Lotus Europa Forums > The Paddock
Lotus Europa / 47 / 62 Racing History
Mecky:
Hi guys,
I did a little reasearch about the racing history of our loved car on the best archive for historic racing results that I know on the internet. It's http://www.racingsportscars.com/.
I corrected a few things that I know better (for example one fellow driver of my father's drove a Europa Renault, but the archive says Type 47, which is incorrect) and wrote my conclusion down:
I sorted it into three lists: Racing efforts of
1.) Lotus Europa S1, S2, TC and SP (all Europa race cars, which were originally produced for the street)
2.) Lotus Type 47
3.) Lotus Type 62
1.) Lotus Europa http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1972/Havirov-1972-06-18-003.jpg
production: ~ 9000 - 10000
years built: 1966 - 1975
years raced: 1967 - 1978, 1983 - 1984
number of starts: 104 starts at 90 different races
- classified: 82
- not classified: 22
- class wins: 4
That makes a winning-ratio of 4,44 % and a finishing-ratio of 78,85 %.
2.) Lotus Type 47 http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1967/Brands_Hatch-1967-07-30-029.jpg
production: 68 (~ 13 in road trim with Renault gearbox and Cortina engine)
years built: 1966 - 1969
years raced: 1966 - 1981
number of starts: 300 starts at 183 different races
- classified: 227
- not classified: 73
- class wins: 23
That makes a winning-ratio of 12,57 % and a finishing-ratio of 75,67 %.
3.) Lotus Type 62 http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1969/Brands_Hatch-1969-09-01-105.jpg
production: 2
years built: 1969
years raced: 1969, 1971 - 1974
number of starts: 23 starts at 20 different races
- classified: 15
- not classified: 8
- class wins: 8
That makes a winning-ratio of 40,00 % and a finishing-ratio of 65,22 %.
That may us tell something about the different types of Europa race cars. The ordinary Lotus Europa is not really a great race car. Even, when it was well prepared and did not break down very often, its concept was not layed-up for racing. Colin Chapman knew that and tried to solve this problem with the Type 47 as racing version of the Europa. Its very first appearance was in December 1966. The car was quite succesful in 1967 and 1968, but Chapman new that it won't be competitive enough in future. Because of that he constructed a completely new "Europa" prototype. The Type 62 was nothing like the Europa or even the 47. Only the silhouette was similar. It was a much better and more radical race car, whereas the Type 47 seemed to be a bit of a compromise between the stock Europa and a race car. The Type 62 was a very competitive race car, especially in the first year. Team Lotus entered the two prototypes at six different races in 1969 and won their class in five of them. After season 1969 both cars were sold and Lotus concentrated their energy on Formula 1 again.
I would like to read other opinions on the Europa's racing history. I'm looking forward to your replies.
Best regards
Stefan
P.S.: Not every single ranking of the Europas in every race is know. If a ranking is unknown, it is just counted as "classified". Because no one knows, whether the car retired or won or whatelse, the ratios are more like good extrapolations, then strictly scientific received information.
4380r:
I didn't see a reference to the Lotus Europa Group 5 turbo car:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.psychoontyres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Lotus-Europa-Gp-5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.psychoontyres.co.uk/haralds-toj-lotus-europa-turbo/&h=444&w=666&sz=230&tbnid=48IuiUrYYg_knM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&zoom=1&usg=__FkRg2W-2zPdoYktcUv-Fi10GHjs=&docid=NNl1VEqUjz2FJM&sa=X&ei=yiSFUsOSGZXfsAT88IGoAQ&ved=0CDAQ9QEwAQ
I thought I read recently that 50+ Twin Cams were produced in 1975.
Mecky:
I did not mention the Europa Turbo Group 5 car, because it was not a real Lotus. It was a prototype, which was built by Schnitzer (BMW tuner) in 1979. There are 4 entries documented including the only known finishing at a race of the Interserie 1979 in Hockenheim. It finished 5th in class at this race.
http://www.racingsportscars.com/type/Lotus/Europa%20Turbo.html
There is no known race appearance after 1979, but it seems that this car is back on track (probably on historic events): http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/16788241
P.S.: I changed the production period to 66-75.
Bainford:
That's a very interesting Europa history, Stephan. Thanks for posting. Thanks also for the link to the Sports Car Racing site. There is a lot of great info and vintage pictures there. Also, I had never heard of the Europa Turbo Group 5 car before.
Mecky:
Hi,
did you ever notice this car? Unfortunately it ran in accordance with American SCCA regulations and not FIA.
Page 4: http://www.elcc.org/archive_newsletter/2007/LotusLines_2007_Apr.pdf
It has been restored and is back on track.
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