Banks Europa - Club Lotus Show in 2000 !!

[EuropaTC]

Hi folks,

I'm currently scanning old photographs from 35mm prints which I've taken over the years and came across these from a Lotus show we went to around 2000. This car made a big impression on me at the time, everyone else was showing cars which were "normal" and then you stumbled across this one from Richard.....

Brian

[BDA]

From the fertile mind of Richard Winter! I tell you, he's a national treasure for you Brits and us Europa owners! Thanks for the pictures, Brian!

[EuropaTC]

It's certainly "out there" as far as Europa designs go, isn't it ? 

It was the rear suspension that intrigued me, I've seen similar things on racing cars but never on a Europa. It looked like a complete "Richard" design, in fact the complete car has that homegrown look about it but of course with his usual high quality build.  It's so unusual I expect it ended up on a racing circuit, if not it's one heck of a Sunday drive !

Brian

[BDA]

The slicks pretty much give it away that it's strictly a competition car. Maybe it's a development of the car in this video (it doesn't have the front air dam).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKSfJZxYfg4

[EuropaTC]

I think that's called the "drive it like you stole it" approach to track days......     

[BDA]

 

[JR73]

 :newhere:Hi All,
I know that car pretty well - Worked at Banks for a few years after finishing at Uni.
That is one of Richards race cars, based on his own chassis (which as far as I’m aware is still available to purchase) with numerous modifications including aluminum honeycombe floors and bulkheads etc etc....
Those pictures appear to be pre 2000, it has a 2.0 Vauxhall engine fitted there but by 2000 it also had a supercharger attached which improved the power somewhat!! (A good few trips to the dyno where involved to get it sorted as Richard was pretty much doing it all for the first time with the supercharger/engine combo)
It was purely a track only race car, competed in the BARC North West Sports and Saloons Championship (sponsored at the time by ‘Ace Vehicle Deliveries’) - the video is of a customer car from much later that I saw at a few events in various states of build that was being built for Stage Rallying.
If you look closely you can see that the bodywork is quite different - especially the front end clamshell.

It’s been a while but seeing those pics has certainly brought back a lot of good and funny memories (whilst also remembering a fair few fraught rebuilds and repreps of the various race cars that we ran at the time....!)
If I can work out how to do it from my phone i’ll put a couple of pics of my own Banks car up....

Jon

[EuropaTC]

Hi Jon, and 

That's a fascinating insight on the Banks car development, I for one would love to hear more.  I'm not sure how many forum members have a Banks Europa, that's definitely worth a new thread ! (with pictures of course    )

Brian

[JR73]

Hi Brian,
I’ve posted a bit about my car in the members cars section...

Something else I’ve remembered about Richards car from looking at the pictures is that the rear wheels got a fair bit wider than those pictured when the power increased! He also changed to Penske Dampers - fully adjustable with remote reservoirs.

There’s a Hewland box installed along with a full Stack system including their Data Logging system.

Also worth mentioning that Richard used to do all the mapping himself, a lot of the ‘serious’ cars where finished off by adjusting the maps when running up and down the roads (private roads of course officer!!!) with a lambda sensor attached and making notes on where the power was vs where it needed to be..... like I said, some good times!!!

[Bainford]

Thanks for posting the photos, Brian. I photographed this car at Olton Park in August 2000, and like you, I was quite intrigued. It was still 10 years before I would own my own Europa, but I was amazed by this little rocket ship, and tried to imagine what it would be like to drive it. It looked great in motion on the track.

[JR73]

Bainford, did you photograph the transporter and the other Europas running that day at Oulton? - if you did then there’s a possibility of my ugly mug being on one of them?!!!

[Bainford]

Bainford, did you photograph the transporter and the other Europas running that day at Oulton? - if you did then there’s a possibility of my ugly mug being on one of them?!!!

I didn't photograph the transporter, but I did take a photo of a nice, clean, pale yellow S1 or S2 road car that was parked with the Banks racer. I'll see if I can dig up those old photos.

[JR73]

I remember that day! - I think I have photos of the cars parked up around the transporter too.
If it was a Bahama Yellow S2 then it belonged to a Club Lotus member that lived in Southport who’s name was Roger, nice chap, he used to help out around the paddock etc - he had written about his many years of ownership and had it published in the Club Lotus mag and I’m pretty sure he affectionately called the car the ‘doormat’ - or something similar...? He had done a SERIOUS number of miles in it during his ownership - at least twice around the odometer if I remember correctly?

Anyway, whilst searching around the internet today I found the following article which seems to explain a bit about Banks and what Richard is currently doing for those who are interested;

https://anygivenreason.com/2017/09/a-visit-to-europa-engineering/

[BDA]

Thanks for the link, Jon! Pretty fascinating! He really does have A LOT of interests and his place is much nicer than I expected. For some reason, I pictured it as all shop and no character - that doesn't mean I thought Richard lacked character!

As for what he's been doing currently, I hope it includes a buddy of mine's S2. He shipped it to Richard several years ago and it doesn't seem to be on the horizon yet. He is still convinced that he got the right guy to build it, though. Maybe Richard's has too many interests!

[JR73]

I found it interesting too tbh, a lot of it looks the same as when I worked there but the showroom has grown quite considerably and I didn’t spot S1 SAR 857D in any of the pics - I’d be very surprised if he’s sold it.

Being what appears to be the sole person there doing it all i’m not surprised that your friend is still waiting, there was a waiting list for paintwork that stretched to 3 years when I was there and he had two full time body guys there back then - Richard always did the final paintwork though as that really was his thing.

I have a friend who is quite similar to Richard that specializes in Esprit’s mainly, he isn’t too far from Southport either and he too is a one man band (I used to make a lot of stuff that he sold) - Lotus have even bought things like his pistons from him because they no longer had a supply or the specs for the different engines. - recently returned a rebuilt Twin Cam engine to a guy that lives across the road from me that he had for 10 years!! It seems to be a common thing, great engineers, passionate about the cars but not all that great at people.....if you know what I mean?!