Europa Renault Race Car

[Mecky]

Hello,

my name is Stefan. I'm an Industrial Engineer from Germany and newly registered to this forum. This is the first time that I signed up to a British based Lotus forum. Before that, I just visited a German based forum and a forum, which is hosted in th U.S. I didn't do it on purpose, but back in 2010, when I started my Lotus Europa racing project, these were the only forums that I found. I guess, it could be very helpful to be active in a British Lotus forum. As you know, there are lots of troubles, usually serious. Some of you may already have experienced similar things and solved them. So there should be a lot to learn for me here.

In Winter 2010/2011 I started to rebuild an Europa S2 Type 54 for historic racing together with my late father. Back then, we applied for FIA Appendix K specification, but it turned out that the Europa S2 is the wrong car for that. The Appendix K demands proof of period (late 1960s, early 1970s) specification for every single upgrade and the Europa was almost never upgraded for racing in period, because the Type 47 was available. The Europa will never be competetive with the wedge-head engine. A fellow Europa racer from Italy built such an engine to full race spec and only achieved 123 HP. You have no chance against 1600 cc Alfas, Escorts or Elans with 123 HP, 4 speed gearbox, stock brakes and wheels as thin as cutting discs. We did find a way to receive a FIA Historic Technical Passport for the car with Renault crossflow engine, but had to be categorized into the Two-Seater-Racing-Car class for that. This category is the home of thoroughbred race cars like Ford GT40, Chevron B16, Lola T210 and Porsche 907 to name a few. Of course, the Europa doesn't have a chance against this kind of competition either. At least, it was competiteve in the overall starting grid. Many cars with more displacement like two-litre Porsche 911 or BMW 2002 were beatable for us. But it was not very fun to only be able to inherite a few podium places and one time in six seasons a win in the TSRC category.

After my father died, I had to save money and get my university degree, before I had the resources to race again. The Europa sat in the Garage between 2016 and 2020 and when Covid 19 kicked in, I finally found the time to start all over again. I chose a much freer set of regulations for my racing, which is known as Group H. These regs allow to heavily upgrade brakes, cooling, cyclindre head and much more. The Belgian racing series BELCAR Historic Cup is my new home. They welcome almost every car, which is built before the year 2000. I'm racing in the class Group H before 1982 up to 1600 cc. There I have to deal with opponents like Toyota Celica GT, VW Scirocco and Golf Mk1. But as the Europa is not a Ford Escort or Alfa GTAm, where the works engineers have developed all racing parts back in the 70s, I have to engineer solutions myself, move into unfamiliar territory and to make some mistakes, before the car will be fully competitve.

It started as an old car, which Colin Chapman didn't really put much effort into back in the day. In the moment, it's a work-in-progress. Of course, I want to race and because of that, my patience is limited. A fellow Europa owner from Belgium is restoring his Type 46 since 2011 or 2012 for sport use and did not drive a single mile in the car since then. His restoration is great, but for me driving and especially racing is priority. That's why I delvelop the car sort of on track. That leads to some compromizes, but I prefer to race now when I'm young, before politics or my family situation can prevent me from doing so in the future.

Until now, the car was only raced in 17 races, achieving 3 wins and five more podium spots. I want to make the car reliable enough to go through a full season of 10 or 12 races in a single year, but in the last year I only managed four starts, one class win and one 2nd place finish. Nonetheless, this was a step forward from 3 starts and no podium in 2021. The low number of starts was caused by time-consuming modifications, which I found necessary during both seasons. I could have gone for more starts, but they would not have been satisfactory.

