54 / 1867 history ?

[johnr1141]

Hi fellow Europa friends,

I an based in UK and I own an S2 Europa (54 /1867) which was Manufactured around June 1969. It was originally British Racing Green (but may also have been resprayed Pistachio Green before being painted Black). When I bought the car (about 4 years ago) it was in a poor state. I have since renovated the car and hope to have it back on the road soon. Unfortunately, I have very little history of the car prior to me taking ownership other than it was sold at Auction around 2011 and had been off the road since the mid 80s. After leaving the factory in 1969 it went to a dealer (Normand) near Gatwick and a suspect it may have spent its early life in the South East of England.

I wonder if anyone on this forum might have any knowledge of this particular car (it carried a Registration BEX 71). If so, I would  really appreciate anything you can share with me.

John




 

[TurboFource]

 

Hopefully someone can answer your question.

[EuropaTC]

Hi John, and another 

It used to be reasonably easy to get background on our cars in the UK because if you asked the DVLA they'd send you details of previous ownership, log book details they had, etc. This was only for "historic vehicles" so you had to tick the boxes, pay a nominal fee (£5 ?) and I got an A4 envelope in the post with xeroxed pages which included the supplying dealer from new and changes of ownership.   

They might still do it but I do remember some discussion about people having trouble and being refused the service a few years ago. Always worth asking, they can only say "no" can't they ?

I think your main source is Andy Graham, the Lotus Archivist, (AGraham@lotuscars.com) who is/was collecting chassis plate details for his records. There's a post on here about when he started

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1545.0

We swapped emails on my car a while ago but I know he issues "Certificates of Provenance" which includes what details Lotus have of your car when first sold. There's a fee these days but I've no idea how much.

The only other places I can suggest are Club Lotus and The Lotus Drivers Club. Although CL seems geared towards the modern generations in the 70s/80s it was very much an Elan/Europa club and someone might pick up on the distinctive number plate.  The LDC is/was very enthusiast based so again someone might pick up on the number.

Cheers
Brian

[BDA]

  John!!!

There is a Europa registry based in the US here (http://lotus-europa.com/registry.html) but unfortunately, I didn't find your car and the guy who takes care of this site hasn't updated the registry in many years. I hope you find some answers. In the meantime, I think it's worth noting that another page on that site has a wealth of good information that every Europa owner should be aware of (http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/index.htm).

Good luck with the rest of your restoration and be sure to show us the finished car at least!