Lotus Europa Forums > Members Cars

S2 Type 65

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jbcollier:
Type 65 was introduced at chassis number 1066.

EuropaTC:
I think John has it sorted with the "2 wiper or one" comment, that's my understanding as well. Robinshaw's book mentions a change in wipers at #1457 for Federal spec cars so that would be well before 1970.

If you dropped a line to Andy Graham, the Lotus Archivist, he would probably give the definitive answer. He's rebuilding the old Lotus records and would probably appreciate a photo of the original VIN plate to confirm his thoughts.  Andy's a helpful guy, well worth knowing.

agraham@lotuscars.com

Brian

Europaforever:
OK, thanks for the replies.

PR suffix cars have 3 digits for the chassis number, as can be seen on the registry section on 'lotus europa central' - titled

UK S2(suffix PR) - cars converted from Federal specifications to RHD.

Bodzer:
Hi,

My car sounds like it’s only a few units from yours. It’s also a late 1970 build, and it’s a PR suffixed model.  274PR.  After contacting Andy Graham at Lotus and a bit of research here I found out that there was a batch of Federal (Type 65) Europas that were re-worked at the factory to become Uk spec cars.  Apparently there was a change in the federal requirements meaning they were un-sellable if they were exported.  Hence the PR suffix.  So they have Federal markers but one wiper etc. I think John recently had a copy of a Club Lotus newsletter on his smugmug page detailing the history.

Interestingly, my V5 only had 274PR as it’s VIN.  This proved alittle difficult when I imported to Ireland to say the least as the car didn’t have its original VIN plate with it.  Thankfully the original window plate, which was still in place, read 274PR. A very kind contact on the lotus Elan net I contacted me and told me that the previous owner was trying to get a hold of me. He had found the original VIN plate and wanted to forward it onto me.

I hope it helps. Feel free to PM me.

Regards.

Europaforever:
Hi,

Thanks for that - yes, your car is only a few from mine (ref the chassis number).

Your info is as I had read too- in fact there's a little about it on wiki!

The cars were built to be used in the States, but Lotus re-worked them for the UK,
wipers etc. When sold and registered with the DVLA they then considered them to be a type 54.

So to conclude it was built as a 65 but was made a type 54 before sale in the UK.

Isn't Lotus ownership fun! Today I will sit in it... :beerchug:

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