A short conclusion of the Lotus Europa S2 Type 54, which is prepared in accordance with Group H regulations for the BELCAR Historic Cup national (non-FIA) class:
Displacement: 1597 ccm
Power: 162 HP / 119 kW
Weight: 740 kg / 1631 lbs (mandatory minimum weight incl. 50 kg ballast)
Ride Height: 70 mm / 2,76 in
Tank Capicity: 40 litres
0 - 100 km/h / 0 - 62 mp/h: 4,8 s
Max. Speed: 236 km/h / 147 mp/h
Rims: front: 8x13", rear: 9x13" Minilite / Revolution
Tyres: Pirelli Semislicks; 225/45/R13
Brakes: front: ventilated discs, rear: solid grooved discs; adjustable brake bias

Modifications:
Engine and Fuel System:
 - Renault 807 engine with crossflow-head
 - racing H-shaft connecting rods
 - forged aluminium pistons for high compression (12:1)
 - lightened crank shaft and flywheel
 - racing cam shaft 318°
 - two 45 Weber DCOE twin-carburettors
 - stainless steel exhaust manifold
 - two fuel pumps
 - fuel pressure regulator
 - electronic ignition distributor

Cooling:
 - custom-built aluminium radiator sitting right behind the grill
 - electrical water pump (80 litres per minute)
 - oil cooler installed in front of the radiator
 - ducted front boot to force the air flow through oil cooler and radiator
 - front bonnet with big hot air outlet
 - interior heater removed

Gearbox:
 - 5 speed Renault 395 gearbox (soon with Quaife torsen diff)
 - sintermetal racing clutch

Suspension:
 - completely adjustable (height, compression, rebound) racing shocks and springs
 - all rubber bushes replaced by uniball or polyurethane (incl. engine and gearbox mounts)
 - front upper whishbones camber adjustable
 - aluminium front hub carriers
 - rear whishbones completely adjustable
 - custom built rear hub carriers for BMW wheel bearings
 - M12 wheel studs

Brakes:
 - ventilated discs at front (Banks kit)
 - solid grooved discs at rear (Opel)
 - two circle braking system with steel-flex brake lines and adjustable brake balance between front and rear
 - master cylinders: front: 0,625", rear: 0,7"
 - air-hoses for front brake cooling

Bodywork and Interior:
 - lexan door- and rear-windows
 - flared front and rear wheel arches
 - completely removeable front bonnet
 - completely removeable light weight engine cover
 - Type 47 NACA ducts for fresh air into the engine bay
 - whole interiour removed except for the dashboard
 - passenger seat removed
 - aluminium fuel tank (right hand side)
 - removed rear boot

Safety:
 - Tillett racing driver seat (fibre composite material)
 - 6 point safety harness
 - roll cage (FIA Appendix K spec; tube Ø38 x 3,2 mm)
 - fire extinguisher
 - emergency stop switch (can be operated from outside the car)

Sometimes I myself wonder, how few parts of the car are left in stock condition. I think, the only part, which has not been dismantled and refurbished by us, is the leather dashboard, which has been retrofitted by a previous owner. But as the car needs ballast to reach the mandatory minimum weight, there is no reason to throw it out. Still there is a lot of room for improvement. Some mods, like the brakes for example, are upgrades, but not high-end. The Banks ventilated disc kit is nice, but an AP Racing four pod brake caliper is much nicer. Same with the gear box. I'm using stock Renault 17 internals without diff lock. I want to upgrade to straight cut and shorter ratios, but the budget doesn't allow it right now. The Quaife torsen diff should be a nice upgrade for the next season. In addition, I'm now rebuilding my engine and at the same time building a second engine as spare. The spare engine shall be ready some time in 2023 and the first one in spring, when the season starts, of course.

I hope you like the car and my short story. Feel free to ask and/or comment. If you are interested, please visit my website yart-racing.com

Edited December 8, 2022 by Mecky

[Rambo]

Wow, what a comprehensive report. She looks lovely Stefan 👍

Great photos too 👍

[Bibs]

Welcome to TLF and what an epic build, I bet that's a lot of fun and will be even more so with the new gears and diff! 

