Lotus Europa in classifieds

[Shelsleyf2]

I've been searching for a Europa SE, without much luck, I know there were not many made but I have never seen one for sale. I notice there are two S with trim and engine upgrade in the classifieds. The one in wales with the stripes was for sale some time ago and was listed as sold at one time. The striped one did belong to someone on here, anyone know any history?. A blak one has now appeared in the ads, its a private sale, anyone know anything about it?.





Thanks in advance.

[kambites]

You're probably more likely to get a response on SELOC and/or in the Elise sub-forum here.

[FTW]

I'm looking for an S2 elise and came across the Europa when searching and can't help but think its a bargain in comparison. I just wish there was more on the market.

[Skaffen]

The striped one in Wales was owned by Fudgie01 (may still be on a sale/return basis if it's back up on the classifieds from the same place):
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Not sure about the owner of the other one - looks lovely though.

There are only 4 Europa SE's left in the country I think so the chances of one coming up for sale are rare. There are a number of S around with various upgrades, including whole or partial interior upgrades, etc (even a couple with SE wheels fitted).

There is a private Europa group on facebook which is a more useful place for Europa info than here or on SELOC to be honest (Europa posts on SELOC tend to get a bit lost in amongst all the Elise/Exige/Evora posts!).

[Thorburn]

Upgraded S vs. a proper SE also has the advantage of lower road tax iirc?

[EuropaSman]

Yep, I had a S with the "225" engine upgrade (ECU remap and drilled brake discs), so on paper it had the same power as the SE but with lower car tax.

The one in the picture is a S with the luxury touring pack (custom by the looks of it too as it is red - the standard colour was tan). The luxury touring pack was optional on the S, but standard on the SE.

Having owned one I know that the Europa is a rare beasty anyway, so with only 48 built to SE spec tracking one of those down will definitely be tricky. Mind you of late a few Europa owners have upgraded, particularity to Evoras (me included ), so you could be lucky. I'd suggest getting in touch with the Lotus Europa Owners Group on Facebook.

[vxah]

"See the Readers Cars thread" interesting read that although, the engine is not the Z20LET in the Europa.. It is the later Astra H Z20LER
The injection harness that is on the engine is Z20LER with all the ecu terminals for the ecu as used in the Astra H 2.0 SRI...

[Fudgie01]

Strip one at Williams was mine, don't know why its still in the classifieds as it was sold a few months back and I've got my SoR money! It's marked as sold on their website so maybe just canvasing for browsers?

It was a lovely example but my advice would be to take a good long test drive in one before buying as the throttle mapping is terrible, although I'm led to believe this can vary from car to car and improved on later models, mine was a very early (in first batch of 10 I think) one owned by Lotus.

Edited by Fudgie01 on Tuesday 22 April 20:31

[kazste]

Don't want the car as have my own but might turn up to nick your wheels! Really need to get me a set of the fondmetal se wheels IMO so much bet looking than my bog standard s wheels. Thinking about it you'll have the wooden gear knob so might take that as well

Seriously though it's a lovely car and hope you are able to sell it smoothly.

[ewand]

Thanks The wheels are something of an acquired taste, TBH - when I first started looking at Europas I really liked the S wheels and thought the Fondmetal ones looks a bit chavvy and aftermarket. But see them on the car, in the flesh, and that opinion changes pretty quickly

[ewand]

OK, so I had a few of my posts removed because I was plugging my advert - didn't mean to do that overtly. It does mean that the thread above doesn't make sense.

There's a post on Readers Cars - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... and the Fondmetal wheels reference above look different to the Europa S wheels in the image at the top:


I think there are 5 SEs in the UK, though one of them has the VIN that corresponds to a Europa S so presumably was converted during production. There was a white one with 40k miles on the clock up for sale on PH last year, another white one (09 plate only 9k miles) showed up on Autotrader for a bit too. There's a black and silver stripes SE that was sold in 2012, and there's my blue one.

[johnrlittler]

I have a dark silver Europa SE that is registered as an S. It is the test car in the AutoCar test. It is a fantastic car but like most road testers say not really suitable for a daily drive. Mine only comes out on sunny weekends. It is a much admired car and even car enthusiasts often seem unaware that Lotus made the Europa - a failure in marketing? John Lincolnshire

[ewand]

hi John - that's interesting to hear. It seems even Lotus don't know how many SEs they made, as they said only 5 were ever delivered to the UK...
The only active (modern S/SE, aka Type 121) Europa community out there is on Facebook -

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lotus.europa/

There are 170+ members, most of who have or have had a Europa S/SE, so it's a good place to get info on your car. We've had a couple of meet ups too, including a tour round Lotus F1...


https://www.flickr.com/photos/furlined/10517523504...

[ewand]

GLWS at that price. You might want to put an ad on PH too, maybe get some more pics, detail the spec a bit more (is it 225 or not?)

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=us...

EDIT: previous posting was someone offering a gray 06 Europa for sale on Freeads; no real info about the car other than to say it's 68k miles and wanted £20k for it. Maybe the posting got yanked by mods.

Edited by ewand on Friday 3rd July 15:58

[kazste]

There seems to be a lot going for sale at the moment as soon as i get round to it mine will be up on pistonheads sale s ction and i think that will be five or six!

[Skaffen]

kazste said:

There seems to be a lot going for sale at the moment as soon as i get round to it mine will be up on pistonheads sale s ction and i think that will be five or six!

Amusing that that's considered a lot . Maybe they'll even outnumber classic europas up for sale! I seem to recall it's a fairly normal pattern that there's a bit of a peak in availability around summer.

[kazste]

Well okay without context maybe "a lot" is pushing it but compared to the normal one or two and the fact that six is nearly 10% of those in the uk and its a friday i think i should be allowed to keep the statement.

[kazste]

Well theres defintely one more up for sale now as ive committed treason and part exchanged my car for a 2 litre z4!!

Feels strange not owning a lotus as apart from a blip two years ago ive had one for the last eight years. Oh well its all for the best and you wouldnt want to bet against me getting another in a few years.

[simpo555]

kazste said:

Well theres defintely one more up for sale now as ive committed treason and part exchanged my car for a 2 litre z4!!

Feels strange not owning a lotus as apart from a blip two years ago ive had one for the last eight years. Oh well its all for the best and you wouldnt want to bet against me getting another in a few years.

Bit of a shame. The Lotus looked nice. From experience I've found Lotus owners tend to remain committed, so probably see you back in a Lotus after your time with the Z4. I personally drove a 2.5 Z4. All the kit and the bits that Lotus don't have. Initially I found it 'interesting' but was glad to get back into the Lotus. Time will tell. Enjoy your new toy.

[kazste]

The main problem was not being able to use properly. My commute is 4 mile each way and all 30 mph with schools. At the weekend the wife never really liked going in it. At least with the z4 its still a reasonably special car but suits current needs better.

If the evora auto had been cheaper i may of stayed with lotus but for time being if you see a fat chap in a white z4 waves ng to you with a tear in his eye it will probably be me.