Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
Barry Ellis Hillclimb

My Lotus Story (well, part of it)

By Barry Ellis.

Born in Victoria, I did Civil/Structural Engineering at Swinburne Tech and have lived in lots of places around the world and worked almost everywhere.

I was always interested in motor racing, and very interested in Lotus in the 60s. It was great to see the Elans doing so well at Phillip Island. But then a few Europas arrived (Type 47s) and straight off the block they were doing much better than the very well sorted Elans. Wow, I had to have one! But very hard to get in Aus.

The Geoghegan Brothers brought in a small number of Europas and assembled them in Sydney. I first saw one at the Melbourne motor show in about 1970. I was driving a Rover 2000 at the time and the new Rovers and Europas were the same price; about $4700. Too much money for me. But then in 1975 a second hand one came on the market. It had a full race Ford Kent engine in it, was fairly rough around the edges, and the gear lever mechanism was broken out of the chassis. I paid the owner $2000, put my hand down through the hole in the chassis, could get a couple of gears, and drove it home.

It was VIN 54/1151, trans. No 00935. Quite a lot of work then followed: the fixing of the gear change mechanism, aligning of the rear wheels (they had lots of toe-out) and general work on the springs and shocks. Then, to do a little racing, I had to put in a roll bar. The full cage was not required in those days.

I had three cars at the time and was living in Newry, about 35km out of Sale. One day I was driving to work in the Europa on the road from Maffra to Sale, when a local cop in an unmarked car pulled out in front of me and accelerated away. I thought that it was all a bit of a laugh, and just followed along. I reckon that I was on about 1/4 throttle, but then got done for 225km/hr. That was the BAD, but I also got the GOOD.

Another town close by is Boisdale. There was (probably still is) an unmade hill climb there where I ran the Europa a few times. It had a great setup where you ran up the hill and then straight back to the start area. On one particular day I ran, got back to the start and was told that the timer didn’t work and that I should go again straight away. It took three or maybe four runs before I got a time. I don’t doubt that I got a bit quicker each run. I ended up with a time of 36.2 sec. The hill record at that time was 36.0 in a Formula 5000 and the fast, local hotted up, stripped out cars were doing about 38.5 odd.

Then I got my circuit license again and ran at Winton. Coming around the last corner (second corner now) at about 8000 rpm I broke a cam follower, then the timing chain, then coasted to the end, and had to trailer it home.

A long term friend who also had a Europa had put a Mazda 13B in his and whilst it was a bit big for the space it went very well. I ended up going for a standard Mazda 12A which fitted easily and still went very nicely.

But, then someone rang one night in 1979 and offered me a job in London. I was tired of working for Esso in Sale so I went, why not.

I sold the Europa for $4000 and expected that I’d soon pick up another when I got to the UK. But, there were so many other Lotus cars on the roads. And, over some time I owned: Esprit Series 1; Elan +2; Elite (1974); Eclat; Esprit Turbo; and then eventually, in my retired state, back to a Europa much like the one that I should never have sold in the first place.

But this Europa is another story, maybe for next time.

Twincam Tips Wondai Sprints 2018

Related Posts

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

plus2-banner

Articles, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Technical

Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane

helmet-banner

Articles, Homepage, Racing

$10 HEAD/$10 HELMET

Random images

IMG_6223 MG_9087 Not-taken-seriously MGP2206 IMG_0016 McL_29 img_1082 IMG_4392 IMG_4443 image_253 IMG_4367 Europa_Lindsay IMG_6627 IMG_8896 IMG_3769 IMG_3665 33c 28c 11e 73-01-Weldborough-RM 20220220_093730 Caterham-in-the-Pits 10 IMG_3558 Pumped-for-a-great-week-ahead Vyvyan-Blacks-Elan-2-V-Black nathan-01 Gail elans-mk2 McL_23 IMG_1911 The Pits Daryl, Dick and Shane dtc-daryl Ormiston-14 Vern MG_6586 4-Lisa-Tony-Ken Anita_in_340R main-2 Jan-main-19 main-11 IMG_3847a 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0050 Geoff_Noble_Elise_S2 Sep_MS02_5 Morning_Tea_stop_Canungra 12_IMG_9569 East_London_Feb_09 MG_7064 IMG_0137 IMG_0421 IMG_0326 IMG_0318 img_1119 img_1093 Finally_heading_home P1020767 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_005 IMG_3945 074_74 098_98 P1050443 123_123 P1090179 IMG_8106 IMG_5163 IMG_5144 IMG_0031 image_160 IMG_8064 image_134 Sheep-and-Porsche-hold-us-up-China-Day-1 Jen Lotus-Elan1H Maxwells IMG_3201 IMG_6168 Heading for Mt Alford 3_gw Lotus-Plus2-2 Adam-at-work-by-Craig-Wilson Cool Line Up 20200815_075743 GOPR0370 View-from-Blair-Athol-1 Display-5 main-18 Post Event Glow Norma-and-Peter-Upham-checking-the-Lancia-by-Gavin-Goeldner main-16 Cool cats Look at that renault-dauphine Transport-Museum-Dolomite-2 Men in black Perfect for comfy racing Vyvyan in his Elan Plus 2 main-113 IMAG6016 IMAG6159

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios