My current project

After setting for a couple of years. I decided to get back on my Lotus Europa. I had started the body mods & got the front & rear body sections to hinge the way I wanted. I got tired of leaning over the rear wings to work on the engine. I'd had a 69 when I was in college (this is a 71)& always planned to do this to one if I ever got another one. Got a chance to buy it from a neighbor sooooooooooo. I've taken the body off now & down to the bare chassis. Going to mod the rear susp. to A arms & drag links. Contemplating moving the susp. back 3". Just in case a T70 body comes my way LOL Getting rid of the old Renault engine for a Ford crossflow Kent 1600 with twin webers. It was given to me from a wrecked formula car. More mods in the works for the body too.




Mike S

Here's the frame a back bone design Lotus was known for Elan, Europa Lotus30-40. The rear is a "C" section & one of the upgrades planned is to box it. The straight pieces back from the "Y" will probably be cut off & moved in. Replaced with 2" square tubing to give a longer top link for the new reverse "A" arm & top link with drag links.
The garage is a total disaster area. I'm always too bust doing to take the time to clean LOL Besides you can see my rock saw unit in the back ground & it throws a lot of water & rock sawdust with it.:shrug:

Great project! Always a fan of the Europa...

Hi Mike.

Nice project. Good luck with the build.

Cheers
jackal

V Nice. I too have always loved the Europa. I was once told they have a very bad "sneeze" factor. I didn't really understand what the bloke meant until I drove one. Bloody hell their responsive to steering input!! Good Luck with it and keep the updates and pictures coming. Looks like its got a bit of the MK II GT 40 thing going. Cool.

tractorboy said:

V Nice. I too have always loved the Europa. I was once told they have a very bad "sneeze" factor. I didn't really understand what the bloke meant until I drove one. Bloody hell their responsive to steering input!! Good Luck with it and keep the updates and pictures coming. Looks like its got a bit of the MK II GT 40 thing going. Cool.

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Yeah I never heard it called that but it fits. I had a 69 in college & when I first drove it on the freeway WOW! Move the streering wheel one little bit & you're over 2 lanes. It's so low too you feel like if you sneeze & bounce it a little. You'll be dragging your butt on the pavement LOL Only 6" ground clearance.

Yes I always thought the nose had a certain GT 40 influence to begin with. So when I decided to move the radiator & put an outlet scoop in. I used the twin "nostrills" LOL Not really sure I'f I'll leave it like that or not.

Have the uprights being welded up right now & the addaption of the engine/trans underway. Once I get those done I can start setting up the rear susp.

Mike, great project.....

When I was in High School, a friend had a blue one with Minilight wheels, a real beauty!

So Mike are you going with the Gold Leaf red and gold paint?

Mike S. said:

Yeah I never heard it called that but it fits. I had a 69 in college & when I first drove it on the freeway WOW! Move the streering wheel one little bit & you're over 2 lanes. It's so low too you feel like if you sneeze & bounce it a little. You'll be dragging your butt on the pavement LOL Only 6" ground clearance.

Yes I always thought the nose had a certain GT 40 influence to begin with. So when I decided to move the radiator & put an outlet scoop in. I used the twin "nostrills" LOL Not really sure I'f I'll leave it like that or not.

Have the uprights being welded up right now & the addaption of the engine/trans underway. Once I get those done I can start setting up the rear susp.

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Remember that the Europa grew from the GT proposal Lotus made to Ford that was rejected. It could have been the "GT40"!

Mark IV said:

Remember that the Europa grew from the GT proposal Lotus made to Ford that was rejected. It could have been the "GT40"!

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I and both my brothers owned them; my memories are mostly of divine handling but partly of feeling like driving a bucket of plastic, baling wire and duct tape. It's one of those borderline schizophrenic cars where when absolutely everything is working correctly it's a dream, but just a few things not and it's a nightmare. The view out the front is just like a GT40.

As for what might have been, my projection of a Lotus GT40 is that it would have killed a few good drivers and generally never made it past the first 8 hours. Chapman & co. are about the last people I would have chosen for an endurance racer.

Anyway the present project looks very cool. If you're going to dispense with the "half shafts as lateral links" bit you're making a major improvement right there.

You probably already know these people but just to make sure:

http://www.spydercars.com/
http://www.davebean.com/

awatkins said:

As for what might have been, my projection of a Lotus GT40 is that it would have killed a few good drivers and generally never made it past the first 8 hours. Chapman & co. are about the last people I would have chosen for an endurance racer.



Classic Car Restoration, Chassis Replacement And Suspension Repairs - SpyderCars, Cambridgeshire UK
Dave Bean Engineering, Inc. The Official Vintage Lotus Car Parts Distributor

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Exactly! And Ford was sure that Chunky would not be easy to deal with nor want to take direction from Dearborn (although Mr. Broadley eventually had the same issues).

What might have been became something unique in its' own way. Yes, the Europa is a "quick reacting" car but a Seven is as my Lotus buddy says "A crack addicted rat in sneakers!!!"

I'm excited after this setting in my back yard for several years. I'm actually getting something done on it yesterday I made a wooden mockup of the trans addapter after drilling out the crank pilot bushing to accept the snout of the input shaft on the trans. Then this morrning I bolted it together loosly & got it set up in the chassis. To see how much if any room I had in the frame. Well I'm going to have to move it back a couple of inches to give clearance to the front of the engine & the bell crank for the shifter linkage. But that's no big deal. I'd intended to cut off the rear of the frame where it goes from the wishbone "Y" part. To the parallel armes & move them in. To give a longer top link to the susp. The lower wishbone (reversed) will go to just under the axles at the trans. I've got a set of CV joints comming & the inner U joints will get replaced with CVs. Brakes are also going to be inbord at the trans (discs of course). Well once I got it all in place. I just couldn't resist pulling out the intake & headers etc just to see how they'd work out LOL.




Mike S.

The other day I cut all the pieces from 1/4" aluminum for the mods to the Lotus rear uprights. My friend was going to weld them up. He got them done today Yeah!!!!!!!!! More progress now I can start really working on the rear susp. I took the stock carriers, turned them upside down & added the lower "A" to them for the reverse wish bones. So the top link will be in single sheer on one bolt & the forward drag link will be on the other one. I'll have some cleaning up & sanding & polishing to get them reall pretty LOL. The links will have heim ends at the wheel end & bushings at the chassis end. That should help cut down on vibration transfer to the frame & noise from that.
wheel side

side

backs

Mike S

I have no idea what happened to the pix I posted :-(
Mike S.

Oh wait I changed the name of the folder. That's what happened. well here's the link to the folder.
Lotus build pictures by skystone3 - Photobucket
Mike S

Well got some progress today. If only problem solving. I won't have to move the wheel base 3" or so to accomodate the motor. After looking at the way the frame is made & thinking about the differences between the S2 & Twin cam. I can do some reworking of the frame into the same thing as a twin cam. Figured it out, THEN looked at the Lotus shop manual to see the diference. Yep exactly as I'd thought. Looks like the inboard brakes are doable with few problems. Hung one of the welded up uprights & every thing with them is great. Ground clearance, shock mount & even simplified the lower reverse "A" arm to use a bracket that already exists & another one that will be an easy bolt on. I love it when a plan comes together LOL
Mike S.

I've been putting the Lotus back together (sort of). Enough anyway to trailer it over to the DMV & get the registration paper work done. Then I won't have to worry about it after I get it done & no questions about mods LOL. I took a couple of pix while I have it more or less in one piece (no engine or interior of course). I was working on figguring out a door hinge so I can rehinge the doors into a forward over the fenders. Sometimes called a Lamborgini style. The doors are quite wide & opening them in tight parking spaces can be a problem. I'm going to glass in the top of the doors to the roof & cut out part of it for more head room on entering. Toying with the idea of having a couple of inches taken off at the top corrner of the windshield (a triangle from the bottom corrner to a couple of inches at the top & round a bit). So to have more slanted windows too. You can see in the pic of the side the foam pieces I've glued to the side to work out a little more roundness to the bottom edge of the body. I've always hated the way they rounded the bottom then have a flat flange. It just looks unfinished or an add on. Here's one of my other fiberglass toy LOL
Mike S

others here at my photobucket folder
Lotus build pictures by skystone3 - Photobucket

Well got my inside stub axles back today & tried the inboard brake rotors on it. After cutting down a couple of the ribs on the bellhousing. They just rub. Going to have to either used some other brake rotors I've got & drill them for the CV joints or make 1/4" spacers. Still working on what callipers I'll use. I have 1 Fiat X-19 rear with the emergency brake. It looks to be a good candidate as the bracket can be reversed so the mounting would be on the right side. Have to figgure out the E brake cables though as they would be going towards the back of the car. A bell crank arangement might work out with a hydrolic slave.
Mike S

Made it past another hurtel yesterday. Got the Lotus over & the paperwork done to get it registered & a pink slip. I actually bought the car several years ago. But never transfered it to my name LOL. Now I can do all the mods I want & not have to worry about it. Got some work done today on a few things on the inside passenger foot well. Factory gad all these little bumps & box like offsets that just cluttered it up & left places the carpet would wear. So I cut them out & formed more smooth contoures that won't present such wear points. Needed to do it before I take the body back off the chassis. To make sure it all cleared the suspencion points etc. Progress is being made anyway.
Mike S

Added some pix of the stock rear susp on the Lotus. You can see how much of a swing axle it is at full droop. The fully independant rear susp should take care of that. With the CV joints it will take any side loading off the trans too. Been doing a lot on the body lately. Added the lower side pods & working on the new side scoops. It'll look rather like a Lotus 62 when finished.
Mike S
Lotus build pictures by skystone3 - Photobucket

Well one more step on the road to getting my Lotus on the road. The pink came today, I suppose the plates will be here in the next few days. Now all I have to do is get it road worthy (hasn't been registered since 1977 LOL. Last sticker on the plates). Been working back & forth between the body & chassis mods. My machinist friend is working on a set of wheels adapters. So I can use a set of 14" Shelby MG wheels that were given to me some time ago. Getting damned hard to find a wide 13" tire these days. Worked on the cutting & rebending of the chassis today. For the new engine to fit & the independant rear susp. New pictures soon.
Mike S