I own Lotus Europa, serial number 460 352. This car has a very intersting history. Bill Truesdale traded his Elva Porsche for the Europa in 1969. I do not know the prior history but I believe it was already a race car. Bill raced the Europa in SCCA D production for three years including an appearance at the National SCCA runoffs in 1971.
Bill was and is a machinist. He brought the Europa into his machine shop and began the process of completely rebuilding and modifying the car for serious racing.
He removed the body and grafted on an S2 center section to make the body more easily removable. He fabricated a complete new front sub frame and front control arms. The control arms utilize both spherical and rod end bearings. He installed a complicated roll cage/bar assembly with a k strut that bolts to the passenger side central chassis, the front crossmember on both the right and left, and the main roll bar hoop.
He fabricated a fuel cell utilizing an ATL bladder. He converted the rear trailing arm mounts to solid steel with rod end bearings on the trailing arms. The rear axle assembly is now Corvair axles with custom fabricated half shafts with massive Power Brute ujoints. He also fabricated a different trans mount and a rear stiffening brace.
The gear shifter is a custom aluminum lever and mount. There is a bias bar twin master cylinder set up. He also had a set of close ration gears fabricated for the transmission. He mounted Bilstein gas coil over shocks.
Bill then painted the car in 1973 and took it to the SCCA stand at the Chicago Auto show. He brought the car back to his shop where it sat for 30 years and for many years was the abode of the shop cat.
I purchased the car from Bill in the fall of 2003. I spent about a year completing the car. All new brake lines and rear brake components. New wiring, Assembly of the rear axle and finished the gear shift mechanism. I had the fuel bladder refurbished and put together a Vintage legal R16 wedge motor. The car handles extremely well when it has run.
Peter Taft
last revised , Delft, Holland