Lotus Europa Colors/Colours

[literarymadness]

I have a few numbers courtesy of Andy Graham (Lotus Archives) for Lotus Europa production numbers based on exterior paint color/colour. If anyone else could post any of the remaining numbers, it would be greatly appreciated.

Out of the 1834 Europa TCS imported to the USA, 424 were Black Gloss (L15), 255 Regency Red (L11), 163 Lotus Yellow (L07), 40 Olympic Blue (L26), and 9 Colorado Orange (L14). These numbers do not include the remaining 202 R-Code (Fed-spec) that went to Canada or Japan. Though I do know that a single Colorado TCS was imported to Canada. If you own it, you have one of one.   I have one UK P-Code number: 250 Black Gloss TCS.

The only TC numbers I have are 93 Lotus Yellow,  82 Colorado orange, and 79 Regency Red. Olympic Blue was a late 1974 color only. I am guessing Ford Tawny Brown (L16) was built in relatively high numbers. Glacier Blue (L17), Roman Purple (L21), and Renault Mid green (L18) are most likely super low.

[4129R]

TCS Colours
« on: Tuesday,June 14, 2016, 02:08:24 PM »
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Being a very sad person who is bored watching the European football on TV, I decided to list the colours of TCS on the Europa Registry.

I have only recorded the colours where they are clearly identifiable.

Black                            L15   161

Lagoon Blue                 L12     80

Regency Red                L11     76

Ford Tawny                  L16      49

Lotus Yellow                L07      46

Cirrus White                L04      41

Carnival Red                L05      19

Sable                          L19      14

Roman Purple             L21      13

Renault Mid Green      L17        8

Mint Green                 L29        8

Sepia                         L23         7

Olympic Blue             L26         5

Indigo                       L20         3

Glacier Blue               L18         3

Pistachio Lime Green L13         2

Monaco WEhite         L25         1

Bitter Green              L22         1

Rover Brown             L28         1

Total                                    538 cars with paint colour clearly listed

[literarymadness]

4129R: Thanks for the response but those are not actual production numbers, Those are the TCS totals from the cars registered on lotus-europa.com.  P-Code, Q-Code, and R-Code are all lumped together and represent only 538 of the 3383 total Europa TCS built which is roughly only 17% of production.  For example, the actual total for Black (L15) is 674 TCS built (excluding Q-Code and Non-USA R-Code) so probably somewhere around 800 with those other numbers included.  Most owners who have requested a Provenance for their car from Lotus Archives have been given the specifics of their particular car' color and I was hoping some members would share that data.

[surfguitar58]

Andy Graham confirms my TCS was originally shipped to Lotus East (Northeast USA) in Cirrus White L04.
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[Exlimey]

My TC F ,LO 5, oatmeal int, shipped to lotus east,sold by Darby Motors, Staten Island,Currently Red.

[4129R]

Andy Graham has been to see my cars, and he told me some of the Lotus records say the cars are a completely different colour to what is on the VIN plate and what is obviously the original colour when you take the screen out or take the doors apart.

Therefore the Lotus records are not completely correct.

[literarymadness]

Surfguitar58: Did Andy Graham say how many Cirrus White were made? Usually, Andy sends a letter accompanying the Provenance saying how many cars were made in your color or if the color is rare, he puts it on the Provenance document. If not, you can write him and request that information.

4129R: That doesn't surprise me at all. There was a color Lotus made back then called Laurel Green. It didn't have a Paint Code, so on the cars painted that color, Lotus simply didn't put any color code on the VIN ID tag.

[rjbaren]

I have a number for you. 
From the letter from Andy Graham,
My 1973 TCS is the 782nd out of 1834 cars. 
My 1973 TCS is the 113th out of 287 cars in Lagoon Blue.

[literarymadness]

rjbaren: Thanks!! 

That makes Laguna Blue the second most popular color so far which corresponds to the sample set 4129R posted from Lotus Europa Central. My guess would be that Cirrus White and Tawny Brown would round off the top 5 or 6 TCS colors. So at least for the USA TCS so far, the numbers below. Some UK and ROW numbers would be great.

(L15) Black Gloss           424
(L12) Laguna Blue          287
(L11) Regency Red         255
(L07) Lotus Yellow          163
(L26) Olympic Blue           40
(L14) Colorado Orange       9