Europas that have graced our garages, as well as the Sevens

[Xhilr8n]

The “Picture I took of my car today” thread revealed that some of us have shared time with a Europa.  Here’s Black Beauty 3841R again.  Brought her home on my 55th birthday.

 

Dad owned some Dodge and Plymouth dealerships back in the muscle car days.  Once when I was about 20 I was out with Dad buying cars. We went to a Ford dealer somewhere and there sat a perfect JPS.  Dad knew that was my dream car.  And that I knew he could buy it for me.  We were there to buy cars, but cars to sell for profit.  Dad said, and I told this at his funeral.  “You’ll have to do that for yourself son”.     It took 35 years but it came true.  Thank you Dad for helping me believe it could happen.

 

There are other stories with this wonderful little car.   I am sure that everyone who posts here about their Europa wishes they knew where she was now.

 

I titled this including that we have had a Seven in our garage at some point too.  So the thread might not get scarce so quickly

 

 

Edited May 19 by Xhilr8n

[empti]

Beautiful car. Enjoy your new ride! 

 

When I went to check out an Esprit V8 earlier this year, the owner has a white Europa Special in his side yard, completely taken apart to be restored. The owner also has a Esprit S4 and a Elise. He said the Europa handles the best among all these cars. 

[Xhilr8n]

Black Beauty (her name from before my garage) had the best ergonomics for me of any car I’ve ever driven, even if your feet are skewed a bit to starboard.  The layout made great sense, decent luggage allowance and a spare tyre.

 

To my eyes one of the best body designs ever.  And arguably the most fun to drive in it’s responsiveness.

 

These pics from LOG 34 in A’ville.  Bob Dance checking her out.  We’d met him a in 2012 at Classic Lotus in Hethel, after Lotus were the featured marque at Goodwood Festival of Speed.  Getting three cars ready to show was a fun day.

[pethier]

On 5/20/2026 at 3:39 PM, Xhilr8n said:

Black Beauty (her name from before my garage) had the best ergonomics for me of any car I’ve ever driven, even if your feet are skewed a bit to starboard.  The layout made great sense, decent luggage allowance and a spare tyre.

 

To my eyes one of the best body designs ever.  And arguably the most fun to drive in it’s responsiveness.

 

These pics from LOG 34 in A’ville.  Bob Dance checking her out.  We’d met him a in 2012 at Classic Lotus in Hethel, after Lotus were the featured marque at Goodwood Festival of Speed.  Getting three cars ready to show was a fun day.

 

I first met Bob Dance in 2005 in Saint Louis.  I took this photo across the Mississippi at Gateway during the Monday track day.

 

 

What I wrote then:

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Lotus Cortina race mechanics
From the days when these cars were raced by Graham Hill and Jimmy Clark.  Taken at 2005 Lotus Owners Gathering track day at Gateway.   On our left is Bob Dance and on our right is Bob Sparshott.  The gentleman in the middle is Gordon Morris, a Brit who has come to the USA for every LOG since 1991.  Gordon drove the Bobs to the race track in the 1966 Mk 1 Lotus Cortina loaned to Gordon by Gary David for his stay in the USA .

=====

 

I was there Lotusless, having just delivered my 1970 Lotus 65 Europa Series 2 to a buyer in central Illinois.  I was at the LOG with an empty trailer.  Couldn't find a Lotus at the LOG that I could afford in those days.  Dave, a Minnesota Lotus buddy of mine, and I spent a wet day driving around the Saint Louis area looking at used Miatas.  They were all overpriced.  We took one out from dealer and drove the wheels off of it.  

 

Much later, I was on Flickr looking at someone's photos of a car show in England.  Sure enough, there was Gordon Morris sitting in a chair behind his Seven.

[pethier]

 

Here is my Europa, Grace N.Violence, at LOG 22 with her autocross trophy.  I think she came third overall and second in class.

[Xhilr8n]

7 minutes ago, pethier said:

 

Here is my Europa, Grace N.Violence, at LOG 22 with her autocross trophy.  I think she came third overall and second in class.

What’s her VIn?

[pethier]

 

Grace N. Violence in earlier days, wearing the ill-advised paint she was subjected to in Hawaii.  She left the factory Lotus #7 Yellow.  At least part of her was for a time a nice metallic blue.  Then came this awful, hard as a rock, black paint over silly custom work.  The only fiberglass change my predecessors started that made any sense to me was removing the warts.  I finished that job when I painted her white with spray cans.  The heat in the car with the black paint was terrible.  Why anyone would think to do this on Oahu is difficult to imagine.  Nobody was ever going to believe she was a JPS.  The changes to the fuel fillers were ugly and virtually inoperative. Actually more-difficult to fuel than a Seven.  I measured a friend's stock S2 for the correct location to holesaw, flipped it for the right side (Grace had the optional second tank) and glassed over the crappy recesses on the sails.  Bought new filler tubes and it all fit perfectly.  Gasoline literally fell into the tanks at the gas station.  The right tank was a perfect mirror of the left except it had no provision for a gauge sender.  The 1/4" fuel lines were teed together and thence proceeded to the fuel pump.  The tanks would take a while to equalize.  Fuel starvation from autocross cornering was not a problem.  None of that tank slap my MG Midget had.

[pethier]

19 minutes ago, Xhilr8n said:

What’s her VIn?

I used to get that question a lot.  Did not have a VIN.  Had a simple 4-digit serial number after the "65" designation.  65 2597.  Supposedly, she was the 2589th Europa built, Lotus having started the serial numbers with the Lotus 46 and continued through the Lotus 54, and the Lotus 65 "Federal".  The Twinks were Lotus 74, I think, but they came too late to be numbered this way.  Though we all know that Chappers played fast and loose with serial numbers.  They were making the Lotus 54 for Europe and the Lotus 65 for the USA at the same time for a while.  Were there duplicate serial numbers between the two types. I have not seen a specific example, but it could be the rumors are true.

 

Although she was a 1970 Model, Grace was made in November 1969, and the rules for VIN didn't kick in until January 1, 1970.  The rules changed again about 1981.  I used to get a lot of static from guys who insisted that 1970 cars had to have the "new" numbers, but everything matched up for a November 1969 build date, 65 2597 serial number,  and a 1970 model-year, just like it said on the factory ID plate.

 

Glad I looked this up.  I have lately been thinking that the 710-012 Collector plate was left over from my MG Midget, but that can't be correct because I sold that car to a Minnesota buyer and let him take the plates.  This Minnesota record shows that 710-012 was the plate I got for the Europa in 1991 when I bought the car. The seller had just bought new regular-car plates for it, having until then been displaying the Hawaii plates.  It was just about that time that Minnesota started requiring only rear plates for Collector cars.  When I registered Susie's Triumph as a Collector car in 2000, I had to ask for two plates (TR44SUE). The clerk wrote it in the margin: "Issue 2 plates" for which they did not charge me extra.  Same thing happened when I bought Susie the Stag (UNK JACK) in 2010.  You will notice there is nothing after "PLATES EXPIRE" on the Minnesota title tab.  That's because Collector Plates do not expire.  Since I sold the Europa to a Triumph guy in Illinois, I kept the 710-012 plate.  It should still be mine just as TR44SUE and 74PHIL are.  i should be able to use 710-012 to register another Collector car.

 

If the Birkin gets sold to a Minnesotan, I will let the Collector plate go with it and save the buyer some money.