Will look forward to following your race season from the Spring

[Rambo]

Looks like you're doing pretty well so far Stefan. 3 wins and 5 further podium places in just 17 races 🏆As Bibs said, looking forward to hearing next seasons efforts.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Rambo

[jep]

Fantastic. Days in Europa 🙂

A warm welcome to you. 

Justin 

[NG5]

Stefan,

Looks like a fantastic car, with a great spec. All the best for the future.

You already seem to have done or have planned most reasonable modifications so I can't add much to help.

You say that you have a lightened flywheel, is that std lightened or a special? Although they don't list it anymore Fidanza do a super light weight aluminium flywheel for the Renault which they used to make to special order and I assume they still will (I have one on mine), which may help. Can't find the specs atm but about 3.2kg from memory.

If you are still rebuilding your engine it might be worth contacting Salv Sacco, he used to build 1600 engines with higher outputs than 162hp, though you don't say at what revs, what your rev limit is or what you have done to the head. Salv is semi retired now and so only does projects that interest him, but he is still very good on advice and might be of help. He is a Renault Race/Rally Engine specialist particularly for the original Alpine A110's which used the same engine. I'll send you a PM with his details as I don't think I should list them on an open forum.

I hope the racing goes well and that you have many wins in the future.

 

[jonwat]

Great work Stefan,  the car looks superb & do keep us updated with your progress & race results. 

[Mecky]

2 hours ago, NG5 said:

Stefan,

Looks like a fantastic car, with a great spec. All the best for the future.

You already seem to have done or have planned most reasonable modifications so I can't add much to help.

You say that you have a lightened flywheel, is that std lightened or a special? Although they don't list it anymore Fidanza do a super light weight aluminium flywheel for the Renault which they used to make to special order and I assume they still will (I have one on mine), which may help. Can't find the specs atm but about 3.2kg from memory.

If you are still rebuilding your engine it might be worth contacting Salv Sacco, he used to build 1600 engines with higher outputs than 162hp, though you don't say at what revs, what your rev limit is or what you have done to the head. Salv is semi retired now and so only does projects that interest him, but he is still very good on advice and might be of help. He is a Renault Race/Rally Engine specialist particularly for the original Alpine A110's which used the same engine. I'll send you a PM with his details as I don't think I should list them on an open forum.

I hope the racing goes well and that you have many wins in the future.

 

Hi and thank you for the contact details of Salv. I have already heard that he is the guru for Renault engines in Britain. I'll contact him soon, when the build of my spare engine goes into the next stage. The first engine has peak horsepower close to 7000 RPM, but can rev up to 8000 (or maybe even more, I'm not sure about the rocker arms and push rods) from a hardware durability perspective. I'd like to have the second engine with more peak horsepower in a higher rev range. 

The flywheel, which I use is this one: TTV Racing Components. It's great craftsmenship, but frankly speaking: I didn't realize any significant advantage after installing it. The few kilograms scraped from the flywheel couldn't even be measured on the rolling road dyno. The measured figure remained 60 kg of rotational mass (whole drive train). Only, when declutched, I seem to feel that the engine speed drops faster after lifting the throttle. Since the flimsy gear shift linkage (which is already upgraded compared to stock) is not perfect for quick gear changes, this is not exactly a big advantage. I mean, it's not a problem, but next time I would prioritize other parts. For example an adjustable cam wheel should be a more bang-for-buck upgrade. The new engine will definetly get one.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Mecky

[NG5]

Yes light flywheels only aid response making the engine rev and die faster helping a little with acceleration and gear changing. Adds nothing to hp. The Fidanza one has a sintered clutch mating face which seems to 'bite' better. But if yours is already only 3.4kg not a lot to be gained by changing. No Renault box of this basic type is good for quick gear shifts, even the much larger and stronger one in the Esprit, no matter what the linkage!

Std crank gets suspect over 8000 rpm so I wouldn't go over that even if you can! I have seen reports of these engines with billet cranks reving to over 9000 rpm but I've no idea of what valve train mods are needed to achieve that, Salv will almost certainly know.

