The new Lotus Europa S, a Grand Tourer (GT) inspired two-seater will provide Lotus customers with a spectacular sportscar with significantly enhanced levels of touring and cruising capability. It will provide drivers with higher levels of practicality and refinement to complement the simplicity of the Lotus Elise and Exige models.

The Lotus Europa S follows the core Lotus philosophy of performance through light weight enabling this refined and very high performing GT car to weigh just 995 kg. This low weight has been obtained through the clever use of advanced and high tech materials including an extruded and bonded aluminium chassis, composite body panels and a very advanced composite energy absorbing front crash structure.

When compared to the award winning Lotus Elise, the Europa S has a larger boot / luggage compartment and easier cabin access, resulting from lower chassis sides and a higher roof line. Coupled with luxuries such as full leather interior, driver and passenger airbags and carpets all as standard, Lotus has created a “Business Class” driving experience.

However, the Europa S is not a derivative of the Elise or the Exige and has been allocated a separate Lotus type number of Type 121 - the Elise and Exige are both Type 111.

The new mid-engined coupe will deliver high levels of performance from a high torque (263 Nm or 194 lbft at 4200 rpm) 2.0-litre turbo engine producing 149 kW (200 hp or 203 PS) at 5400rpm. The Lotus Europa S achieves around 90% of its maximum torque at only 2000 rpm to give “super car” levels of acceleration from low engine speeds, propelling the car from 0 -96 km/h (60 mph) in around 5.5 seconds, and 160 km/h (100 mph) in around 14 seconds.

Maximum speed is approximately 225 km/h (140 mph). Being a Lotus, the Europa S has a phenomenal power to weight ratio of 201 hp / tonne (204 PS / tonne or 6.68 kg / kW).

Tony Shute, Head of Product for at Lotus Cars explains the concept behind the new product: “The Lotus Europa S has allowed Lotus to exploit its extensive capabilities in developing a sophisticated GT car which successfully complements the range of existing cars. The ‘Grand Tourer’
concept underpinning the Europa S provides the driver with a refined environment, incorporating innovative styling features which do not compromise the superior performance and handling that is synonymous with the Lotus marque.”

Describing the Lotus Europa S, Russell Carr, Chief of Design for Lotus says: “The form of a design should reflect the spirit of the car, and the Lotus Europa S is no different. Where the rebellious track-focused personality of the Exige is characterised by shrink-wrapped athletic forms communicating agility and power, the Europa S has a more fluid, understated language reflecting its more sophisticated persona.”

The introduction of a GT car, represents both an important and unique addition to the Lotus product range, as Clive Dopson, Managing Director of Lotus Cars, explains: “The launch of the Europa S re-affirms our position as an innovative player in the highly competitive sportscar marketplace. It allows Lotus to extend its product appeal beyond our traditional customer base, and provides yet another demonstration of the key Lotus brand attributes and high levels of quality for which we are particularly proud.”

Production of the Lotus Europa S is scheduled to commence in July
2006 at the award winning and world leading Lotus manufacturing facility at the Lotus Headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk, UK. The Europa S will be sold in all markets where the Lotus brand is present, except for the USA and Canada.

Final pricing and full specifications will be announced closer to the on-sale date, but the price is expected to be the region of Ł33000 (49000 Euros) depending on individual market taxation.

Predicted Performance figures:
Target acceleration
0 to 96 km/h (60 mph): 5.5 seconds (approximately)
0 to 160 km/h (100 mph): 14.0 seconds (approximately)
Maximum speed: 225 km/h (140mph) (approximately)

Impressive on paper, but in the real world, it's one thing no Lotus should ever have to be: compromised

By Andrew Frankel Email
Date posted: 10-16-2006

Clear your head of all thought and then allow just one word to float through the void. That word is "Lotus." Now see what joins it. Maybe it's James Bond's Esprit outrunning the 'copter chick in The Spy Who Loved Me. Or perhaps it's Jim Clark winning Indy, or Ronnie Peterson indulging in one of those endless 100-mph slides he enjoyed so much.

Whatever it is, I can pretty much guarantee it involves hard-core driving. And so it should, for that is the essence of Lotus. A Lotus that is less than great to drive makes no more sense than a limo without legroom. But that is exactly what the company has just produced in the 2007 Lotus Europa S.

Lost as a Lotus
This gives me no pleasure at all, for I love Lotuses in general and the Elise and Exige in particular. They subscribe entirely to the vision that Colin Chapman had for his fledgling company half a century ago: They're small, light, eye-wateringly quick and utterly focused on the road ahead. Yeah, they're cramped, there's not much space in the trunk, and you'll go deaf after a few hours at the wheel, but who cares when you're having this much fun? Remove even part of that fun, as Lotus has with this new Europa S, and all the other faults you would so readily tolerate and even perversely enjoy, start to dominate the driving experience.

