Lotus Europa S2

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The world's first mass-produced mid-engined road car, the Lotus Europa was launched in 1966. It was based on a design by Ron Hickman for a prototype to compete for a contract with Ford to build a Le Mans car (Ford went with Lola and the GT40).

Exemplifying Colin Chapman's design philosophy of ‘Simplify, then add lightness’, the Europa used a minimalist steel backbone chassis while also relying on a low drag fibreglass body for structural strength. Development work using a wind-tunnel gave the Europa a drag factor of just 0.29 with its long, low roofline and an abrupt rear end inspired by the Ferrari 'Bread Van' racer.

The 4-wheel independent suspension was typical of Chapman's thinking: the rear suspension consisting of two relatively large trailing arms, one lower locating link per side, the axles being used as upper locating links, very similar to Formula racing car designs of that era. The resultant astonishing road-holding prompted road testers to describe the Europa as the nearest thing to a race car for the road.

The Series 1 and 2 cars were fitted with a modified Renault 16 1.5-litre engine that produced 82bhp and was mated to a 4-speed gearbox. In a car weighing just 610kg, this was sufficient to launch the Europa to 60mph in just 9.3 seconds on its way to a top speed of 121mph. By 1971 this had given way to a 126bhp Lotus/Ford 'Big Valve' Twin Cam 1,558cc unit that was good for 0-60 in 7.0 seconds with a top speed of 125mph. In all, around 9,300 Europas were built between 1966 and 1975.

CUD 54K went to its first owner as a part-built ‘kit’ to avoid the swingeing Purchase Tax placed on new cars back in 1971. Most major components came ready-assembled and it took the first owner only nine hours to put the car together. There are some nice period photographs of this on file, as well as the original invoice from the London Sports Car Centre for £1,557.75. The car was raced and sprinted by its enthusiastic owner over the next few years (more period photographs on file) before a gradual decline saw the car deteriorating after being left in the open.

In 2007 the current keeper acquired the car and determined to restore it to its former glory, totally rebuilding it from the ground up in a process that took considerably more than nine hours to complete! There are stacks of invoices on file which show the extent of the work involved. Every aspect of the car was attended to and the result is a very eye-catching machine that drove beautifully on a short test drive.

Only lightly used since the restoration was completed, CUD 54K would sit well in any collection.