Almost there... S2 in China Blue

[TurboFource]

Very nice! 

[Footer]

Very nice work and it is looking very nice.  Congratulations.
I’m not very familiar with this model but noticed you have no turn signal indicators unless your side marker lights are serving double duty? 

[My S1]

Benjy,  in studying the photographs of your beautifully restored S2, I noticed that you have the exact same tire to wheel opening relationship on the right side of your car as mine.  That is to say, the gap between the tire and rear lip is significantly smaller than the gap in the front.  On the left side of my car, the gaps are much more "pleasingly" arranged.  I have been scratching my head over this for a couple of years now.  My car even has the right side wheel tub scooped out  for tire clearance.  I have wonder if the car was hit or if our Hethel brethren assembled the panels incorrectly or God forbid, Specialised Mouldings sculpted the car non symmetrically.

Long story short,  would you please post a direct side view picture of the left side of your car so that I can see the tire to opening situation?

[Benjy]

Ahoy MyS1

I don't really have a completely side on view but I do have the following pic which pretty much shows the same situation as the other side. I can tell you that the tyres on both sides almost touch the body when turning. They are pretty much the same on each side. Perhaps the right side has the wheel slightly more forward but not much.

It was worse than this when I first got the car and on close inspection I found that one of the top A arms was bent so that didn't help! But even when I fitted a new arm it still didn't put the wheel equally between the arches but since both sides are more or less the same and I'm pretty sure nothing is bent the conclusion I came to is that it's meant to be that way, whether through design or incompetence I couldn't say. I have studied many pics of S1 and S2 Europas and they all seem to be pretty much the same. Maybe it's my imagination but Twin Cams seem slightly better in this regard. Maybe it was a fault that was corrected in later cars?

The Europa does not seem very symmetrical to me once I started looking a bit closer. For example, at least on my car, the right hand side wheel sticks out more than the left by quite a few mms. My car has its original chassis and it certainly didn't appear to have any damage on it and all the chassis mounting points lined up perfectly so I do not believe it has been too badly crashed. It had definitely taken a hit on the rear quarter at some point but I don't think it was a huge impact. Probably doesn't take much speed to crumple a Europa!

You might want to have a really close look at the A arms, it's entirely possible that one or more are very slightly bent. Just a small bend will have quite an effect on the position of the wheel!

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France

[My S1]

Yes,  it is baffling how inaccurate the original sculpting of the car was and the seemingly haphazard lay-up of the panels on assembly and so on were.  In restoring the interior I have found that the lack of symmetry is prevalent throughout.  In fact the whole RT half side of the  interior seems to be shifted to the left several mm.  Having been an automotive sculptor for 30 years I can attest to the lack of accuracy when hand modelling clay. It was a constant battle to keep the rails, angles and bridges perfectly set.  Now we do it in the tube and hold toleranced of four decimal points.

Indescrepencies  and inaccuracies show up all the time but all in all, I love my car and the fact that it is not perfect. 

Here is a shot of  my RT front wheel tub to show the way it is scooped out to add clearance for the tire.  When mounting the mirrors on the fender tops, I found that the RT wheel tub is further forward in car (about 3/4") in relation to the A pillar touch down from that of the left side.

[Hachille]

Ahoy MyS1

I don't really have a completely side on view but I do have the following pic which pretty much shows the same situation as the other side. I can tell you that the tyres on both sides almost touch the body when turning. They are pretty much the same on each side. Perhaps the right side has the wheel slightly more forward but not much.

It was worse than this when I first got the car and on close inspection I found that one of the top A arms was bent so that didn't help! But even when I fitted a new arm it still didn't put the wheel equally between the arches but since both sides are more or less the same and I'm pretty sure nothing is bent the conclusion I came to is that it's meant to be that way, whether through design or incompetence I couldn't say. I have studied many pics of S1 and S2 Europas and they all seem to be pretty much the same. Maybe it's my imagination but Twin Cams seem slightly better in this regard. Maybe it was a fault that was corrected in later cars?

The Europa does not seem very symmetrical to me once I started looking a bit closer. For example, at least on my car, the right hand side wheel sticks out more than the left by quite a few mms. My car has its original chassis and it certainly didn't appear to have any damage on it and all the chassis mounting points lined up perfectly so I do not believe it has been too badly crashed. It had definitely taken a hit on the rear quarter at some point but I don't think it was a huge impact. Probably doesn't take much speed to crumple a Europa!

You might want to have a really close look at the A arms, it's entirely possible that one or more are very slightly bent. Just a small bend will have quite an effect on the position of the wheel!

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France

Hello Benjy,

Your S2 is truly beautiful. This color choice suits it very well.
Perhaps we'll see you soon on the roads of France.

