Your Day Could Be Worse, You Could Be A Rotary-Powered Lotus Europa

Rather than launching pompously into a rich history of the British car maker, extolling their virtues and pulling from the many societal factors that inevitably led them to design the Europa, let’s annex the excuses and just agree that it’s ugly. And ugly cars, no matter what badge is on the front of them, end up as cheap second hand cars.

Much like Porsche’s forgettable 914, which for decades has had backyard builders insist on cramming Buick V6 engines in to them, the poor old Europa retained it’s value on the second hand market in the same way a tennis racquet might be a great way of retaining water, so it comes as no surprise that this particular version has popped up on My105 sporting a mod-plated 13B turbo conversion.

The ad alludes to the fact that the current octogenarian owner has seen his last checkered flag, and is stepping away from motorsport, meaning the Dorito-powered Lotus is looking for a new home.

Amazingly, the engineering in the car is at total odds with the Europa’s uninspiring styling. The 13B engine makes over 300hp at the wheels through a 6-speed Audi transaxle, which combined with the car’s 700kg kerb weight which My105 audaciously claim would give the Lotus a 3sec 0-100km/h time, putting it in the same league as the Tesla Model 3 or Porsche 911.

Check out the listing HERE.