Good Luck

[DanR]

Chris, the owner of this car 

https://www.my105.com/search/details/lotus-sports-race-car/d49f5fb1-c315-461a-985c-72d193b063ff   

has built the engine to over 2000cc. Might be worth contacting him.

[USAndretti42]

Wow!  What a lot of work  Good luck for the coming season.  The car looks great.  Your dad would be proud.  👍

[jonwat]

On 09/12/2022 at 21:03, DanR said:

https://www.my105.com/search/details/lotus-sports-race-car/d49f5fb1-c315-461a-985c-72d193b063ff   

Doesn't the Europa look small in front of the Exige, and the Exige isn't exactly big. 😃

[NG5]

Yes John cars just keep getting bigger.

Back in 1980 when I bought my Europa it wasn't high or long but it was one of the wider cars on UK roads. Yes Range Rovers and big executive saloons etc were wider, but 'normal' cars such as the Cortina were about the same width or narrower. The Vauxhall Chevette was a couple of inches narrower for example.

Now park it against any modern car and it seems ridiculously narrow, that along with it's low height makes it look tiny, which it never was back in the day.

Even a smart car is 1 inch wider than a Europa and the mini clubman is more than 6 inches wider!

The esprit when it came out was considered to be very, very wide in all reviews, the new Vauxhall Astra which is hardly a big car by todays standard is the same width and a bit longer.....

Edited December 13, 2022 by NG5
Added bit about the esprit

[Mecky]

Hi guys,

thank you for your kind words about the car and my effort. Really appreciate it.

The listed Europa Renault from Australia is a great build. This guy went far more radical with the modifications. He even completely changed the frame and suspension geometry. I love the Formula 1 style rear suspension! I would like to go for a Spyder (or similar space-) frame myself. Unfortunately, under the regulations, which I currently race, it's not allowed to change the chassis. But the suspension could still be improved by much.

I hope that I will reach a position next year, in which I have the car in a reliable state, so that I can concentrate more on my driving, instead of working on the car. Target is to race at five or maybe even all six events of next year. You can see the calendar below. It's 12 races (two per event) on four race tracks in three countries. Next year's calendar is very nice and diversified for a national competition. It's the first year, in which the BELCAR Historic Cup goes to two foreign countries. The TT Circuit Assen is new to me. Looking forward to get to know that one.

The BHC championship is arranged in a way that points are not awardeded for overall position in the whole field containing five platforms. The platform is more or less determined by the build year of your car. The class is the subcategory determined by engine capacity inside the platform. There are five platforms with five classes each. I'm in platform 2 (before year 1982, National Technical Passport, Group H) class B (up to 1600 cc). The series does crown one so called Belgian National Champion for each platform. Points are awarded for both: position in class and position in platform. Most of the time, one from class E will be the champion, as they have the biggest engine capacity (over 2500 cc) and therefore are always on the top spots in the platform ranking. That's why it's not realistic with the Lotus Europa to aim for the platform title.

I see this racing project, which started in March 2020, as a kind of development journey. In 2020, I didn't manage to race at all due to a delay in my time schedule. In 2021, I managed to attend to races, but without any success. In 2022, my target was to achieve a first class win in BELCAR Historic Cup and I managed it. Thus, next year I want to race the majority of the season and maybe fight for class wins on more than one occasion. Not sure, if it's going to be on a regular basis, because I might still not be as fast as the repeat class champion of 2019 - 2022 (Toyota Celica GT). But maybe I will improve my driving, when I race more regularly and close the gap to him. The next upgrades to the car's performance will be the Quaife diff and a set of shorter straight-cut gear ratios. But the ratios will be delayed due to budgetary reasons. Probably until 2024 😞

[Mecky]

In May, I competed again in the BELCAR Historic Cup in Zolder, Belgium. On Thursday, I did a test session in the afternoon, where little issues were sorted out (e.g. adjusting the clutch). Friday was the day for technical scrutineering and a thorough check-up of the car. 

