54/2723

People have their own well established opinions about Europas, just a few individual owner/driver statements:

Driving position in my opinion is better in the later car, especially if you adjust the padding as you need it. Your driving tends to be more aggressive. Driving an early Europa is more like flying (a pre war aeroplane). Controls of the later car are not better, because improved gearshift measures up with disimproved controls. Driving the later car gives slightly more pleasure, the increase in power making all the difference. The owner satisfaction is vice versa, because the small car is so beautiful. Social envy is high. I have never seen a Porsche 911 driver smiling at me, or even facing me. The speed on roads can be very, very high, with the small car not too much behind. On the Autobahn they overtake you with their vans and Golfs, even with the faster car. It looses stability beyond 160 km/h (100mph), with or without the spoiler. A friend says it is because the play in the Herold-type bush set in the lower front suspension joint.

p.s. I changed them on all three cars, he is perfectly right. ( The 47 has the stuff from the Triumph car as well)

Gearshift is very good in the small car, much better than the one the VW-Porsche 914-6 had in the first place. I tried one of the few  with the original mechanism still in place. As a convinced Europa driver you are not amused. The clutch has never been a problem in any car I sat in. The rumors are rubbish (see below).

The friend I mentioned above owns a S2 of 1970 as first owner. He reports that he put a sum of approx. DM 100.- of lubricants and better materials in the car in the first place and, constantly lubricating, had 120 000 troublefree kms on full trottle (honest) until the engine blew a piston. ( If a blown water hose and a ripping tire do not count). The door hinges are intact!
The exhaust silencer shakes loose every 1000 km in the earlier car, but it does not do it any more since somebody put some washers into the posterior hinge to take the lateral load away from the other joint. They changed the design and the attachement completely later on, the original replacement part had that problem designed out. Update recommended!

The heater of a TC cannot be switched off from the driver`s seat unless you put a suitable spring around the valve that pulls the lever back. If you take a 5mm diameter spring of an approx length of 60 mm , the opposite end can be hooked onto the mount for desired 180 degree function. The owners of earlier Europas should not be too malicious, because they cannot turn off their heater either. The  increasing vigour of the pump bends the thin metal sheet that separates inlet and outlet und allows hot water to pass into the system. The faster you go, the hotter it gets. With a nice move in the best tradition of Teutonic engineering you change position of the two hoses and the problem is solved. The flow now presses the valve onto the seat

The second never ending story is the adjustment of the doors. The ingenious sandpaper anti slip arrangement is useless, because the problem of unwanted shift is between bush and first washer. If you have three hands, the best way is to make an extra tool to fix the bush from inside the cabin. If you don´t, a limited remedy is to use a mandrel to roughen the small inferior surface of the bushes and the correspondent inner rim of the washer. It provides enough friction for 5 to 10 attempts to get the position right. I have no suggestion how to carry on afterwards.

I can report that in 1998 the S2 finished a lap round the "Kleine Kurs" of Hockenheim in 1.30 min, whereas it took me 1.31 min in the 914-6 at the same occasion. The Special I initially planned to take there dropped the starter motor.

I got it started for Wheeltorque Nuerburgring Festival 1999 and could keep up with the majority of the Elises. This was the occasion where I found out that the engine invariably shakes off the carburettors if they are flexibly mounted as described in the manual. The leaks are so small that you cannot detect them. That should be the major problem with the Strombergs that are absolutely convincing in any other aspect. Top speed was higher than the Elise`s, down Dottinger Höhe and on the way back home (German Autobahn).

In 2000 the Elises took over. At the a springtime meeting at the Anneau du Rhin track, where classic Lotus from both France and Germany had been specially invited, 90 percent Elises showed up, close to all modified. No chance for the pre75 cars to keep in contact with them. Though the Special war running incredibly all day, I was left for standing on the straights in the first place. Unchanged Elans or Europas are now outdated, only to cruise around a track separately to warm up the spectators. Maybe that the Elises could outrun any classic model, but it is us who have to have them. You cannot rent a track for a club meeting without their contribution.

I sold my Europa Special to a much younger Lotus enthusiast from Denmark. URL is www.image.dk/~pboedker/lotus

Wheeltorque Nürburgring Festival 2001 was great fun, but my S2 was the slowest car on the track. Nothing but Caterhams and latest German and Italian high tech machinery. I did make an impression though by reliability.

In 2003 at ADAC Salzburgring "Sounds of Speed" the S2 won a third price in the GT class behind  a Shelby Cobra 289 and  a Ferrari 250 GT SWB,  when a jury of six officials rated rarity, state of restoration, originality, sounds,  and driving -  that means -  handling.

I decided to give 54/2723 away for 46/0202 after that unsurpassable success.

Wachauring 9/2001