The next and hopefully final stage of my Europa revival moves the car to Northshore Sportscars where Norb, Keith, Rich and Michelle took custody. Prior to sending the car, my friend Ron and I lifted the body shell off the chassis and inserted a stand under the body in the small 10 x 15 confines of the storage unit. No lights and no electrical, but we got it done. The body had already been off the car so it was just a matter of getting it up and supported so we could roll the chassis out from underneath.
I had the chassis moved to my home for restoration. I rolled it into my back yard for disassembly and set up shop under my deck. Next, I got a U-Haul and moved the chassis to Don’s Welding and Fabrication in Wauconda. Don came recommended by Barry at PHP Racengines. Don sandblasted the chassis, did a little straightening and welding, and added some stiffening to support the lower control arm areas. Then it came back home for paint, reassembly, and lots of new parts.
While the chassis was on its supports, I thought it would be a good time clean up the engine compartment and trunk areas. The wiring looked good, so I cleaned them up and made things as tidy as possible. A little bit of fiberglass work cleaned up the battery area, and some small cracks. A couple of coats of paint to the engine compartment, trunk, and wheel wells and it looked pretty good. I replaced the radiator and when I finished the chassis in October it went back to the storage unit where Ron and I lowered the body back onto the chassis.
Finally in early February, I had the car flat bedded to Northshore Sportcars. The car had it’s front wheels, but since there was no drive train, swiveling casters supported the rear. It was easy to move and it got the job done. I followed the flat bed to the shop with about 20 some boxes of parts and wheels and the transaxle etc. What a relief… there would be progress again. Next, I picked up the engine from PHP and delivered it to Northshore.
Once everything was at Northshore, the ball was in their court. Norb was in Florida and Michelle, his daughter, was at the helm. Everything was good for about a month, and then Covid 19 became the new buzz word. Keith their mechanic, retreated to northern Wisconsin for a few weeks to work on other projects up there, so my project was temporarily on hold. March passed at a snail’s pace. I was not doing much in my job either at this point, so I was just waiting.
As April came around, Keith and Rich returned, and work began again on my car. Mostly I stayed away from the shop while they soldiered on. I checked in again in May, mask on, and things were looking up. The drive train was in and the body was on. Little things came up like a few missing parts. Luckily they were odd items I didn’t think were Lotus parts, but hung on to them anyway. Now I had a good excuse to visit the shop. I am very happy to say that every problem that came up, they easily solved. They know their business, and I definitely made the right choice in taking my car to Northshore. If I would have tried doing it myself, it would be another three years, and maybe never would gotten finished. Regardless, it would never have come out as well, as they are very good at what they do.
Now that spring was here, Norb was back. Norb has owned and raced an S2 Europa for the last 20 years, and now it was time for him to test drive my car. Keep in mind, this car has not been on the road since 1980. I believe they had a brake line leak, which was on me as I piped the brake lines. They aligned the car and road tested it some more until they were satisfied the car was ready to go. Norb said it pulled strong and tracked straight. He also said it needed to be driven to get the seat belt clasps to work again, and other things that just needed to be lubed and used.
So finally the big day came for me to take the car home. I had never driven the car, and I was advised to wear the narrowest shoes I own. That was good advice, but my shoes were not narrow enough. I backed the car out of the shop and it was not a pretty sight to see me drive the car for the first time. About the only thing I didn’t do was stall it out, but I made it hop, skip, and jump like a first time stick shift driver who doesn’t know how drive. But the car made it home fine.
Since getting the car home I have been driving it every weekend and I am continuing to work more of the bugs out. I spent countless hours cleaning, and cleaning some more. I also spent many evenings hand polishing away the 35 years of oxidation with Meguiar’s #7 Show Car Glaze with pretty good results. I cleaned the chrome, the instrument glass, windows, the dashboard, removed interior trim and re-glued it, etc., etc., etc.
As I get closer to finishing things up, I also added a few touches with a nice Bluetooth CD player which gives me a hands free phone too. I am adding a fuse box and relays for the air horn, radiator fans motor and Halogen headlights. At this point only the passenger door switch doesn’t operate the courtesy lamps, but everything else works as it is supposed to. OK, the seat belt warning light and buzzer don’t work, but that is fine with me.
The more I drive the car the more confident I feel. I took it out on I-294 one Sunday morning, and 70 mph is OK. I touched 90 mph and she was still pulling. I had a headlight issue the first time I tried them, and although that has been ironed out, the headlights are still weak at best. For a while it seemed like things were going in slow motion, and now it all seems like a blur.
In the end, I believe I removed about 44 pounds from the car plus, I can shed 38 more pounds if I remove the trunk, and take out the jack, and spare. I think for a track day the car should weigh in at 1535 pounds with full fuel tanks and no driver. The performance seems very good with 136 horsepower and 128 pounds of torque. I have read that the Europa is the closest thing to a race car you can drive on the streets. I am sure there are plenty of faster cars, but the Europa is a fun car to drive.