On Saturday, I qualified for 26th place on the grid out of a total of 40 starters and 2nd place in class. Unfortunately, my lap time of 1:59.947 min was 1.8 seconds behind my personal best time of the previous year. This is especially annoying because the new Quaife limited slip differential was supposed to improve the lap time. But analysis of the sector times clearly shows that the Quaife works fine. The problem was the engine. It did not produce the same power as last year. The top speed was about 4 km/h worse and the revs reached before the braking points also indicate a engine power deficit. I lost the lion's share of the 1.8 seconds (1.6 seconds) in the first two sectors of Circuit Zolder. These are the sectors without particularly tight corners. The tightest corners are both in the third sector. There, the inside rear wheel lost traction when accelerating out with the differential open. With the Quaife, this problem is solved. My iteration showed that the limited slip diff alone brings a benefit about 5 - 6 tenths of a second per lap.

In the first race on Sunday, there was a crash in turn 1 right after the start, which some drivers had to avoid. The leader in my class had to brake and I was able to take the lead. Unfortunately, I couldn't hold on to this lead for long and ended up driving a lonely race. Opponents, I drove circles around in 2022, left me behind this time. The power deficit of the engine seemed to have gotten worse after qualifying. I finished the race 25th overall and 2nd in class.

In the second race, I noticed after a few laps that something was wrong with the water temperature and stopped the car in the pits. The findings are now clear: loss of coolant through a damaged cylinder head gasket. The cylinder head got damaged, as well. 

So I am now having a new engine built-up by an Alpine specialist in Germany. Unfortunately, the 2023 season is now over for me. The engine won't be ready in time for any race of this year. To take advantage of the long break, I'm also having a shorter ring and bevel gear specially made for my 395 five speed gearbox. Then I finally have shorter gearing. Right now, my top speed (5th @ 7500 RPM) is 232 km/h. On the German Autobahn, where you can go straight for 5 km, that may be OK. But on race tracks, which have straights of not more than 900 m, that's just rediculous. At least when you only have 160 horsepwer. With my new ring and bevel gear, the top speed will come down to 212 km/h. This change to the gearbox is not the best possible solution, but in relation to a completely new straight-cut gearbox, I get about 90% of the benefit for about 50% of the costs.

The new season starts in April or May 2024. I hope to have the car running by February. In the meantime, I'm planning on doing an aero upgrade. My racing series allows a front spoiler for every car and rear aerodynamic divices only, if homologated. Thus, at the rear there is nothing for me to gain, as the Europa has no homologated aero equipment. But at the front, I want to add a splitter, in order to reduce lift and maybe get some more load in the front wheels, especially under braking. The splitter should look like a mix of the two Europas, which are shown below. I will not be able to get the aero as sophisticated as the grey & yellow Europa. I'm not allowed to use side skirts and a snorkel like this car has. But hopefully, my solution will look a bit nicer than the splitter on the black Europa. I used to have the TC front spoiler on my car, but after it was removed, I didn't notice any difference, thus I want to go a step further with the front end.

Hopefully, by 2024, I will finally be able to drive a full season and regularly compete for class wins. 

[jonwat]

Stefan, great write-up & pictures. Keep them coming, including updates on testing with the new engine & good luck for next year 

[Haicovdh]

Hi Stefan

At the moment I'm busy with the last steps of my Europa S1 racer. Like yours it has an 807 crossflow. The intention is to have an FIA HTP for it and to race it in the dutch GTTC championship. Sure it will not be competitive against many of the later cars, but they do insist on period correct cars and until 1972 they must have street tires. Since i'm also a technical scrutineer for this group my car has to be more than compliant, which is a bit of a challenge. Since you already have an HTP with your car would it be possible to have a look at it, especially the two seater racing car class might still be an option.

[lotus-62]

hoi, Haico, nice to see another Europa in Holland, are you a member of the Dutch lotus club? any more pics from the Europa?