mainly the lower rockers, it looks like the middle of the car is sagging. (I realize its the lines of the car going up right before the rear wheel well, but why design a car to look like its sagging?) Like I said, no love for the Europa from me.

From one Evo owner to another.... hey, wait a minute.


I have to agree though. I find little redeeming about the road car's looks, and the fact that most have their noses pointed perpetually skyward doesn't help.

OTOH, I think I could warm up to this:
http://www.banks-europa.co.uk/gallery/gallery10.htm

[Tristar Racing]

Originally Posted by codymac

From one Evo owner to another.... hey, wait a minute.


I have to agree though. I find little redeeming about the road car's looks, and the fact that most have their noses pointed perpetually skyward doesn't help.

OTOH, I think I could warm up to this:
http://www.banks-europa.co.uk/gallery/gallery10.htm

That Europa looks much better. They must have wanted to bring some of the eye sore qualities back though and decided to paint it that awful color,

[TheViper]

There was this...how shall I say it politely, rather eccentric aftermarket option for the Europa in the UK. It was a spray on finish, over the whole body that had a texture of something like suede......yes you heard me right..SUEDE

[lotusforsale]

Originally Posted by Bavarian Motorist

Well, if you're gonna make all that extra truck-like space out back, might as well throw an in engine there

I know everyone is only half kidding about this, but my first Lotus was also my first of 3 Europas, a 70 S2.

Had it in the late 70's on the eastern shore of Maryland, the culture of which then could have best been described as bohemian and at worst a sea level version of where they filmed Deliverance.

Was in a gas station one day in the small town of Denton, filling up the Europa.

Some guy in a pickup, stereotypically in dirty flannel shirt, dirty John Deere Cap, pulled into the gas station lot, slammed on the brakes, hopped out of the truck, and strode over to my car.

He slapped the boot lid, and asked 'What's back here?' 'The motor,' says I.

'What?' He asks? 'I thought this was a small El Camino!'

True story.

The car is breadvan/panel truck ugly, but the look out of the windshield over those raised fenders gave me the same feeling I get looking out the windshield of the Elise.

If the things didn't require so much attention, I'd have one today.