But really, we should feel sorry for Lotus, for had things gone according to the original plan, this coupe would never even have worn a Lotus badge, much less been given the opportunity to besmirch the memory of the original and gorgeous 1966 Europa.

The car was conceived by its Malaysian parent company, Proton, and is based on neither Elise nor Exige. Instead, it's a spin-off of the Lotus-built and -developed Opel Speedster that ceased production last year. It would have been badged a Proton, and its purpose was to sprinkle a little much needed stardust on the company's bland image. But then Proton ditched the idea, but not the car, handing it over to Lotus to deal with.

Power from The General
The result is an awkward-looking midengine coupe, but powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter GM four-cylinder, not the shrieking 1.8-liter Toyota unit used in both normally aspirated and supercharged form in other Lotus products. With a slightly longer wheelbase than the Elise and cut-down doorsills, the Europa S is marginally easier to climb into and out of but you still end up tumbling in and struggling out.

Spartan luxury
Inside you'll recognize the dash layout from any other Lotus, but at this price and given its more luxurious brief, the Europa looks woefully spartan and lacking in quality. Indeed if you look around, there is little evidence of the business-class credentials Lotus claims for it. For while there are electric windows, air-conditioning, central locking, leather seats and unfathomable satellite navigation system, this is the minimum you would expect for the money: Ł41,500 (about $77,000 U.S., if the car was coming to the U.S., which it isn't).

But at least the driving position is fine, despite the nonadjustable steering wheel. You sit low, with the steering near your chest, as if you're wearing the car. Then you remember the 200 horsepower behind you, the fact that it has just 2189 pounds to propel, and that Lotus claims 60 mph in just 5.5 seconds away and, for a moment, you think it might be OK after all.

Done in by the engine
And at first, it is all rather promising. Driven gently, the engine is clearly more refined than the very vocal Toyota motor; the softened suspension serves up a distinctly comfortable ride even on poorly surfaced Brit back roads; and all the weighting for controls, from the pedals to the steering, are just right. That's a pure Lotus trait. The only problem is, you're not driving it like a Lotus should be driven. So you find the road, the nerve and the right frame of mind, sink your foot to the floor and wait for the fun to begin.

And that, in a nutshell, is the problem. You have to wait. Every time you hit the gas, that turbocharged engine has a little think and then delivers what you asked for. In a normal car, you'd forgive it and might even expect it, but a Lotus needs to react to your foot as swiftly as your foot reacts to your brain, otherwise the chain of command is broken and that sense of being part of the machine is lost. You can't even execute heel-and-toe downshifts, not because of poor pedal layout, but because by the time the engine responds to your kick of the throttle, you're already in the next gear.

Not coming to America...sigh (of relief)
The shame of it is that the Lotus side of the Europa, the chassis, remains sublime. The steering is precise enough to make most coupes feel sloppy by comparison, grip levels are such that no sane person will unstick it on a dry road, and the brakes are simply mighty. But it's no better in any of these regards than the most basic of Elises despite costing nearly half again as much. And it makes little sense as a Grand Touring car either: Cabin noise levels are too high and the gas tank too small to make covering serious distances much more than a chore.

All of which leaves me to conclude you should be glad the Europa is not on sale on the American side of the Atlantic. It means the U.S. can enjoy the wonderful, brilliant and proper Lotuses that remain true to their creator's vision without having your view of the marque polluted by the needless and compromised sideshow that is the Europa S. Truth is, it doesn't feel like a Lotus, but an underachieving imposter wearing Lotus badges. Which, of course, is exactly what it is.

The drive up to Lotus is an evil little shit of a journey. From west London to Mulbarton in Norfolk takes three hours at best, usually up the chuff of a spluttering tractor spewing straw, or manure, or whatever's being spread that week.

Then there's the security. Sweet but bonkers. You have to hand over your camera phone, sign Faustian pacts and then sit around for an eternity in eerie rural silence while absolutely nothing happens. The carp in the pond fronting reception move with more urgency than any of the bipeds on site. The ducks are frenetic in comparison.

So it's some testament to the mysterious greatness of Lotus that when you finally turn back out of the gates in some gluey, mid-engined Airfix kit, it's always with a maniacal grin.

Today is a very big day at Lotus. New cars crop up round here with a frequency akin to Halley's Comet, but oil your telescope because this is one of them. Not an evolution of a tried-and-tested model, but the real thing - new car, new engine, new name. Although, admittedly, only just.

This is the Europa, or Europa 'S' to be precise. Not exactly a new name, but the revival of an old one affixed to Lotus's first-ever mid-engine sports car.

