So, long story short . . . my dad bought this exact '69 Europa (54-1540) used in 1973, 2 years before I was born, he raced it some, and drove it very sparingly. I inherited it after he passed in '93, sold it before being stationed in Hawaii in '98 because I couldn't take to with me, severely regretted it, posted a "want ad" on a Lotus-Europa.com, and then after 8 years of searching and waiting, I was contacted by someone that found it, located in Puerto Rico, of all places. I bought it, had it shipped back (after 3 months of paperwork and more waiting), and now it sits in my garage! It needs some work, but that's the fun part. It actually still has a sticker in the back window that my Dad slapped on nearly 45 years ago.
It had the black nose badge, which I will be replacing, carries the "Europe" trunk emblem and only has 46k km on it. That's right. The odometer is in km.
Plans? remove the yellow stripes, reset the windshield, swap out the fluids, go through it over time, enjoy seeing it at first, then enjoy driving it, and ultimately pass it down to one of my 3 kids as life goes on.
The first few pics of the car are from 1998, the yellow stripes were added sometime in between then and now.
