Lotus Europa Community

Good morning,
The car that followed on the assembly line was delivered to France.
The original plates are different

That's interesting. The top plate is engraved rather than stamped, which is the same as my '68 Elan whereas my '72 Europa plate is stamped. Neither state the model name, just the "Type" identification number.

My guess from those two plates is that the top one is the original Lotus plate and the lower one added by the importing dealership ?  Interesting that the lower plate says "EUROPE" rather than Europa, does that car have the rare "EUROPE" badge on it ?

You are definitely not alone!

There should be drain holes just in front of the chassis.  Mine had three but I can't say if this was original or not as my car had been mildly molested during some chassis repair bodging (subsequently replaced).

The car had/has seatbelt anchors stock.
- upper anchor is just above your outside shoulder between the seat back and the head rest.  it is a metal tube in the fibreglass and uses a brace in the engine compartment from the chassis to the same point.
- lower outer anchor is part of the jacking point.  Unlike in later cars, it is a massive fabrication.  You access it by removing the seat base and the access hole cover against the sill.
- lower inner anchor point is opposite this and goes into a captive nut in the chassis itself.

Thank you, will check this on my car. The mentioned tube is definitely missing at the moment, so I have to reinstall them.

Quote from: EuropaTC on Sunday,May 26, 2024, 10:57:23 PM

Quote from: jbcollier on Sunday,May 26, 2024, 04:00:01 PM

That serial number plate has me a bit jumpy.  Never seen one like that before.

I think that's something added by a previous owner for a couple of reasons. Firstly, even though the initial production run was exported to Europe, I'd have expected the chassis plate to have been in English. Using German doesn't sound as likely as English or even French  but of course with Lotus you never know for sure.

But even if Lotus had decided to stamp chassis plates in the country of export, I very much doubt they would have spelled "Norwich" like that.....

Of course the plate doesn't detract from the car, it's still a usable S1. But whoever fitted that plate would have been better to have contacted Lotus and obtained a genuine replacement considering the historic importance of the S1's. There's every chance the true history is even more interesting, a rebuilt racer for example ?

Good morning,
The car that followed on the assembly line was delivered to France.
The original plates are different

Your VIN plate is stating 'Cheshunt', is this because of the old stock of plates or might there be a transition phase? I assume the pre production cars were assembled in Cheshunt, but did Hethel start with chassis # 1?

I did this …

That's definitely on the cards as an option, going to try and somehow get the lever to let go of the bolt if I can, but failing that I'm just going to have to saw it off. Appreciate the input - it is a comfort of sorts to know that I have not been selected alone for this torment!

*Edit* - not managed with sockets, and not enough room to get at it with the angle grinder, so hacksaw it is. On the positive side, accelerator pedal assembly is out and freed up with penetrating oil, so that will go back in. On the negative, the brake and clutch pedals look like being a swine to get out...

Not impressed with leveling the bed  using a piece of paper.
So I downloaded and printed a bracket to hold a dial indicator for genuinely accurate leveling.
But the slot to take the indicator is too narrow, so I will be using my ENCO vertical mill to modify it.
3-D printers will never replace real machine tools.