RE: Lotus Europa (Type 121) | PH Used Buying Guide
Discussion
Bencolem said:
There’s a reason they didn’t sell many of these when new and it’s funny how they’re now being remembered with rose tinted glasses.
They were pretty roundly panned when new as neither being as good to drive as a regular Elise not really any more practical (ease of ingress / egress / noise etc) meaning you might as well buy the Elise and definitely not as good looking which means you really should buy the Elise.
Never seem to have dropped below £20k though which is what I guess rarity does for you.
For me, this is the next step after Elise ownership. The Elise is truly uncompromising, and like anything in life, the novelty does start to wear a little. The Europa is genuinely 99% the Elise with more grunt, more tuneble engine and more comfort. It handles almost as well but is more refined, it's the gentleman's Elise I guess. I agree though, one thing they couldn't fix is the small aperture for entry/exit, but you sit inside the chassis, it's what an Elise is about, low slung weight. If they fixed that, then it really wouldn't be an Elise alternative.They were pretty roundly panned when new as neither being as good to drive as a regular Elise not really any more practical (ease of ingress / egress / noise etc) meaning you might as well buy the Elise and definitely not as good looking which means you really should buy the Elise.
Never seem to have dropped below £20k though which is what I guess rarity does for you.
ewand said:
I had a hankering for one of these after reading a Steve Cropley article in Autocar about a blat to the Jim Clarke room in the borders, in one of the last Europas (probably an SE I guess). After seeing and sitting in one at a Goodwood Breakfast Club, I decided to get one and that if I was going to do it, then I might as well try to get an SE. Expecting to spend years looking, a few weeks later, I bought - unseen - the only Persian Blue SE they ever made, from the PH Classifieds no less. There is at least one Persian Blue S which had the SE wheels added (and maybe other Becker upgrades).
Here it was - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
TBH, I never really clicked with the drivetrain. The gearchange was nice but not S2000 nice, and the turbo lag and flat blare of the exhaust compared to the NA bark of the much-less powerful Elise I'd only got shortly before meant, to me, it was less pleasurable to drive even though it was a lot faster.
I often thought if they had followed up the Europa SE with a model based on a Supercharged S2 Elise but with the same brakes as the SE (which were phenomenal), it would be a sweet spot.
I put a Chris Tullet exhaust on mine - some before/after vids on
Exterior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KGnkF9c-Vk and
Interior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Lr9vZnI-c
The exhaust certainly added some drama and helped to mask one of the most annoying things about the car - the continual squeaks and rattles that came from all around the cabin. It was like playing whack-a-mole using tile wedges and bits of old windscreen wiper to shove into gaps to stop the supposedly deluxe leather and plastic from rubbing like mad. Fine Napa leather it was not - more like DFS grade.
From some angles, I think the Europa looks amazing - follow one down a twisty road and you'll see it as something really distinct from other Lotus (pl.)
They are rare and some of the parts are unobtainable (eg light clusters). I bought mine in 2012 for - I think - £19k and after putting a few grand into it to fix issues its previous owner had neglected, I think I sold it for about £23k a few years later so it probably broke even. Given what I know the current owner has done to the Persian car, I suspect I'd need a lot more than that to buy it back...
And who doesn't love a NACA duct, eh?
That brings back some memories, I had forgoten the one I had access too also had an upgraded exhaust, not sure what brand though. Loved the pop's and bangs on gear change, real ones of course, not like the synthetic faux ones on almost every M, R, ST, RS these days.Here it was - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
TBH, I never really clicked with the drivetrain. The gearchange was nice but not S2000 nice, and the turbo lag and flat blare of the exhaust compared to the NA bark of the much-less powerful Elise I'd only got shortly before meant, to me, it was less pleasurable to drive even though it was a lot faster.
I often thought if they had followed up the Europa SE with a model based on a Supercharged S2 Elise but with the same brakes as the SE (which were phenomenal), it would be a sweet spot.
I put a Chris Tullet exhaust on mine - some before/after vids on
Exterior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KGnkF9c-Vk and
Interior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Lr9vZnI-c
The exhaust certainly added some drama and helped to mask one of the most annoying things about the car - the continual squeaks and rattles that came from all around the cabin. It was like playing whack-a-mole using tile wedges and bits of old windscreen wiper to shove into gaps to stop the supposedly deluxe leather and plastic from rubbing like mad. Fine Napa leather it was not - more like DFS grade.
From some angles, I think the Europa looks amazing - follow one down a twisty road and you'll see it as something really distinct from other Lotus (pl.)
They are rare and some of the parts are unobtainable (eg light clusters). I bought mine in 2012 for - I think - £19k and after putting a few grand into it to fix issues its previous owner had neglected, I think I sold it for about £23k a few years later so it probably broke even. Given what I know the current owner has done to the Persian car, I suspect I'd need a lot more than that to buy it back...
And who doesn't love a NACA duct, eh?
I've had an early one of these for the last year and about 3k miles of driving. It shares the garage the a K20 powered S1 Elise that I've had for nearly two decades, and early 70s Elan +2 and a Caterham 420R - all of which are used on a regular basis. So my car choices might not be broadly representative.
That caveated, the Europa has really grown on me. It definitely looks better in some colours than others, and photographs poorly in most, but the overall shape I think is aging quite well. Scarcity really helps too, and here where I live in South Africa I don't think there is another Europe within 600 miles!
The interior, as others have noted, was never going to pry people out of their Boxsters or TTs, but is a dramatic step up as compared my S1. Just don't expect to use the radio. Or comfortably take a phone call whilst on the move. Happily, for me, the Lotus seats of the era have also amazed me by being surprisingly comfortable, even for trips of 5+ hours. And for day to day driving the very wide torque band of the motor makes for effortless progress in the city or cross-country. Similarly, the ride quality is really superb. and that's not just against my other cars, but against modern performance hatches, etc.
Oh, and the exhaust, on mine at least, pops on overrun and bangs on upshifts. Which is juvenile. And all the better for it.
Headlamp and taillamp replacement units are, basically, unobtanium, but if you can put that our of your mind, there is much to enjoy.
(Let me close by including a shot of the car at 3200m above sea-level on a skip trip to Lesotho.)
That caveated, the Europa has really grown on me. It definitely looks better in some colours than others, and photographs poorly in most, but the overall shape I think is aging quite well. Scarcity really helps too, and here where I live in South Africa I don't think there is another Europe within 600 miles!
The interior, as others have noted, was never going to pry people out of their Boxsters or TTs, but is a dramatic step up as compared my S1. Just don't expect to use the radio. Or comfortably take a phone call whilst on the move. Happily, for me, the Lotus seats of the era have also amazed me by being surprisingly comfortable, even for trips of 5+ hours. And for day to day driving the very wide torque band of the motor makes for effortless progress in the city or cross-country. Similarly, the ride quality is really superb. and that's not just against my other cars, but against modern performance hatches, etc.
Oh, and the exhaust, on mine at least, pops on overrun and bangs on upshifts. Which is juvenile. And all the better for it.
Headlamp and taillamp replacement units are, basically, unobtanium, but if you can put that our of your mind, there is much to enjoy.
(Let me close by including a shot of the car at 3200m above sea-level on a skip trip to Lesotho.)
Ive always liked the styling of these. I was tracking the prices of them 3-4 years back & was seiously considering getting one after my mortgage was paid off. In the end i pushed the boat a little further out & went for an Evora. Still i dont think you would feel short changed with one of these. Coincedently been to a few LDC car meets & its the Europa that gets all the attention when ever theirs one turn up. As the article states they are so rare.
This was mine, not as tuneable as a lot of people think as the ECU was a Lotus specific part not the normal vauxhall one. Lovely car even if you couldn’t find reverse most of the time.
To say they never went below £20k makes me cry as I had a fire sale on mine to free up funds and sold it for £16!!!!
Sebastian Tombs said:
I always thought these looked a little ungainly, with tacked-on-afterthought styling that resembled a kit car.
its the weird rear bumper - reg recess doesn't line up with the tails, and those slashes are bad. the rest of it is quite nicely done i think - great stance and proportions.I got a test drive in one of these, not long after launch at the short-lived Leicester dealer. The interior of the earliest cars was a bit of a horror, with bits hanging off and loose wires hanging below the dash.
Getting in and out was not that bad, but I drove a Morgan daily at the time. The price seemed huge compared to the Vectra I also owned and the convertible Beetle I bought my wife.
Getting in and out was not that bad, but I drove a Morgan daily at the time. The price seemed huge compared to the Vectra I also owned and the convertible Beetle I bought my wife.
AmyRichardson said:
Recently saw one at a classics and curiosities type meet in darkest Suffolk; the general response was one of confusion "err, the interior's too nice to be an Elise variant," "it's a bit long..." - save for the Lotus hardcore it seemed that everyone had forgotten these existed.
I'm not sure anyone except the "Lotus hardcore" ever knew they existed! Looks like they've crept up in price over the last few years. I nearly bought one a few years ago, I couldn't get past the slat things on the lower part of the rear. I ended up with a S1 Elise with a factory hard top, which was a great car. Interesting to see that the top priced car is about the same as the lower end of the Evora market and I know what I'd have (especially given the potential parts availability mentioned)
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