By Barry Spencer

I would like to bring to the attention of Lotus Europa owners the following items:

Figure 1 is a drawing of a Series 2 Europa chassis. The problem is how the backbone is attached to the front box section. On the two sides of the back bone the metal is bent outward and welded approx 1½" from the bend to the front box section. Only the two sides and the top are welded. At the bottom there is a large plate which is part of the front box, and is bolted to the floor of the car for the pedal assembly. So, the bottom of the back bone cannot be welded to the front box. After a period of time a crack will appear at the bottom of the bend going upwards. I have seen these cracks from a ½ inch to 2 inches long. It's possible that the Series 1 and early Twin Cams have the same problem. On later models (Specials) Lotus modified this method of attachment. Instead of bending the metal of the backbone outward they bent the metal inwards.

Figure 2 is a drawing of the rear hub assembly for all the Europa models. There has been a lot of talk on modifications in this area. As you can see by the illustration a modified tapered spacer can be fitted wich centralizes the hub to the outboard driveshaft. This is very true. The problem is the shaft is fitted over the threaded part of the outboard driveshaft which is not strong enough to take the twisting motion of the hub when cornering, so the result is the threaded portion of the shaft breaks off, and your wheel, brake drum and hub assembly falls off. Trust me, it is no fun when this happens at Turn 9 at Laguna Seca.

Early 907 engines and unleaded gas... All 907 engines have the same valves and valve seats. So, you can run unleaded gas in the early engines. Unless new valve seats have been installed after the head was made from Lotus.

Hope these three tips will help you. If you have cany questions please call me at Spencer's