The name was later revived in the Type 121 Europa S, a sports car based on the Lotus Elise produced from 2006 to 2010.

Europa (1966–1975)

By the mid-1960s, the mid-engine vehicle configuration was well-established as the optimal design for Grand Prix cars, however almost no road vehicles yet used this arrangement. Lotus planned the Europa to be a volume-produced, two-seater mid-engine sports coupe built to reasonable cost, quite an ambitious goal for the time. Like all Lotus vehicles of the era, the Europa was designed and built following Chapman's oft-stated philosophy of automotive design: "Simplify, then add lightness". To this end, a number of ingenious design approaches were made by Lotus to allow it to economically overcome the many challenges presented by the novel mid-engine arrangement.

Production of the original Lotus Europa ceased in 1975, with a total of 9,230 cars of all models having been built.

Design features

Lotus Europa S2 from above (1968 model)

Interior (1968 black-badge model)

The Europa used a lightweight, folded & welded "minimalist" boxed-steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass moulded body, a combination that was first used by Lotus founder Colin Chapman in the Lotus Elan launched in 1962. Earliest versions of the Europa had the body fully bonded to the chassis for maximum structural stiffness, however this was soon changed to a bolted-on body to allow normal chassis and body repairs to be made. Unlike the Elan, the Europa had no front-mounted engine or gearbox to accommodate, and so the Europa's main chassis member ran straight forward to intersect a large box-section cross-beam running across the car between the front suspension points. At the rear, the chassis split into a "U" shape behind the cabin to accommodate the combined engine, transmission and final-drive components, and to support the rear suspension.

Engine and transaxle
The sourcing of suitable engine, gearbox and final-drive components was considered critical to the success of delivering a low-cost mid-engine vehicle. Chapman was keen to diversify beyond the Ford components heavily used in earlier Lotus vehicles, and settled on using the engine and combined transmission/final-drive transaxle units recently released by Renault for their 16. The 1,470 cc (1.5 L) Renault engine was a light and modern design, while the matching Renault 16 transaxle seemed almost ideal for the Europa project. In the Renault, the transaxle sat ahead of the engine, driving the front wheels. By relocating the combined engine/transaxle unit to the rear of the car and rotating it 180 degrees in plan, Lotus could obtain a ready-made modern mid-engine configuration - albeit one with four reverse gears. By repositioning the differential crownwheel within the final drive assembly, the direction of rotation of the output shafts was reversed, thus correcting this shortcoming.[4]

The Renault 16's engine's design met Lotus's requirements. It used an aluminium block with cast-iron cylinder liners, which saved appreciable weight compared to the cast-iron blocks more common at the time. Its overhead-valve design had the camshaft located high-up in the block, resulting in a compact valve-train well suited for high-rpm operation. Most importantly, all the engine ancillaries (water pump, belt-drives, alternator) were driven off a v-belt pulley fixed to the transaxle end of the camshaft instead of being driven by the engine's crankshaft. When fitted to the Europa, this pulley location put all the engine's ancillaries at its rear face giving easy access for maintenance, rather than them being located against the vehicle's bulkhead as-for most conventional engines.[4][5]

For Lotus' use, the Renault engine was given a number of key improvements, including a higher compression ratio (10.25 instead of 8.6), larger inlet valves, revised valve timings, dual valve springs and a twin-barrel carburettor. These changes lifted the engine's power by 30% from 63 hp (47 kW) at 5,000 rpm to 82 hp (61 kW) at 6,000 rpm. For US export, a de-tuned 1,565 cc (1.6 L) version with a maximum output of 80 hp (60 kW) at 6,000 rpm was fitted.[5][6]

Later, Europa models were fitted with the same Ford-based Lotus TwinCam engine used in the Elan range since 1962. This was a sophisticated, twin-overhead-cam, 8-valve high-performance engine rated at 105 hp (78 kW) in original (Euro) specification (later uprated to 126 hp (94 kW) in "big-valve" form). It was reported that Lotus initially delayed its introduction in the Europa until they were confident in the strength of the Renault transaxle. The twin-cam engine first appeared in the Europa engine bay in mid-1971 (in Europe) and early 1972 (in North America).[2] In North America, both the (early) 1972 Twin Cam version and (late) 1972–1974 Twin Cam "Special" versions were rated at 113 hp (84 kW) in Federalized Form.

When Renault introduced their most powerful 16 TX model in 1973, it included a strengthened 5-speed transmission. Lotus quickly offered this gearbox as an option in the Europa, along with their Big Valve twin-cam engine.

Suspension
 

The Europa's four-wheel independent suspension was also typical Chapman thinking. The front used lightweight pressed steel upper and lower wishbones with a clever coil-over spring-damper arrangement, all connected to the wheels using off-the-shelf front uprights, ball joints and trunnions. The steering gear was solid-mounted rack and pinion using components from the Triumph Herald.[3]

The rear suspension was a heavily modified version of the Chapman strut, originally developed for Chapman's earlier Formula racing car designs and used in the Elan.  

In the Europa, the vertical "strut" element pivots on the wheel hub at its lower end and doesn't control wheel camber angle as-in earlier Lotus designs. Wheel location and alignment is controlled instead by interaction between a fixed-length, articulated driveshaft top link, a simple tubular lower link, and a large box-section radius arm running diagonally forward to the chassis.

These radius arms played a critical role in giving the precise tracking and handling desired, as the Chapman Strut's use of the driveshaft to resist lateral forces was compromised by the rubber engine and transaxle mounts needed to isolate vibrations from the car body.[7] A careful compromise between the radius arm mount's stiffness, isolation and car handling was required, culminating eventually in a sandwich bush that was flexible against shear but stiff in compression and tension.

The car's subsequent resulting handling prompted automotive writers to describe the Europa as the nearest thing to a Formula car for the road