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Banks S2 Race Car

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JR73:
Hi All,

New on here so apologies if the pics don’t work as I’m working from my phone whilst away on holiday!

Brief history if anyone’s interested...
My parents bought the car new in 1971 as a kit build from Lotus (I still have all the tags and receipts) it replaced a much loved S3 Lotus 7 that they had bought new in kit form in 1969.
I was transported home from the hospital in the Europa as a newborn baby(!) so it’s  fair to say I’ve  been around them all my life.
I staked my claim on it early on and after it was retired into the garage when I grew too big for my child seat that was wedged on top of the tunnel between the two seats I used to insist that it was rolled out so that I could clean it and generally explore it as a kid.

Many years later and whilst finishing my engineering degree at Uni (with a desire to go racing) it was time to revive the old girl! - Couldn’t  believe my luck when, during one of numerous visits to local classic car shows I met Richard Winter in one of his cars. Banks is 30 mins down the road from where I live and it wasn’t  long before I had bought one of his tubular chassis and work started...

After finishing Uni I ended up working at Banks for a few years and needless to say this definitely helped me decide on the final spec of my Europa.
Long story short; it ended up as a full Racer! - the championship that Richard and a few other guys competed in had various classes and the up to 1600cc class suited the cars well so that’s  what decided the engine - Vauxhall 1600 8 Valve (somewhat breathed upon) with a 5 speed box, class rules dictated a minimum weight of 640kgs and that was exactly what it weighed when finished! (Wet, with some fuel in the tank...)

I’ll just say it was competitive straight out of the box, first meeting was at the old Anglesey Circuit and I came away with a second in class with fastest lap outright from the first race along with first in class and second overall from the second race (time to retire hey?!) - The championship was effectively the old Modsports Championship that consisted of 6 classes A to F, A to C being silhouette cars with varying engine capacities and D to F were production based of varying capacities (I was in class E). Needless to say there were some well developed and very rapid cars out there so a lot of credit has to be given to the Banks Chassis and Suspension amongst other things.

A couple of years down the line and I had managed to avoid any major mishap but the thought of destroying something that I was so sentimentally attached to meant that I retired the Europa from competition and found something else to build and compete in that I was less attached to. (V8 Esprit as it happened - effectively a BIG Europa!)

I fitted a passenger seat and used it on track days until life and work got in the way a little and it sat in the garage for a year or two...

I’m currently installing the bare minimum required to make it road legal and hoping to have it out on the road again for the summer....

I still have all of the original parts that weren’t  used during the conversion - effectively the complete original rolling chassis along with the original interior, body panels etc etc.....you just never know....?!

Hope this wasn’t  too boring to read and there’s  years worth of nerdy stuff that I’ve  left out or forgotten (lucky you!), if you wanna know anything then just ask?!

Jon

lotusfanatic:
Hello Jon,

 :Welcome:

I have no direct links to a Europa as a child, so being taken home from hospital in that very car is a great story! My earliest memory of Lotus was F1 in the early 70’s and a small purple Corgi / Matchbox Europa which was my favourite (as it was so different to most other cars!)
I look forward to seeing your progress as you make your car road legal.

Mark

JR73:
Thanks, it won’t look much different tbh! - I have made a matching seat for the passenger side (moulded fibreglass bucket the same as the drivers that you probably can’t see in the pictures) to go with a four point harness, I’ve made a separate wiring loom for everything that wasn’t needed to go racing - so all the lights are now connected up and there are a couple of small (and basic!) clip in panels to hold any switches.

The rear calipers have always been the Banks Kit which uses Ford Sierra Cosworth calipers that quite handily have provision for a handbrake so all I have to do is connect it all up (took a while to locate my original handbrake pull after being stored away!)

There are a few other bits to do like mount and connect up an alternator as the racer didn’t need one - might make one concession to the Mrs and then fit a smaller battery and reduce the size of the battery box in the passenger footwell (intention was to ‘treat’ her to a nice pad on the top so she could stretch her legs!!!!lol but it really isn’t that practical for getting in and out!)

The idea is so I can remove all the road related stuff fairly quickly if I ever want/need to.

I had that very same Purple Matchbox car! - still got it too!

Pic of me washing the car a little time ago.... I definitely don’t have the hat anymore!!!!!

lotusfanatic:
I’m looking forward to reading about your progress, your mrs will be very grateful if you provide room for her to get in/out and stretch her legs when in!

You should take a similar photo (with hat) washing the car!

Mark

JR73:
Lol, the picture has already been done! - was even taken on the same driveway by the same person that took the original too!!!!! Didn’t have any brown clothing to wear, or a hat though........!!!
I will try to find it when I get home from hols...

My Mrs would use any excuse to stay out of it, the only experiences she’s ever had of it is as a passenger on a track day and she says I always drive too fast....... I know....!!!

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