New album

[Grumblebuns]

Started a new album last night of my long time on going project. A little history on the car. Bought it as an abandoned project from the previous owner in 2006. He lived in Detroit working in the auto industry apparently saw the writing on the wall and put up for sale knowing that he would not have the time or money to complete the project. On a very expensive whim, I ended up with the car. The particulars:

The car started out as a 1973 TCS, original color BRG.
Custom Spyder frame cradling a Cosworth YBB motor mated to a Hewland Mk 9 transaxle
14" Panasport on 4X108 lug pattern (believe that is a Ford pattern)
Wilwood disc brakes all four corners.
Concentric hydraulic slave clutch
Appears to be a double wishbone rear suspension
Dry sump
Custom SS exhaust
Engine dynoed at 200 hp on an engine dyno (pre Dynojet, no printed readout)

Will add additional pics as I make further progress.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

[LotusJoe]

Joji,
This is funny, I just posted a question in the garage asking if this is your car.  I remember this car. Always wondered if it ever got finished. Glad you were able to acquire the car. It has all the trick stuff you would ever want to do to a Europa.Hurry up and get it finished!!

[Grumblebuns]

Bought the car as a retirement project. That time has arrived, been retired now for 18 months and have done more to the car than the previous 5 1/2 years. I don't know what would have happened to the car if I hadn't bought it. I'm giving myself two years to complete the car and get it on the road. We'll see, most of the hard part was done by the PO, all that I have to do tie up the many loose ends, literally.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca   

[LotusJoe]

Here is a link for some dry sump information
http://www.drysump.com/index.htm

[EuropaTC]

Joji, that looks a great project, I'm jealous already !

As always the geek in me says "what's going on with the rear suspension ?"

I can see some familiar "Spyder Engineering" trademarks, is it a complete "Spyder" set up with chassis, hub carriers and basically everything backwards from the central backbone ?  If so, the PO has spent some serious money on that car even without considering the engine/gearbox, and you're going to get yourself a very handy Europa when it's rolling.

Brian

[cal44]

where are you guys seeing these pictures?

mike

[EuropaTC]

In the Photo gallery Mike -

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/gallery/cosworth

ten minutes after looking you're going to be checking your bank balance for "spare cash"   

[TheKid#9]

I always wondered where this car eneded up! Saw it for sale on LotusTalk a long time ago! Looks like a great project and will be a monster when finished!

[Lou Drozdowski]

Joji, Welcome to the madness... The car looks great, and I'm jealous of the motor/tranny combo. Always dreamed of having a F2 motor behind me, for the street. Good luck with it.     ps...My Twincam is just below yours on the page...3307R.ld

[Grumblebuns]

Joji, that looks a great project, I'm jealous already !

As always the geek in me says "what's going on with the rear suspension ?"

I can see some familiar "Spyder Engineering" trademarks, is it a complete "Spyder" set up with chassis, hub carriers and basically everything backwards from the central backbone ?  If so, the PO has spent some serious money on that car even without considering the engine/gearbox, and you're going to get yourself a very handy Europa when it's rolling.

Brian

Thanks for everyones comments. As with Brian, I'm also curious about the rear setup, anyone knowledgeable on suspension design? I believe it's a double wishbone variation similar to the Elans rear. I shot some close ups on the rear end. The frame itself is custom Spyder specific to the Cosworth YBB/ Hewland combo. What the PO spent before he was forced to sell the car is an eye opener.

Lou, I've viewed your album a couple of time, a beautiful Twink, especially love the interior.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca



 

[EuropaTC]

Thanks for the extra pictures, it all looks very typical Spyder Engineering stuff to me. In fact it looks a complete custom job designed for racing rather than your usual Europa replacement chassis fabrications.

The suspension is interesting. The wide lower wishbone feeding into the chassis at the rear, and is that a front connection fabrication going from the engine mount to underneath the engine/gearbox ?  If so that seems better to me than the usual twin-link we see where there's a chassis-fixed upper link with the lower link going through the bottom of the transmission casing as both arms are fixed so they have exactly the same movement in terms of mounting bushes/rose joints/whatever.

Brian

[Grumblebuns]

You are correct. All attachment points of the inboard control arms are to the chassis. Picture #2 shows the front pick up point for the bottom control arm to the front engine cradle/mount.
Due to the total length of the engine/tranny combo the drive shafts have an approximate 10-15 deg forward angle (not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the transmission). I was assured that the CV joints can handle the offset.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca