Lotus Elan and Europa

John Bolster

Inside Cover:

For many thousands of Lotus enthusiasts 1982 marked the beginning of a golden era in the history of this famous manufacturer of sports and high-performance cars. It was the period between the two Elites - the original model, which broke new ground in the use of glass-fibre in car manufacture but proved too expensive to produce in high volume, and its more recent namesake, which has taken Lotus into the exclusive world of the high-performance luxury car.

The cars which came in between - the Elan two seater, its longer-wheelbase derivative the Plus 2, and the mid-engined two-seater Europa - introduced Lotus to a market which previously they had scarcely touched. This was the young executive, who craved the traditional Lotus standards of road holding and responsiveness, but who wanted them integrated into a car which was attractive to look at, comfortable, refined and easy on the pocket.

Today, those same cars, and for much the same reasons, are amongst the most eagerly sought by enthusiasts who are striving to put the fun back into their motoring and who find special pride and enjoyment in restoring a car from a less legislated era to pristine condition. This book has been written by John Bolster for these people in particular, as well as for the original owners of some 25,000 Elans, Plus 2s and Europas produced up to 1975, and for countless others who share a special enthusiasm for these three models and their many derivatives. In common with other books in this series, the text is lavishly illustrated and is augmented with invaluable reference data in the form of appendices, which will be of particular interest to collectors and researchers.

Contents:

Introduction
Chapter 1	Ancestors and parentage	From Austin Seven to Elite
Chapter 2	The Twin-Cam engine	First take a Ford 1500
Chapter 3	The Elan	Backbone to success
Chapter 4	My Elans	by Gerard (Jabby) Crombac
Chapter 5	The Plus 2	The family man's Elan
Chapter 6	The Renault engine and transmission	Introducing an international element
Chapter 7	The Europa	The mid-engined method
Chapter 8	The Lotus 47	Europa-based sports prototype
Chapter 9	Elans and 47s in competition	Chequered Flag sets the pace
Chapter 10	Buying an Elan, Europa or Plus 2	The choice and the maintenance
Appendix A	Technical specifications and performance data - Lotus Elan
Appendix B	Technical specifications and performance data - Lotus Plus 2
Appendix C	Technical specifications and performance data - Lotus Europa
Appendix D	Technical specifications - Lotus 47
Appendix E	Lotus Elan and Plus 2 chassis identification

 

Pages:	128
Book Type:	Hard Cover
Published:	1980
ISBN:	0 900549 48 3
Publisher:	Motor Racing Publications LTD
	28 Devonshire Road
	Chiswich, London W4 2HD, UK