Finally, someone who knows how to photograph a Europa

[jbcollier]

Europas are gorgeous cars that don’t easily photograph well.  Here is someone who nailed it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/292745628873

(don’t know the car or the owner)

[BDA]

That's a beautiful car and probably original enough to get a good price and maybe even his asking price. I hope it works out well for him.

[RoddyMac]

The seller would be part of Owen Automotive:  http://owenauto.ca/

I used to deal with his dad, Mike, when I was selling parts.  They do very good work.

[4129R]

Well somethings don't stack up.

He says it is a 1974 car.

But, the car is 73063708R, built 6/1973, invoiced 6/28/1973.

It has April 1974 map holder between the seats and April 1974 struts on the engine cover. Taking another look, those struts are not the factory original, nor the Banks brackets.   

Original colour white.

[gideon]

The car could have been made in 1973, but not sold until some time in 1974.  Then the car could have been registered as a 1974 vehicle.  Maybe the invoice date the date of the invoice to the distributor?

[surfguitar58]

Mine was built in October of 1973 and represented to me as a 1974 model at time of sale. Unfortunately I have zero documentation on my car from the deceased PO. Is there a VIN number where model year switched from 1973 to 1974, or is that too much to ask for?

When people ask, I alternately say it’s a ‘73 or ‘74. I don’t think it makes much difference.

I did have one reputedly knowledgeable car guy point to the placard and say “It’s definitely a 1974. See? It says right here, ‘Type 74’”.

t

[Bodzer]

I can imagine with yours Surf that with shipping and customs etc that it may have been sold in the following year. Only a guess. Mine was a late ‘70 build but registered in ‘71.

[Pfreen]

My car, 2963R was built in December of 1972 but is titled as a 1974 car.

[Gary t]

My car is 54/1173 which I believe is first quarter of 1969 but was registered as a 1970. I plan to see if I can change it to a 1969 registration.

[4129R]

The differences between a 1973 and a late, proper 1974 car, seem to be the 1974 car has the centre map box, struts on the engine cover, and if it is an oatmeal interior, very nice cloth inserts in the seats to both the bottom square part, and the large rear backrest part.

This change seems to come in around build date of January 1974 which equates to around chassis number 74014218R

[BobW]

Interestingly to me, I live in the same city as the seller and have never seen this car. Owen Automotive is also restoring a green S2 for Mike Owen's daughter but this is clearly not it.

[pboedker]

Well somethings don't stack up.

He says it is a 1974 car.

But, the car is 73063708R, built 6/1973, invoiced 6/28/1973.

My car is '73083904R', i.e. from august 73. However, it wasn't registered until june 74 and this is reflected on all it's paperwork starting in California, via Germany and now being in Denmark. When I had to pay the import/registration tax it meant a lot for the amount if it was a 73 or a 74 car. The chassis number '74/3904R' did cause a bit of confusion there, but the archivist at Lotus was very helpful.

As far as I know, Lotus didn't work with model years then, so this car is in my best opinion best described as a US-model Special from june 73, which happens to have being first registered in 74. And which has various later modifications, including the centre map box and engine cover struts.

[literarymadness]

US Federal auto registration laws allows automobiles to be registered for the model year as far back as Jan 1, of the previous calendar year.  All 1964 1/2 Ford Mustangs are officially 1965s.  Most International Auto shows are in September or October, so many Euro manufacturers follow the US practice to introduce the model year at those shows. For most manufacturers, July or August begins the next model year.  A car built in August 72 would be a 1973 model.  There are plenty of exceptions. !982 Corvettes were built through December of 1982 and 1984 Corvette production began in March of 1983.  Chevy actually skipped the 1983 model year.  Fed Lotus Europa S2 (type 65) were manufactured as late as December of 1971 overlapping Twin Cam (type 74) production. There are both 1972 model year S2s and Twin Cams registered.  If a model was slow selling, manufacturers in the past will also take unsold cars in the US and change the registration date to the following year.  A car built in Dec 1972 could still be at the docks after Jan 1, 1973 which means if it was still unsold a year later could be registered as 1974.

[4129R]

73104129R had neither the centre map box, nor the engine cover struts, but had different light brown cloth inserts with the oatmeal trim.

74024259R had all three, the centre map box, the original Lotus engine cover struts, and the cloth inserts in the seats.

From registry photos, 73084019R and 73084021R have no struts or map boxes, 73104084R seems to have the original Lotus strut,  4088R seems to have the Lotus struts and the cloth trim, 73114159R has the Lotus struts and the cloth trim, 4206R has the original Lotus struts and the map box, 4227R has non original engine cover struts, 4214R has the Lotus struts, 4251R has the Lotus struts and the cloth inserts in the seats, 4255R has the Lotus struts, the map box, but has been re-trimmed in leather, 4279R has the glove box cover but the whole dashboard looks to be a different wood, 4299R has the Lotus struts and the glove box cover.

So it seems from about 73104084R, the Lotus production line fitted whatever they had lying around behind them, as normal !!!

Therefore Sherlock deduces changes happened around October 1973, and you got what they had lying around behind them on the production line.

To back that random specification up, the very last UK cars had US Federal bodyshells, e.g. my original car 75032429P.

[lotusfanatic]

as JB said, great photographs!