Bonjour Benjy,

Vraiment très belle ta S2. Ce choix de couleur lui va très bien.
A bientôt peut être sur les routes Française.

[Benjy]

Ahoy Hachille,

You never know, but it seems unlikely as you are 600 kms away from where I live! But if you should find yourself in La Creuse, look me up.

Cheers

Benjy

[Bainford]

Beautiful Europa! I just love the colour.

[My S1]

I got to thinking...I do that occasionally.  The question of the differential of tire to wheel house gaps in side view is, of course, completely intentional.  Going back and reading some old automotive aerodynamic books I was able to confirm that in the case of the front tires, the forward rotation of the air about the tire and the rearward passing air by the lower front corner of the fender and wheel lip causes a low pressure area which actually squirts the air out of the wheel tub. More importantly, the radiator's exhausted air is also sucked out into the airstream.

I feel like a jerk for doubting the styling skills of the sculptors and stylists and wish to extend my sincere apologies to those brilliant engineers at Lotus.

This is clearly a case of form following function and the Engineers grandly won out over the stylists/sculptors.  This would never occur at GM...Styling almost always prevails over Engineering.

[Benjy]

There's almost always a reason! Having spent 18 months rebuilding a Europa I have a great deal of respect for the engineers who conceived it. When you consider they had no CAD (well only Cardboard Aided Design) and only pencil and paper it is amazing what Lotus achieved.

I just can't wait to go and drive the car at long last!

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France

[My S1]

I know exactly how anxious you are feeling.  I received my car in January 2023, drove it three times then put it up on jack stands. Since then I've spent just about every day restoring the belly pan, interior, engine bay, boot etc.  Put the new tires and restored wheels on yesterday then did a hillbilly alignment check (still up on the jack stands) with strings, levels, angles etc and discovered that I have positive toe OUT in the front and or a misaligned rear.  Now I have to postpone the "first drive" until I sort out the suspension geometry.  Who knows how long that might take...

[BDA]

How did you do an alignment with the car on jack stands? You really should put the car on the floor before you do an alignment.

When using the string method, this page is great for calculating your alignment. Just enter the values in the webpage and it will calculate your angles for you.

https://robrobinette.com/DIYAlignmentCalculator.htm

This page converts the angles into inches which is how the alignment measurements are more commonly specified.

https://robrobinette.com/ConvertToeDegreesToInches.htm

[Benjy]

Well I am very glad that job is over! Here are some pics of the car very nearly finished. Today I fitted the chrome lock trim to the windscreen seal. That makes it sound so easy but it was a three hour job which included taking the screen out again because it didn't fit! One side was parallel to the window frame the other not. Too much screen at the bottom and not enough at the top. I thought I'd get away with it and foolishly (and optimistically!) added the messy sealant behind the seals before trying to fit the lock trim. However that was no way I could fit the trim without the seal resting on the glass. I called the windscreen guy who sold me the screen and he was about as useful as a chocolate fire guard and said they are all like that so basically tough titty. I did measure the screen and the diagonals were the same, I put a bevel gauge on the top angles and they matched, so I can confirm that the screen is symmetrical but clearly my car isn't! I don't understand how though since the doors fit very nicely and there was no sign of any damage to the body when I stripped the paint. Perhaps original screens were made asymmetrical to allow for bockety bodies?

Anyway the screen was not going to fit as it was and since the seller could not help me, plus I have the inspection on Monday and I just want to drive the car I decided to remove the screen, get covered in black sealant and sand down about 5 mm off the driver's side lower corner. Luckily I did not break the screen and that small amount removed meant it fitted better than before, still not great but at least I could get the trim to fit and the seal to cover the screen so there's a hope it won't leak!

All in all considering what a difficult job it is and it is also my first time fitting a Europa screen I think I did alright. Of course the perfectionist in me is not entirely satisfied but the pragmatist on my other shoulder is content. I have seen much worse!

Tomorrow I will attempt to fit the lock trim to the rear window! I am not looking forward to that at all but at least it is the last hard job to do on the car.

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France

[BDA]

Well, it certainly LOOKS like it fits. I've heard that the Chinese windscreen's fit is not good. If you want to replace it, You should make sure you get a genuine Pilkington windshield from England.

[Benjy]

Hopefully I won't have to replace it ever again! The windscreen is made by Fuyao. It looks like very nice quality, if only it fitted better... Or the Europa was more symmetrical!

I paid about $500 for it. Buying from the UK since Brexit is very expensive so here in France my choices are limited. I was happy to find a windscreen at all! All's well that ends well...

The seller said they had been selling them since 2018 and they had sold about 11 with no returns. Those 11 probably wanted to return them but like me were faced with the reality that if they wanted a windscreen they'd have to use it regardless of how it fits...

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France