I heard back from Andy at Lotus.
Here is the text of the email I sent him. I also attached the two pictures of interiors that I posted earlier:
Hi Andy,
If you have a few minutes could you correct or confirm my memory? My memory is that the Europa never came with upholstered consoles and that even in the later Twin Cam Specials with the dressed up champagne interior, the seats, the door cards, and the elbow pad were upholstered in champagne but the console was left bare black vinyl as the earlier Europa Twin Cam and Twin Cam Specials were. There are some on this side of the pond suggest that some consoles were upholstered from the factory. The attached picture from a book published in 1980, "The Lotus Elan and Europa" by John Bolster seems to bolster the case for an upholstered console (lower picture). My memory of the later cars is exemplified in the upper picture. Is my memory correct?
I'll understand if you don't have time to research this, but I would really appreciate your time, if you can spare it, for this very trivial request.
Thanks!
[I should note that I didn't remember that SilverBeast is from the UK when I sent him that email! my apologies, SliverBeast!]
And this is his reply. He attached a copy of the same brochure for which MAK supplied a link earlier and a letter from the Lotus distributor to the dealers he serviced announcing the '74 1/2 model year changes (of which I've attached a screen scrape):
Dear Jim,
Unfortunately without full build records and very little reference material I cannot say for sure.
You can see the two colour variations from the Europa Special brochure attached. I know for 1974 the interior trim was revised, is the car with full oatmeal trim a 1974 car?
Regards,
I've convinced myself that my memory is accurate that the factory never upholstered the consoles for a production car. I think if it had been done, it would have been done on the later models and the dealer communication does not mention it. Also, I think promotional material released by Lotus would certainly show the car in the best and dressiest light and there doesn't seem to be any that shows an upholstered dash.
Having said all that, if anybody is convinced that their car has an upholstered console, I won't argue. First, it's not that important to me and second, there is still some room for doubt.
So that's my 2ยข!