LOTUS

Europa

The Lotus Europa was a landmark machine, widely regarded as the first volume-produced mid-engined road car, a layout that would soon define the supercar. It grew out of a prototype Colin Chapman's Lotus had built to chase Henry Ford II's Le Mans contract in the early 1960s, and it perfectly expressed Chapman's famous philosophy of "simplify, then add lightness". Announced to European buyers on 20 December 1966, with the first cars delivered in France in February 1967, the original Series 1 Lotus Europa, internally the Type 46, used a Lotus steel backbone chassis, a glassfibre body bonded to it, and a mid-mounted Renault engine driving the rear wheels. Tiny, low and aerodynamic, the Lotus Europa handled brilliantly and was astonishingly quick for its modest power. Lotus also built a racing version, the Type 47, with a 165-horsepower Lotus-Ford-Cosworth twin-cam engine, which won first time out at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day 1966; only around 55 of these competition cars were made. The road car matured into the Series 2, and from 1971 the Lotus Europa Twin Cam adopted Lotus's own twin-cam engine, with the punchier Europa Special of 1972 gaining a five-speed gearbox and a big-valve engine producing 126 horsepower. Across its run from 1966 to 1975 a total of 9,230 examples of the Lotus Europa were built. Affordable, featherweight and dramatic to look at, the Lotus Europa is a cult classic that delivers pure Chapman driving thrills.