Photograph of black Lotus Europa
It was over ten years ago that an article was published in the Club Lotus magazine describing to its readers some of the antics that I got up to in my gleaming black 1972 Europa Twincam "as a lad".
The Europa was the vehicular "love of my life" and was sadly missed immediately I sold it after only one years fun, laughter and anguish. Indeed, once the rear near-side wheel had parted company with the rest of the car for the third time, that "love of my life" was advertised and I recall that a young and equally foolish "lad" took it down to Hereford, never to be seen again.
At the conclusion of the article I wrote "I wonder what happened to PBF 611M I love/hated all those years ago?".
The car had been my 21st birthday present from my, now late, father and it was he who sighed with relief the most when it disappeared down to Hereford. I was living in Blackburn, Lancashire at the time and Hereford seemed to be a very long way to be travelling to in a Europa with a dodgy wheel. However, the cheque cleared and that was the end of the story… or so I thought.
The Europa had been sold in 1983 and only three years later I lost my eyesight due to diabetes, and not the jet fighter flying accident that I have told the "girls" ever since!
However, after moving to Surrey in 2000, I am now a prosecution solicitor in local government, I decided to use the powers at my finger tips to find the "love of my life" again.
I knew from records that the car had last been taxed in 1984, which meant that either it was scrapped, the other "foolish lad" had been killed in it, it had been exported to Japan, or it still languished in a garage in Hereford after nearly twenty years!
My first thought was to contact directory enquiries, but this came to nought, so I figured the trail had come to a premature conclusion.
However, a few months later inspiration struck and I typed the registered owners name into 192.com’s search engine and "hey presto" his name appeared like magic at a different address. A hurried letter was therefore sent to him, typed with fingers crossed… "boy that hurt"! Again, like magic I received a telephone call a few days later, the excited voice saying "hi Andy, it’s Tim here"… and "yes" he did still have the Europa in his garage; it had been under wraps for the last eighteen years and I was welcome to come and visit the car, the next time I was travelling North… "the next time I’ll be travelling North", I thought… "what are you doing, Tim, this weekend?"!
On Sunday the 5th of August 2001, my "love" and I were reunited in a "lovers embrace", all of which was videoed for posterity by my girlfriend, Debbie. The journey from Surrey had taken a nail-biting three hours in my Subaru Imprezza WRX, and never did it cross my mind that the Subaru’s wheel may drop off… how times have changed!
The car was, unbelievably, in exactly the same condition that I had left it those twenty years ago, save for the "Club Lotus" and "Classic & Sports Cars" sticker in the back window which had disappeared. Indeed, even though I have no eyesight at all and I have owned over seventy sports cars since, I remembered every switch, dial, control and "yes" rear wheel as if it were yesterday!
However, merely "seeing" the car again wasn’t enough and Tim and I agreed on a price; moments later the Europa was mine again, but with the proviso that should I think of selling it in the future, I should give Tim the first option to buy.
To say that I make quick decisions as I had a tow bar fitted to the Subaru and had bought a car trailer within the week, in order that Debbie and I could this time "trundle" back to Hereford to collect the Europa is an understatement, as by the following Monday the car was delivered some three hundred miles to a specialist restorer in order that the car could undergo a professional assessment and be re-commissioned.
At the time of writing the original draft of this story I was awaiting the cars return, resplendant in its original yellow coachwork, ready for many more adventures, but the gremlins struck again. Although some £7,250 was spent on a professional mechanical restoration, the Europa almost fell to bits on the short drive to my old home town of Blackburn, where it had been booked in for a simple paint job. Not only was the flywheel buckled, the brakes leaking fluid, but the engine over heated, the wheel bearings were "shot at" and the oil in the gearbox was found to have emulsified!
Well, my late father was right after all. I can only hope that after another few thousand pounds is spent that the car will become reliable… not again, but for the first time and I wonder what will happen to PBF 611M I have love/hated for all these years?
In the original story, I recalled how I used to enjoy driving the Lotus with "Mr Hendrix's Purple Haze" screaming out of the speakers while "flat in fourth"!
Link to Download "Purple Haze"
[Copyright] Allied Law 2002