We take an in depth look at a Lotus Europa John Player Special, as well as showing it being taken for a drive and hearing that exhaust note! Instagram: / dtrockstar1
Great video. I am a long time Lotus fan. In late 1973, I sold a 1969 427 Corvette. Having followed Lotus F1 cars and the fact that they were liveried in JPS colors, I went bananas over the JPS Europa. I had the cash to buy one, but I needed a car that was a daily driver. Living in Minnesota, I decided this would not have been the best car for Minnesota winters. I still long to get one. I envy you sir in a good way.
I’ve owned a 1974 Lotus Europa twin cam for 27 years, and if you want one, get one! There are actually quite a lot of them for sale online, just buy the best one you can afford, NEVER buy one that needs restoration. If you have mechanical knowledge these cars are easy to maintain, I do almost all of the required maintenance myself. I live in Vermont, so the car stays inside all winter. I don’t even drive it on days we’re expecting rain. Even if I lived in a dry climate like Arizona, I’d still wouldn’t drive it all the time just to preserve it. If you still live in Minnesota it’s a great car to own for good weather fun. Any Lotus would be a second car, especially if you have a family. It’s vital that you have a place that can service it properly. Any English car needs a lot of care, these are no exception. But the prices of parts is quite reasonable, maintaining a Europa is far cheaper than maintaining an Esprit or a Jaguar or most German or Italian cars.
This was a blast to the past!!! I bought a brand new Lotus Europa John Player Special in 1972 ...I think it was the first one in Canada and it had the European Lotus engine setup. Being that I had been a professional sign painter...I drove the Europa home to my shop and spent the next day finishing the livery to match the FI JPS. I lettered John Player Special on the sails and the JPS logo on the hood all in actual gold leaf. Then started driving the little beast. It was intoxicating...I spent hours just driving nowhere but on as many country highways I could navigate to. When you consider the time...this car was insanely fast. The only problem was that I developed bad driving habits...I would pass everything on the road and being that you were so low to the road...you aren't that visible to say long haul trucks. I decided to sell it after 3 months and moved on to an E-Type. In 1969 I had a Europa with the Renault engine...it too was pretty fast but the car was not as well sorted as the John Player version. The one in this video looks to be in very good nick! Thanks for the memories.
Love it. I have a 74 Plus 2S/130/5 in black with a slightly breathed on big valve twink. A Europa Special like this is literally the only thing that might tempt me to stray. Really enjoyed the video and great to see your understanding and appreciation for the engineering.
My brother who's older than me bought a 1972 Europa when it was 2 years old in 1974, I was only 9yrs old & loved it, what a sports car epic, & fair do's it was reliable as well
The Big Valve normally 1558 cc Lotus Cortina with 126 hp twin Webered Renualt 12 TL 5 speed is well sorted and any four cylinder car that does 14.9 second 1/ 4 miles and 123mph has to be fast. This car will be far quicker and faster with 1.7 liters. Its geared for 133 mph, which Im quite sure it will do with the extra capacity engine. Thanks for sharing!
They won the constructors championship in 1978 also, with Ronnie Peterson and Mario Andretti, and of course Mario was World Champion that year. Cool car, I always loved these since I had the Matchbox version when I was a kid.
That is something. When I was in the service overseas in Europe they had these guys come around and sell these to GIs and you’d pick them up in New Jersey. I was real close to buying one until I had a friend in the states look into parts and dealers.
I had a Porsche 914 in 1974, was going to buy a 1973 Lotus Twin Cam JPS, but bought a 1959 Austin Healey 100-6 instead. Loved the Healey, but still loved theLotus
Absolutely delicious, have a Elise nowadays but remember these well from back in the day, the jps is imho one of the greats cars in automotive history. Btw it's the Union Jack (British) the English flag is white with a red cross.
Very much like your JPS!!! Your wheel selection suits the car nicely. I am rebuilding my 73 TCS and would like to incorporate the same set of Panasports. Can you provide the details on the wheels ie size, width offsets, PNs etc.
Boy, you sure can find them. Fascinating car. I could see partially why the car is so light. Did you notice how flimsy the frunk hood was and it had no supporting framework for it. Did the owner happen to say what it's value is? This Lotus Euorpa just goes to show that "nothing is new under the sun." Look at all the storage space behind the engine. Sorry GM, Lotus beat you to the punch as far as the C8 is concerned. Having said that, the C8 is amazing! Keep these uploads coming and Save the Wave👋🏿
I once owned a Europa, awesome car, will never forgive myself for selling it, Yes the the 'boot' and the 'trunk' were just really wibbly sheets of fibreglass, but it stuck to the road like glue and went like shit off a shovel.
