Lotus Europa S-2 /Twin Cam Engine / Drive Train / Rear Suspension Conversion Kit

[Europa73]

Has anyone seen this crazy conversion kit.

Just imagine your Europa revving to 12,000 RPM :-)


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lotus-Europa-S-2-Twin-Cam-Engine-Drive-Train-Rear-Suspension-Conversion-Kit/253770738409?hash=item3b15ea2ae9:g:rI8AAOSw0lVbCMhS

[BDA]

Actually, I think I had seen that while surfing eBay. It's amazing what people end up doing with/to Europas! I guess if you bought a basket case, it might actually be worthwhile to drop that in rather than scrounge parts and rebuild engines and trannies. It would certainly be an interesting ride!

[RoddyMac]

This conversion, I think, had been discussed a while ago.  The chassis mods to make it fit are a bit suspect, the front of the new engine cradle cuts the flange of the chassis nearly, if not all the way back,  to the vertical web. If you were to weld the cradle in, it should work ok, but why not just cut the chassis off at the Y and build a complete new back structure?

The other thing was, I think, discussed was the very short upper link on the suspension.  It looks like there will be quite a lot of camber change throughout suspension movement.

The same seller lists the seat/firewall reinforcement. 

[Clifton]

I posted about this on the Yahoo mailing list. I also posted a link to a suspension set up page that you can punch in your angles, lengths, ect. and input your roll angle. Who ever built that kit is trying to kill people. Look at the upper control angle. Upon cornering when the inside wheel goes into droop, it will cause jacking. Someone will die with that kit. Hopefully it is not a customer.

[EuropaTC]

I remember you posting about it Clifton and although I didn't follow through with the maths, the geometry looked wrong to me as well.  It would help if you could see the suspension fully loaded with the car on it's wheels, perhaps it goes to a more realistic angle then but even so it looks strange. I think I'd want to see one working and preferably not on public roads, before I jumped in for one.

Brian

[Clifton]

 The lower arm has good angle, it's just the top one that is so far from good. In bump, it would gain positive camber.  It looks like the long radius arm is bolted to the upright in a way that the upright follow the arms arc. This doesn't make sense as it would bind. I don't think that is stock but I don't know as I used a different upright. I am not a suspension designer but I had to design a rear dual A arm suspension on mine. I used a program and spent tens of hours until it did everything the best I could get it to do given the lengths I had to work with.

[EuropaTC]

Agreed on both counts although it was the upper arm which made the greatest impression for me, the radius arm just looked like it was a work in progress....     

The more you look at it the more I could be convinced that this hasn't actually run yet. The photo you've posted shows the car "on it's wheels" but there's not a lot of sidewall distortion on the tyre so it's either very hard or the car is very light.

[Nockenwelle]

The Europa must be the car with the highest number of strange, daring and often ridiculous or tasteless conversions around.

Why is the Europa so attractive for all sort of conversions?
- the Europa is cheap
- the 'super car' look of the car and the Europa does not live up to it (sheep in wolf's clothing)
- some design flaws like the rear axle design

Besides the questionable engineering aspects of the Ebay offered engine/rear axle conversion the market must be next to zero. I don't get it.