Top of the Europa league: I've owned 14 examples of this rare Lotus

Is John Rand the world's most dedicated Lotus Europa owner? He's owned 14 of them and loved each one. "My parents wouldn't buy one for me so I bought my own, my first one, for my 21st birthday in 1975," he says. "Mum and Dad were right to refuse me because I smashed it up the next day. I put it into a telegraph pole then had to learn how to work with fibreglass to repair it because I couldn't afford to have someone else do it. "Unfortunately, I kept clouting things with it. Subsequently, I decided why not buy a Lotus Europa that's already broken and repair it, rather than buy a good one only to smash it up? So I started doing them up and wheeling and dealing in them. I raced one for a long time and, amazingly, never crashed it." John has two Europas: the one you see here, a 1969 S2 with the later Renault 1600 crossflow engine that he bought 10 years ago, and a lightweight Lotus Type 47 powered by an engine producing 250hp. "That one's very quick," he says. "Still, weighing just 700kg, the S2 is no slouch, either. It was restored in 1979 by a guy who used to build GT40 chassis at Brooklands. He knew what he was doing and did a beautiful job, including uprating the engine. The standard engine was a 1470cc Renault unit but the one he fitted is much better. It's never missed a beat." For a 57-year-old car, the interior, which is original, is in excellent condition and has refinements including electric windows, wall-to-wall carpet and a polished wooden fascia. In fact, it's difficult to imagine it looked any better when new. The Europa is extremely low. In fact, it's just 42.5in tall, or not much taller than those GT40s whose chassis the car's previous owner used to fabricate. "It's a little bit claustrophobic inside. You don't want to be taller than 5ft 10in," says John. "It's warm and cosy on a winter's day but a bit hot in the summer. At least Lotus got the ride right. It's compliant and you don't get smashed about." John says people either love or hate the shape, their attention usually drawn to the buttresses that flank the mid-mounted engine. To aid access to the Renault motor, there's a large removable, lightweight boot box, which John easily lifts out. The glassfibre body is mounted on spars extending from a steel backbone chassis. Remarkably, this pristine 57-year-old He says: "It's a very nimble car cabin is all original but you must make sure the rear transmission is in good order, because if it gets loose, it can really make the car slide around." "I bought my first one for my 21st Somehow, I don't think John would ever let things get to that point. birthday. I smashed it up the next Since buying it, he's done only a day. I put it into a telegraph pole" few thousand miles. "It just comes out for a tootle at weekends," he says. "It's worth between £20,000 and £25,000." He's talking theoretically, of course, since he has no plans to sell.

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Top of the Europa league: I've owned 14 examples of this rare Lotus

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