1969 Lotus Europa – Today’s Classic British Tempter
These still look great
The Lotus was a compact, lightweight sports car built between 1966 and 1975 in Lotus’ Hethel factory in the UK.
Power was predominantly derived from a 1470cc inline four-cylinder engine built by Renault, however throughout its lifespan the Lotus would also use a larger 1565cc Renault four-cylinder and a 1557cc Lotus/Ford developed inline four-cylinder.
The shove from these busy little motors was sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission, and there was no automatic version made available to customers.
Europas built between 1966 and 1968 were called Series 1 vehicles and cars built afterwards were labelled Series 2.
Changes between the series were mainly aimed at making the Europa more refined, and as a result the Series 2 vehicles received electric windows, adjustable seats, polished wooden dash and a fully carpeted interior.
One key change that the Series 2 employed however had some enthusiasts up in arms, as all Series 2 vehicles used bolts to fasten the fibreglass bodywork to the cars steel frame, unlike the Series 1 which utilised a fully bonded construction. This meant that structural and torsional rigidity was vastly decreased in the second iteration.
This particular Europa is a ’69 model and, according to the seller, it is an original Australian delivered example.
The Europa is $44,000 and anyone interested in this classic lightweight sports car can view the full listing here.
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