@@andibowden569 I'm sure it did "stick" and was borderline scary fast. It's all about power to weight ratio. Lighter still takes the W as far as racing concerned. The only time gobs of horsepower is needed would be for straight-line racing.
That and then the dino experienced both. In montreal. Ahh the golden days. 512bb, cobras, HD 455. Birds. And yup big hemmis. 6 months of tuning 6 of booting.
Nice to see a Europa at all, let alone one being used - it's a twin-cam, so rev the tits off it. BTW it's the Union Flag (better known as the Union Jack) not the English flag.
The JPS europa is styled after the F1 Championship winning Lotus 72D that Emerson Fittipaldi drove, not the later Lotus 78 that Mario Andretti drove!! The car that honored Mario's title is the Esprit JPS. Time for some Lotus history homework...
Nice car!!!!! Good Europas are getting scarce. That's not a JPS; it's a black Special. BTW all Specials (and Twin Cams built in Sept. 1972) had the silver rocker panels). Love the Weber head; I'm jealous! The Stromberg carbs in the US versions weren't so good. My US plate actually fits on the back but it's tight! Good thing about Europas is you can upgrade them and the "collectors" don't mind so much. You should put in an electric fuel pump, a higher power ignition coil, electronic ignition and put a relay on the radiator sensor as they blow from over voltage and your fans won't go on. Lots of people bypass the brake boosters but if yours are working it's not necessary. The Stromberg carb version needs the timing advanced from the factory 4-6 degrees to around 12; not sure if the Weber version is set at optimum advance not being a US car. Values on these have more than doubled in the last 10 years.
They all left the factory as Specials. The US importer/dealers added the decals (not the stripes) & badge with number. They then marketed them as JPS cars.
@@AlPal162 I doubt he was born then lol. The original archivist was a guy called Maurice Storey and lets just say that a certain sales manager for lotus talked to me about it on a Club lotus day at castle Coombe. It was not an official ie. Colin Chapman enterprise, but overseen by Graham Arnold and the sales team. Badges and JPS bomber jackets all given to the customers along with a number plaque...
@@AlPal162 You got me thinking...I don't understand your point Adam. All the numbered edition JPS Europas in the UK were released from the factory as Europa Specials and badged retrospectively at the dealers. So what do you mean not according to the Lotus Archivist ,who actually has said he doesn't really know as there is no records...unless you know better
I have one with trimmed big valve dry sump and water cooled current resto mod light weight fly wheel no webers titanium exhaust just need to get body work and chassis fixed. And cantilever suspension upgrade
Europas are the most fun cars to work on! Old school technology but with a DOHC engine. My TC with Strombergs has been tweaked to 121 HP; there are tricks that don't cost much if any money to do this as the US versions were factory detuned to meet US laws. You can get that HP back plus some. I get 0-60 in a tick under 7 seconds.
I've owned two lotus europas and to this day I don't think there are many cars which could touch it on a twisty road. I had a low speed minor accident in one of them though and the resulting damage was mid numbing. Didn't feel safe in it again.
So miss my twin cam. It wouldn't win a drag race but it sounded great and handled even better. Rear Visibility was shit but how cares about seeing what's behind you.
9:10. Not sure if this is the correct badge or perhaps the car is not the correct model year. Lotus won the constructors championship in 1972 and 1973 as well. If this is a 1973 model, it should have the 1972 win on the badge at least.
I've seen these before and they are very low to the ground. It's almost like they are scraping the street. That's also the way and engine should be built. I imagine back in 1970 if you told engineers that intake manifolds and valve covers on engines would someday be made of plastic they would laugh in your face and ask if you had been drinking.
this is not a john player special just a special ,all cars of this series had this golden , silver or yellow line also with other colours ,at the time was a perfect car
I missed out on purchasing one of these some time ago, it was a choice wife or car, made the wrong choice. Was picked up hitch hiking (1970s) and was totally amazed by the lack of body roll, never experienced that again until video games cam out. Built for twisty roads and race style driving, not drag racing.
nothing really would ever catch it, to this day when the wife and I are driving one of our other cars and we hit a winding road she will always say remember this is not the Lotus
Waynel Sexton : lip reading doesnt work either. Transparent masks are good, but people get worried more. I added the comments for the 99% of people who havent seen one in the flesh. It's a rocket ship.
Why is he wearing a mask outside? He isn't that close to the person handling the camera. It's like seeing a person driving in their car by themselves wearing a mask. I have seen a couple people do that. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
You couldn't drop the mask for a video outside. If you're that scared go hide in your cellar. I stopped the video the second time you had it on. People have really gone too far with this stupidity.
