Haha. Yeah, It felt odd as I typed the 'R' word, but she certainly deserved to be labeled as such. In fact, in the 3.5 years that I have owned the car I have piled on over 13,000 miles, and with the exception of some tuning issues in year two, there have been amazingly few problems. I am a firm believer that the more the car is driven, the fewer the problems that will be encountered.
Prior to buying the car, and in the years since, I have read countless reports online of owners or previous owners who claim that their Europa was brilliant... when it ran. Many counts of people who would never dare to drive it more than 20-25 miles from home, and only then with their AAA card in hand and the number of a friend with a truck and trailer. This was disconcerting at first, for as you know, one of my favorite activities is to 'road trip' a classic car. I was most concerned at first, but decided that there was no reason why such a simple car, properly maintained and modified where necessary, could not be made to be a reliable road machine. I certainly do stand to incur roadside problems if I continue to 'road trip' the machine, but thus far the results have been most encouraging.