I attach an image of the Europa Special I had. It is number 63 of the 100 that Lotus built to commemorate their 50th Grand Prix win and 1972 Constructors' title.
It was a publicity shot taken in 1983 or thereabouts at Norvic Racing Engines here in the UK. Norvic at the time, were based at Little Staughton Airfield that is just north of Bedford. Little Staughton was an American bomber-base in World War II.
Norvic was run by Steve Sanville who had been Chief Powertrain Engineer in the 1960s. He productionised the twin-cam engine and then developed it into the Big-Valve version. He also developed the slant-four engine that was used in the second-generation Elite, Eclat and Excel series.
Steve left Lotus to establish a company to rebuild Chapman's DFV engines. Having left, he was galled to see Tony Rudd then get the credit for the Big-Valve and to add further woe, Chapman reneged on his promise.
He diversified into aero engines. The site at Little Staughton is a functioning airfield so the new direction was both necessary and propitious.
Of note in the picture is the man "working" on my car. He is Colin Gain. Colin accompanied Steve from Lotus to Norvic as Chief Machine-Shop Foreman.
If you recall, the Europa S1 used the engine and transaxle from the Renault 16. Well, Colin led the team that adapted the gearbox so that it had four forward as opposed to four reverse gears. In the Renault, the gearbox protruded from the front of the car whereas in the Europa of course, protrusion was at the rear.
Colin was then involved when the original type 336 gearbox was replaced by the 352 and latterly, the 5-speed 365.
He and Steve helped me on several occasions both with twin-cam engines and Europa gearboxes. Steve had the original blue-prints for the twin-cam; he told me he wasn't supposed to have them, but he did.
Sadly, Steve passed away some 30 years ago. He was a qualified pilot both for powered aircraft and gliders. While gliding, he had an aortic aneurysm. On pages 84 and 85 of Doug Nye's book The Story of Lotus 1961-1971, there is a picture of Jim Clark sitting in Lotus's first Indy Challenger. It is surrounded by mechanics and Colin Chapman. Steve is standing on Chapman's left.
