Hello to all Europa fans! Glad to have found this forum and to see many friends from LotusElan.net over here too.
I am a dedicated Elan enthusiast but know that much of our shared interest in Lotus twin cam engined (Renault too, of course) sports cars crosses Types. I have my own dedicated web site to the Elan Sprint and write a regular column on the Elan in the Club Lotus News magazine. I also help Andy Graham at the factory to build up the records on Elans, particularly of those cars, the records for which were lost in a flood at Hethel in the late 1970s.
When I was a lad growing up in Leicestershire in the 1960s, a friend's elder brother ran a Series 2 Europa, sold after a couple of years for a newer Twin Cam. I never got a ride in either and it was not until I was stationed in Germany that I finally got to sit in a JPS Special Europa. I found it familiar yet somewhat cramped compared to the Sprint I had. Since then I have avoided the Europa in preference for the Elan and Plus 2!
I therefore hope I can make the occasional contribution to this forum. To that end, I am currently researching the Spence BRM Elans for a future magazine article and wanted to ask if anyone on here has ever come across the Spence BRM Europa, which was road tested in June 1970 by Doug Blain, editor of Car magazine. The photo below is from the Chris Harvey book. If anyone has a copy of the whole road test I’d much appreciate sight of it.
Of course at this time the Europa version was the Series 2 and Mike Spence Developments Ltd breathed on the Renault engine. (The Spence BRM Elan had wonderfully tuned Twin Cams direct from BRM’s Bourne base at their heart). They offered two stages of tune and I have attached their specification sheet from 1968. In a later 1969 brochure they spoke of running the ex Team Lotus 47 GT with Ted Bunce driving.
Tim
