LOTUS EUROPA

1966-’75: why are we waiting? Export sales first, domestic market later

It’s not just foreign imports that can deprive hungry British new car buyers of the very latest models and technology soon after launch. Often, Uk-built machinery can be delayed in entering its home market, too. In the ‘Export or Die’ era immediately post-ww2, most British motorists could not buy the new export-only cars being built in Longbridge, Cowley, Coventry and elsewhere while this financially destitute island nation courted muchneeded foreign currency for the struggling economy. The Standard Vanguard took an age to become available on home shores, for example, with models such as the Austin-built Nash Metropolitan being built specifically for export, with this twoseater taking four years to eventually be sold in Britain. In the late 1960s, Colin Chapman’s first mid-engined Lotus road car, the Europa, was sold in Europe (France first, in February 1967) long before UK deliveries began (in 1969), with the British 1975 Triumph TR7 and current Lagonda Taraf also following this reverse pattern.

Anorak fact Launched in some European countries as the Europe, the Europa was sold in complete factory-built form in export markets, but, like all early Lotus models, it could be bought as a selfassembly ‘kit’ for the UK, to save on Purchase Tax