Lotus Europa Race Car Collection

[jbcollier]

Would love to see photos of the rad airbox, please!

[Mecky]

 

I solved all the trouble related to the overheating keeping the radiator in the same position.
I have done a kind of airbox behind the radiator and using a fan that pull the air from behind.

We'd like to see this air box, indeed! Nice to hear that your figured out all the problems with cooling. You are using the stock water pump with a modified timing belt, right?
I'm planning on replacing the stock pump with an electical one. Does anybody know a rough figure, of how many litres per minute flow through the stock pump at a certain RPM?

[Mecky]

Hi guys,

I'd like to show you the most important upgrades, which I did to my car recently. I'll start off with a modified list from the very first post in this thread:
A short conclusion of our Lotus Europa S2 Type 54, which is prepared in accordance with Group H reglement for the BELCAR Historic Cup national (non-FIA) class:

Displacement: 1597 ccm
Power: 162 HP / 119 kW
Torque: 186 Nm / 137 lbf ft
Weight: 740 kg / 1631 lbs (mandatory minimum weight incl. 50 kg ballast)
Ride Height: 70 mm / 2,76 in
Tank Capicity: 40 litres
0 - 100 km/h / 0 - 62 mp/h: 4,8 s
Max. Speed: 236 km/h / 147 mp/h
Rims: front: 8x13", rear: 9x13" Minilite / Revolution
Tyres: Pirelli Semislicks; 225/45/R13
Brakes: front: ventilated discs, rear: solid grooved discs; adjustable brake bias

Modifications:
Engine and Fuel System:
 - Renault 807 engine with crossflow-head (rebuilt in 2020)
 - racing H-shaft connecting rods
 - forged aluminium pistons for high compression
 - lightened crank shaft and flywheel
 - racing cam shaft 310°
 - two 45 Weber DCOE twin-carburettors
 - stainless steel exhaust manifold
 - two fuel pumps
 - fuel pressure regulator
 - oil catch-tank (1 litre)

Cooling:
 - custom-built aluminium radiator sitting right behind the grill
 - electrical water pump (80 litres per minute)
 - oil cooler installed in front of the radiator
 - ducted front boot to force the air flow through oil cooler and radiator
 - front bonnet with big hot air outlet
 - interior heater removed

Gearbox:
 - 5 speed Renault 395 gearbox (rebuilt in 2020)
 - sintermetal racing clutch

Suspension:
 - completely adjustable (height, compression, rebound) racing shocks and springs
 - all rubber bushes replaced by uniball or polyurethane (incl. engine and gearbox mounts)
 - front upper whishbones camber adjustable
 - aluminium front hub carriers
 - rear whishbones completely adjustable
 - custom built rear hub carrier for BMW wheel bearings
 - M12 wheel studs

Brakes:
 - ventilated discs at front (Banks kit)
 - solid grooved discs at rear (Opel)
 - two circle braking system with steel-flex brake lines and adjustable brake balance between front and rear
 - master cylinders: front: 0,625", rear: 0,7"
 - air-hoses for front brake cooling

Bodywork and Interior:
 - lexan door- and rear-windows
 - flared front and rear wheel arches
 - completely removeable front bonnet
 - completely removeable light weight engine cover
 - Type 47 NACA ducts for fresh air into the engine bay
 - whole interiour removed except for the dashboard
 - passenger seat removed
 - aluminium fuel tank (right hand side)
 - removed rear boot

Safety:
 - Tillett racing driver seat (fibre composite material)
 - 6 point safety harness
 - roll cage (FIA Appendix K spec; tube Ø38 x 3,2 mm)
 - fire extinguisher
 - emergency stop switch (can be operated from outside the car)

Sometimes I myself wonder, how few parts of the car are left in stock condition. I think, the only part, which has not been dismantled and refurbished by us, is the leather dashboard, which has been built by a previous owner. But as the car needs ballast to reach the mandatory minimum weight, there is no reason to throw it out. Of course, this doesn't mean that the car's development is already finished. It's far away from that. There is still a lot of room for improvement. But it has to go step by step, on step at a time.

Best regards
Stefan

[TurboFource]

Very nice car

[BDA]

  She looks great.