But where Chapman's mid-Sixties original was an uncompromising brute, all minimal drag coefficient and sweatbox cockpit, this is meant to be proper 21st-century motoring. And by that we mean quality, comfort and refinement. Or at least Lotus's take on the theme (versus that of any other sports car manufacturer you'd care to mention this side of Caterham - another hair-shirt debt to Chapman).

With a significant step up from the spartan hardships of an Elise, in effect this aims to be a day-to-day alternative to its track-focused forebear. Whether it works depends on your point of reference.

When the PR chaps hand over the keys and start enthusing about the Europa as a 'GT' - by which they really do mean Grand Tourer - it's important to remember their benchmark is a minuscule two-seater with a bare metal floor and an aftermarket stereo. Determined as we should be to support Norfolk's second-finest export (mustard first), a little extra comfort is going to have to go a long way.

On the face of it, the Europa is still, to all intents and purposes, a bigger Elise. Despite entirely new proportions, it shares the same DNA: bonded-aluminium bathtub chassis, plastic panels, minimal frills. Its styling has been a source of some head scratching too.

Official images of the Europa were circulated to a quizzical and often openly dismissive industry. It didn't look right. Worse than that, it looked plain wrong. Lotus's excuse? They didn't know how to shoot it properly because it wasn't an Elise. Like Coleman's suddenly trying to market jam.

But truth be told, even in the flesh it's not quite right. Presumably the same build limitations that dictated the shape of the Elise applied here. The similarities are obvious in those stumpy proportions, and, while it all still gels from some angles, it isn't the departure we'd been hoping for. Lotus has been doing this or thereabouts for a decade.

Inside, where there needs to be significant improvements for GT status, things are similarly uncertain. It's bigger, of that there's no doubt, but it's still pretty cosy, and more awkward to enter and exit than any two-seat sports car we can think of. It's also still very basic. Cheap plastics on the dash, a certain sense of fragility, and the same single-piece instrument binnacle as you get in the Elise.

There's the odd token concession to practicality, but if we tell you there's a five-inch deep pocket under the door sill you'd be lucky to squeeze your fingers into, you realise everything at Lotus is relative - in the Elise the only pockets are in your trousers.

When the PR chaps hand over the keys and start enthusing about the Europa as a 'GT' - by which they really do mean Grand Tourer - it's important to remember their benchmark is a minuscule two-seater with a bare metal floor and an aftermarket stereo. Determined as we should be to support Norfolk's second-finest export (mustard first), a little extra comfort is going to have to go a long way.

On the face of it, the Europa is still, to all intents and purposes, a bigger Elise. Despite entirely new proportions, it shares the same DNA: bonded-aluminium bathtub chassis, plastic panels, minimal frills. Its styling has been a source of some head scratching too.

Official images of the Europa were circulated to a quizzical and often openly dismissive industry. It didn't look right. Worse than that, it looked plain wrong. Lotus's excuse? They didn't know how to shoot it properly because it wasn't an Elise. Like Coleman's suddenly trying to market jam.

But truth be told, even in the flesh it's not quite right. Presumably the same build limitations that dictated the shape of the Elise applied here. The similarities are obvious in those stumpy proportions, and, while it all still gels from some angles, it isn't the departure we'd been hoping for. Lotus has been doing this or thereabouts for a decade.

Inside, where there needs to be significant improvements for GT status, things are similarly uncertain. It's bigger, of that there's no doubt, but it's still pretty cosy, and more awkward to enter and exit than any two-seat sports car we can think of. It's also still very basic. Cheap plastics on the dash, a certain sense of fragility, and the same single-piece instrument binnacle as you get in the Elise.

There's the odd token concession to practicality, but if we tell you there's a five-inch deep pocket under the door sill you'd be lucky to squeeze your fingers into, you realise everything at Lotus is relative - in the Elise the only pockets are in your trousers.

When the PR chaps hand over the keys and start enthusing about the Europa as a 'GT' - by which they really do mean Grand Tourer - it's important to remember their benchmark is a minuscule two-seater with a bare metal floor and an aftermarket stereo. Determined as we should be to support Norfolk's second-finest export (mustard first), a little extra comfort is going to have to go a long way.

On the face of it, the Europa is still, to all intents and purposes, a bigger Elise. Despite entirely new proportions, it shares the same DNA: bonded-aluminium bathtub chassis, plastic panels, minimal frills. Its styling has been a source of some head scratching too.

Official images of the Europa were circulated to a quizzical and often openly dismissive industry. It didn't look right. Worse than that, it looked plain wrong. Lotus's excuse? They didn't know how to shoot it properly because it wasn't an Elise. Like Coleman's suddenly trying to market jam.

