Lotus Europa Twin Cam 1972

Suddenly, one evening, while trawling all the usual classic classifieds, I stumbled over an advert for one very special Lotus Europa Twin Cam - one of the 1.567 built between 1971-72 with the most sought after Lotus Twin Cam motor. The guy selling it was a bit of a Lotus fanatic, and had this one and a Lotus Super Seven in his garage. But given the addition to the family of a couple of toddlers, going to different classic car meets meant that his wife had to drive the Europa and he took the Seven - with the kids strapped in the passenger seats.  Bringing your newborns to classic car meets in cars that are so in touch with the natural environment is not really the best thing to do - especially in the Danish weather.
So he was looking for a big US car or another big classic where he could take the whole family in only one car - and what better car to do this in than my 420G. After a few weeks of emailing, wheeling and dealing we came to an agreement on price - and a place somewhere mid-ways where we could make a trade. Only show stopper could have been my 1,94 cm height, but I found an American Lotus fan that was 1,98 cm and he fit in, so why wouldn't I.
Check out the short video that I made of my road-trade-trip:

As you can see, I made the deal and took the car home.

It drives GREAT! It's absolutely so much fun to drive and even though they may have a reputation for being 'leaky', not one drop of water came in to the cabin during my trip back home.

Here at Herlevgaard at the annual classic meet - thanks to Claes and thanks to www.viaRetro.com

Besides the obvious part of the history, the Colin Chapman ideology, this cars has as good as a fully documented history. And then again not. Up until the 18th of May 1985 the car had a number of different owners - seven in total. But it was then bought by an enthusiast and professional motor tuner who rebuilt both engine, suspension, bodywork, transmission etc. until he decided to sell it to a Swedish enthusiast on the 15th of November 1986.

Original, short list of parts used in rebuild of bodywork, engine etc.

The new owner imported the car to Sweden and spent the next couple of years fine tuning and optimizing the car even further. He spent in excess of 60.000 Swedish Kroners, converting it to left hand drive using a new Spyder frame and suspension components, fitted new Konis shocks and springs, new Revolution wheels, new wiring and a long list of new parts, even as far as new brake pedal rubbers etc. etc. 

He then had the car put in to storage for a couple of years before selling it to another Lotus enthusiast, who shortly after acquiring the car was diagnosed with  Alzheimer and was able to drive the car at all.

Up until it was sold by his widow in 2009, the car was only taken for a short trip yearly to make sure that everything was functional and of course to have the mandatory official tax stamp renewed by the authorities.

On the 25th of July 2009 the Europa lands on Danish soil. The new owner has it sent to Nøvling Autoværksted to have it checked out mechanically - Nøvling are renowned for doing quality work.
After putting a set of new Webers on it and getting everything right, it was dyno tested and put out a healthy 128,1 bhp @ 4.837 rpm and a mighty 200,9 Nm @ 4.105 rpm, making it a true Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - super fast on acceleration and really easy going just puttering around a low revs as well.

So now it is all about enjoying the car, going to classic car meets and being tempted by all the other fantastic cars that could be my next classic :-)