Lotua Europa 5 Speed Twin Cam on 2040-cars
Frederick, Maryland, United States
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1972 Lotus Europa Twin Cam 5 speed. This Europa has undergone a VERY comprehensive 3 year rebuild to its original specification. The only real change to the car has been the addition of a 5 speed gearbox from a later Europa Special. Prior to my ownership, the Twin Cam motor was completely rebuilt. I doubt that it has more than a couple thousand mile on it. I have owned/rebuilt/lost a fortune on many Lotus car in the past and at have rebuilt/restored at least 4 Europas. I learned a lot and have used everything I learned on this car. It is outstanding. The only reason for sale is another Lotus has followed me home and will require all I own to put it back together. I am serious about selling, so please feel free to make me an offer. 2416R has approximately 47K miles. I have no reason to doubt this is correct. The motor was rebuilt approximately 3K miles ago. When used regularly, it will start right up without the choke and idle smoothly. I have resealed/re-gasketed the engine so no oil leaks, oil burning or blow by on start up. It is tight. The oil stays clean and consumption is negligible. Both carbs have been rebuilt and are now semi-adjustable--for Strombergs--and work great. the carbs are currently running a Pipercross filter, but I've got the original air filter and box. Starter is new, alternator rebuilt. Petronix ingnition Brakes are excellent. Both boosters were removed prior to my ownership. I have either removed or bypassed them on previous cars just so there would be two less things to go south. I do have them and they go with the car. The body & chassis unit are straight as can be with 0 signs of any previous crash or rust damage. Completely stripping the car to bare glass revealed a straight damage free upper body as well. It was incredibly poorly painted, but the crack repair work underneath was of very good quality. We fixed-correctly-any damage or cracks we could find and repainted the whole car-windows and trim all pulled-to the correct shade of its original Lotus Lagoon Blue. The paint code is L14 and is etched onto the VIN tag in the trunk. All seals, gaskets and trim emblems were replaced with new. Headlights are Lucas Tri Bar. All bumpers, door handles and chrome are excellent. Windshield trim is adhesive chrome trim and is in in great shape. All corner brackets are present. Glass is original and good. Rear window seal and stretcher are new. Doors open and close perfectly. NO DROOP. The chassis is excellent. Rust free and straight. Never out, never damaged. All bushings, joints, tie rod ends are new. Shocks are all fully adjustable from Banks Service in the UK. Rear output shafts are all newly sealed. All wheels were stripped and painted with correct gunmetal inserts. Lotus badges are new. Tires are correct, 175/185 front and rear sizes per factory spec. The car was corner/weight balanced. It handles like nothing you've ever driven. I have a 7 and an Elan. No contest, this will run and hide from either. And pretty much anything else. The gearbox is a 5 speed out of a Special. It has been rebuilt and resealed. New clutch, T/O and Pressure plate. The incredibly ridiculous shift linkage was removed and rebuilt with all new Lotus parts and with hand made brass bushings. If you know Europas, you know the shifter is their weak link. It can make an otherwise lovely Europa a huge chunk of awful. This is the best I've ever driven. Still a bit to get used to; you will be hard pressed to find another Europa that shifts this smoothly. The cooling system performs excellently. The original radiator was removed, tested, cleaned, repaired as needed and replaced. A new cooling fan, pusher style, was installed utilizing a manual switch. The car does not overheat. Period. The interior is the the original beige color. All carpeting is new. Headliner custom made using correct material from Banks. Banks console has been padded and covered. Door panels are matching. Dash top is fiberglass core, from Banks, padded and covered with French stitching on the leading edge. New shift boot. New window switches. Dash is from Maderia Concepts. The "Lotus" on the radio plate will come off. It is the original dash re-veneered. Stunning. Original steering wheel was re covered. All new rockers. They all work. Gauges all rebuilt. All work and light up, too. The interior door light works. WOO HOO. New instrument bezel. Seats are original and re-padded. Window motors rebuilt. windows go up and down relatively quickly in their new felt runners. Where I to keep the car, my future "To Do" list is actually pretty short. I would go for stainless steel gas tanks and a cassette water pump. Neither of these areas have shown any indication of failure. I just find these mods to be good insurance for longevity. I would also rebuild and replace the brake boosters. I'd add hood struts. Since the easiest way to do these tasks would be to pull the motor, I decided to wait until it was urgent, or wintertime. I'd give the motor compartment a good detailing at the same time. I have the original spare, tools, workshop manual and some parts. Not much, but some. This is not your average Europa. I, and many others, busted our collective