It looks like that big hole in your front trunk would let a lot of hot air into the cabin. Do the rules allow you to put a duct where a headlight goes? If so, you could duct air from the left headlight through that hole (and seal around it) you would get a lot of cool air into the cabin.

[surfguitar58]

Brilliant mods and great looking car! Looks like you are well in front of the competition in the photo. Keep us posted on race results!
Tom

[4129R]

She looks great.

It looks like that big hole in your front trunk would let a lot of hot air into the cabin. Do the rules allow you to put a duct where a headlight goes? If so, you could duct air from the left headlight through that hole (and seal around it) you would get a lot of cool air into the cabin.

Or part of both orange indicator lights would be very easy to duct straight to the eyeball vents in the dashboard.

[SwiftDB4]

Very impressive Mecky. Would your rules allow a snorkel like the 47's to pressure feed your carbs? If so try it. It added 500 rpm's to my top speed on track days.

[Mecky]

She looks great.

It looks like that big hole in your front trunk would let a lot of hot air into the cabin. Do the rules allow you to put a duct where a headlight goes? If so, you could duct air from the left headlight through that hole (and seal around it) you would get a lot of cool air into the cabin.

The majority of hot air leaves the trunk through the big duct in the hood. Until now, hot air inside the cabin was never an issue. The windows bring enough fresh air in. But to add fresh air ducting to the cabin, I could use the indicators. The head lights must be working in case of rain.

@surfguitar58: The picture was taken during a safety car period. Thus, many cars seen behind me, were actually in front.

@SwiftDB4: From my interpretation of the rule book, it would be allowed. But as this will require a tight air box, I have not worked on this yet. The space next to the right hand fuel tank is very limited and to design a good working air box can be quite challenging. For now, the engine must work with the fresh air supply from the NACA ducts. I want to try and find another fuel tank before I think about an air box.

The next race is on September 25th on the Belgian F1 track at Spa-Francorchamps. It may be my last race for this year. There are two more events planned, but I'll need a break soon, as I'm working on the car after work and on weekends continuously since March. That makes it quite difficult to recover from the stress at work. Maybe I'll think about taking part at the penultimate race at Zolder on October 10th, but only if everything works brilliantly fine at Spa. I will definitely not participate at the last race at the Nürburgring GP track, because there is always (but especially in October) the worst possible weather and I don't really like this track.

[MRN I J]

Is your Spa race at the Six Hour ?

[Mecky]

Is your Spa race at the Six Hour ?

No, it's the Trophée des Ardennes. A quite small event, which only goes from Friday until Saturday and hosts a 4h motor bike race.

[Sandyman]

So jealous. Getting to play on the same tracks as the Big Boys.

[Mecky]

Yeah, I'm quite lucky to live in the middle of 5 actual or former Grand Prix tracks, of which I can reach any in a drive of not more than 4 hours.
Until now, I have driven myself at the Nürburgring, Hockenheim, Spa-Francorchamps and Zolder. Only Zandvoort is missing on my list. But I think, it will be added sooner or later.

[Rosco5000]

I am with Sandyman, I can't help but be a bit jealous of your experience on the big tracks.  We have very small number of tracks on the West Coast of Canada and 2 of them are private with an expensive membership required for most of the events or open track days.
R

[Mecky]

After the last race in September 2021 went very bad (wheel bearing damage in the beginning of race 1), I went for some small modifications after repairing the wheel bearings.
I replaced the close-to-stock flywheel by a pure racing flywheel and put a new clutch plate in, as well.

I also added another cross member to the rear end of the chassis, which should act sort of like a anti-roll bar. My car has no anti-roll bars at the moment, but I hope, this mod will reduce chassis flex while cornering.

But the most significant improvement of my car (and equipment) is the third set of Minilite wheels with super soft semi-slicks. I used to have only a hard compound for dry track and a set of rain tyres, but nothing inbetween. Now, the third set should be good for cold dry and slightly wet conditions. This is especially important, as my races are to short for tyre changes to make sense.

Now, I'm looking forward to my next test drive on track, which is planned for April 21st. The first race of 2022 is at May 15th.