But truth be told, even in the flesh it's not quite right. Presumably the same build limitations that dictated the shape of the Elise applied here. The similarities are obvious in those stumpy proportions, and, while it all still gels from some angles, it isn't the departure we'd been hoping for. Lotus has been doing this or thereabouts for a decade.

Inside, where there needs to be significant improvements for GT status, things are similarly uncertain. It's bigger, of that there's no doubt, but it's still pretty cosy, and more awkward to enter and exit than any two-seat sports car we can think of. It's also still very basic. Cheap plastics on the dash, a certain sense of fragility, and the same single-piece instrument binnacle as you get in the Elise.

There's the odd token concession to practicality, but if we tell you there's a five-inch deep pocket under the door sill you'd be lucky to squeeze your fingers into, you realise everything at Lotus is relative - in the Elise the only pockets are in your trousers.

But credit where it's due. The boot is 40 litres larger than in an Elise, something that does make the Europa a more realistic proposition for big miles. Extra width in the cabin reduces awkward driver/passenger intimacy, too, and the leather trim looks classy, particularly stitched white on typically unforgiving sports seats.

There are electric windows, twin airbags, a Blaupunkt stereo with some sort of satnav and even carpet this time, but for all this it still doesn't feel remotely luxurious. Maybe it's the acres of basic plastic, or the parts-bin instruments, switches and controls. Wherever the problem lies, as you point the Europa towards those gates there's still a niggling suspicion that this is just an Elise with gout.

Remember the maniacal grin, though. An over-indulged Elise remains a force to be reckoned with. On the move, the Europa still has much of that fingertip control and feedback. There's the same initial play in the unassisted steering, and then it weights up nicely, reacting with immediacy and precision.

Whining behind your ears is a turbocharged two-litre GM unit (think VX220 Turbo) that generates 197bhp in a car that still weighs in under the tonne. This means claimed figures of 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds and 0-100mph in just under 14 seconds.

Quick, yes, but the Europa's real speed is point-to-point. It'll hammer through back roads like little else on the market and carve great swathes out of journeys by cruising in three figures on the motorway. For a focused few that could make this all the car they'll ever need, but there are still some stark ownership realities here.

Everyone at Lotus PR talked up the car's ride, keen as they are to stress its balance of comfort over handling. And while it is better than an Elise, and finds a manageable middle ground between body control and usability, it's still pretty harsh for a daily commute.

So is the lack of cushioning in the seats and the overbearing communication of the controls. For a cross-country sprinter you'd expect all that feedback and bone-shaking drivetrain, but day-to-day you want to be as far removed from crude mechanical truths as possible.

And what about the alternatives? The Europa costs Ł32,995. For all its good qualities, that's big money for a car like this. Take the new Audi TT and BMW Z4 Coupe; both practical and performance-orientated, both with excellent six-cylinder engines, superb refinement and mighty Germanic build quality - both cost less. Drive them side by side and there's no way that adds up.

The idea behind the Europa is to increase Lotus's market share with a car that more people will be prepared to use every day. And, apparently, one that girls will be happier with. This means providing easier access, greater practicality and an increase in 'softness'. But it's still quite difficult to access, comparatively impractical and entirely too harsh to lure right-minded girls from their TTs.

We really want the Europa to work for Lotus. In this far-flung backwater of Olde England, where even local MPs accuse their constituents of inbreeding, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that cars are being made with such old-school focus, but an absence of crap is still very refreshing.

Who knows how many of us will be prepared to pay more for less, though. These days people do like their crap.

Matt Master

Who knows how many of us will be prepared to pay more for less, though. These days people do like their crap.

Two years ago Lotus used the Geneva Motor show to launch its new “Grand Tourer” model and it is using this year’s event to launch a refreshed version. Essentially a modified Elise, the Europa aims to address the shortcomings of the Elise. The Elise is a no compromise 2 seater driver’s car. It comes with few creature comforts in the view that comfort generally equals added weight, and weight is something the little Elise doesn’t have much of. This lack of weight is a crucial design element which is key to “Eliseness”, aiding the cars sublime performance and road holding.

So the Europa is Lotus’s answer to those that require a little more luxury and practicality. It shares much with the Elise and its close cousin, the Vauxhall/Opel VX220. The glasshouse is instantly recognisable as being derived from Elise and the engine is taken straight out of the VX220. For this years refresh, the 2.0L Vauxhall/Opel turbocharged 4 cylinder unit has been tweaked to provide and extra 25 bhp bringing the total to 225bhp in SE form. Torque is up too, at 300Nm.

Acceleration times are impressive with a 0-96kph sprint coming in at 5.5 seconds and a top speed of over 225kph. Lotus will be keen to stay in the spotlight ahead of their forthcoming Lotus Eagle headline model which is scheduled to be revealed at the British Motorshow in July of this year.