asses on 2416R and it shows. I know this thing inside and out. I wanted to get as close to a brand new Europa as I could. I used almost 30 years of Lotus experience to do it. Not just as new, it has some real neat upgrades for performance and reliability. Yes RELIABILITY. I would attempt to drive this anywhere. I've had it on a few long trips without incident. I have pics of the work and pretty much all of the receipts. There are no excuses or disappointments here. This is a spectacular Europa. I've sold a lot of Lotus stuff on ebay, made a few good pals doing it. I do not want to jeopardize any of that by selling poo. If you want the car, give me a call. If you don't, or just want to break my balls, please leave me alone. This is serious auction for serious bidders that want a quality automobile. $1000 at auctions close. Car goes nowhere til funds clear. I'll do all I can to make this the best deal you've ever made on ebay and help as best I can co-ordinating shippers etc., but all post sale arrangement are up to the buyer. Thanks. Jim 240-626-9032 in Maryland. |
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Lotus bows out of Paris Motor Show
Mon, 16 Jul 2012The plan put forth by former Lotus CEO Dany Bahar was to explode the British brand into the high-dollar sports car segment and directly challenge its marquee names. The first explosion came with the surprise introduction of five concepts at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. What has continued to surprise, though, is that the explosions haven't stopped: parent company Proton has had troubles leading to a reworking of its Formula One involvement, its IndyCar effort has had a rough ride, Proton's sale to Malaysian conglomerate DRB Hicom led to a production stoppage, and while the company was reassured that it wouldn't be sold, Bahar was shown the door - along with four of those Paris concepts, as far as we can tell. Yet the company is still making highly regarded cars and going racing.
So it shouldn't be all that surprising that, according to a report in Car and Driver, Lotus won't be attending this year's Paris Motor Show at all. Lotus didn't have much to show off at the Geneva Motor Show or the New York Show as all development was halted for two months, and the new corporate owner and new CEO installed by that owner are still working through the details of its niche English property. We will hope this is nothing more than a step in the reorganization, and look forward to seeing the Hethel firm again in Los Angeles or Detroit.
Lotus team out of Le Mans, full driver list published
Tue, 20 May 2014We can scratch off one more car from the list for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Lotus T129 LMP1 car has been dropped from the entry list of the 82nd running of the historic race, with organizers citing "a lack of preparation" as the reason. On a more positive note, the list of 168 drivers in 56 vehicles has been officially published for the June 14 race.
Like the Lotus team currently in Formula One, the Lotus T129 uses the iconic British brand's name and colors but is actually built by a separate company. It previously ran a Lola chassis in the LMP2-class (pictured above). The Le Mans organizers claim the car will likely be on display during the 24-hour race, but it won't make it's competition debut until the World Endurance Championship round at the Circuit of the Americas in September. The T129 is being replaced by an Oreca 03 chassis with Nissan power in the LMP2 class, entered by Millennium Racing.
The Lotus' retirement came as the teams had to send in the names of the three drivers nominated to race each car. This year there are racers from 26 countries with the most coming from France (39), Britain (29), the US (17) and Italy (15). The latest tally of entries breaks down to 9 LMP1s, 19 LMP2s, 9 LM GTE Pros, 18 LM GTE Ams and the Nissan ZEOD RC as the experimental Garage 56 entry.
Jay Leno goes old school with 1966 Lotus Elan 26R
Mon, 31 Mar 2014On the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage the guest's are both from inside the garage: the man they call Professor Jim Hall, Leno's master fabricator, and the 1966 Lotus 26R that he spent 18 months building. The Elan 26R was the racing version of the Elan that Lotus founder Colin Chapman began building after watching privateer teams prep their roadgoing Elans for competition duty all over Europe. Built by the factory from 1964-1966, drivers like Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart won silverware in the roadster called "the giant killer."
Hall, a veteran Lotus wrench, started with the 1966 Elan street car and turned it into a 26R that's arguably better than the factory original. Except for the engine block and head, original 26R body and Elan chassis, just about everything is custom built, highly modified or special order, from the fabricated oil pan, brake lines, safety wiring and oval exhaust tubing to the six-speed sequential transmission.
The episode is an unusually-long 21 minutes because, as an in-house build, Leno can go through the process of putting the whole roadster together. When he takes it for a drive and keeps going on about how it sings, you can hear it, too. It's worth the time to check out Mr. Hall's Opus in the video below.