Hello everyone,
I'm Serge and I live in Belgium. I've acquired #460002 in October of 2011 and I've been restoring the car slowly. This being the oldest Europa that's known in the registry and by Lotus themselves, I want to restore the car to it's original appearance. But the car isn't a matching number car, because the original engine has been replaced in the past. I'm also preparing the car for FIA Appendix K Historic Racing (Period G2) and therefor all the modifications that I'm making to the car, that aren't original, will be reversible in the future. So I can use the car for Historic Rallies, hill-climbs and races and I can undo all of the modifications in the future so it will retain most of it's value.
I've set up a blog on
http://Sleurs-Motorsport.com - here I post all of the progress that make on the restoration. I'll post the small updates on here, so you can click through to my website if you'd like. This are the posts of the past year in chronological order, so it's easier for you to read.
Lotus Europa S1: Barnfind
I always wanted a car restoration project. I was always researching what car I wanted to restore. First I wanted a mini, then a Karmann Ghia, after this I wanted an MGB, but then I found something that would be a perfect candidate.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=172Lotus Europa S1: What’s underneath the dust
After getting the car home, I wanted to see what’s underneath the layers of dust the car gathered by standing in a dusty barn for 19 years.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=188Lotus Europa S1: A place to work
To be able to restore a car, you need a workshop, preferable a large garage where you have all the room and tools in the world. I had neither.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=196Lotus Europa S1: Bloody Knuckles and Broken Dreams, Part 1
I started disassembly a couple of weekends ago and I had some things to show for it. I had bloody knuckles from parts that didn’t want to come loose, and after the first day of stripping the car down, I knew this project was going to take a lot longer than I first anticipated. But there’s also some good news!
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=204Lotus Europa S1: Moving the 821
This post is all about getting my 821 engine down a flight of stairs.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=219Lotus Europa S1: Bloody Knuckles and Broken Dreams, Part 2
The Lotus is disassembled!
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=226Lotus Europa S1: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It has been a while since the last update, but I haven’t been sitting still. When I last updated the blog, I just had disassembled everything, and the next step was cutting the chassis out of the body. So I’ll talk you through the past couple of months.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=233Lotus Europa S1: Sometimes It’s Not as Bad as It Looks
I got lucky with the chassis! Once all the surface rust was removed, it appeared to be in better shape than I expected!
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=358Lotus Europa S1: So Many Jobs, So Little Time
It's been a while since my last update, I had a very busy summer, but I did manage to get some work done on the Europa.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=374Chassis repairs, Part 1
So I have started with the chassis repairs, work is going slow, but I’d rather do it slow and correct than have to clean up after myself a couple of years from now.
http://sleurs-motorsport.com/?p=419The compete URL of my website is
http://Sleurs-Motorsport.com So you can follow some more of my progress on there. There's also a subscription function on there now, that way you can get my posts via email instead of having to visit my site know and again. There's a new blog-post coming with a new update, but I haven't had the chance to upload the pictures, but I'll put them online before the end of the weekend, promise!
I've also been working on a Video web series about my restoration, because I like to watch these sorts of video's on the internet, and now I thought it was my turn to make one, so other can enjoy. Please check them out and tell me what you do (and don't) like about them. These are just the first two video's. I have a third one lined up to edit, but they take quite a lot of time to make, so I have to find a couple of hours in my schedule to edit them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-J0mdApcQYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgZSySqUrjcKind regards,
Serge
