LOTUS GS EUROPA any info

[Steve V8]

I recall as a very young car enthusiast, visiting on a few occasions, a tiny Lotus garage at Warmley on the outskirts of Bristol called GS cars. Who with the approval of Colin Chapman rebodied the Europa with a sleek new design designated the Lotus GS Europa.

Having looked through the forum, I can't find any reference to the model, so Googled and found these photos.



The accompanying text states that 17 GS Europa were built, but only 5 still exist, making this a very rare car, I'd be interested if anyone has further info on what was quite a stunning car of its day.

[Bazza 907]

There have been a few articles in old Club Lotus magazines over the years. Not certain but I think Malcom Ricketts (and his son?) owned/owns one.

[Chillidoggy]

Definitely seen one at Malcolm Rickett’s gaff. From 2016  - 

[Bazza 907]

Same one

[Steve V8]

Allegedly designed by William Towns, definitely got a bit of Merak and Tasmin about it.

[tim_marra]

Looks the same as the one Banks Europa restored around the same time as my Twin Cam, which would be 1991 - 93 approx. Same colour and the registration looks familiar, although all the GS cars could have similar reg nos if done by GS?? I don't think it belonged to Mr Ricketts at that time however.

[silverfrost]

Not as nice as the Europa imo,  nice design though, just does not float my boat like the factory body 

[jonwat]

4 hours ago, silverfrost said:

Not as nice as the Europa imo,  nice design though, just does not float my boat like the factory body 

I have to say those "bars" at the rear are the worse design I think I've ever seen I'm afraid. 

[tim_marra]

Maserati Merak anyone?

[Ruedi]

I found the document and pictures below in the estate I helped to clean out of Adrian Ratcliff, a former body man and racer from Surrey, BC, Canada, who passed away back in 2016.

It appears a company going by the name of Tomco Engineering in Vashon, WA, tried to sell the cars in the USA -- at least on the West coast. 

If there is a "guardian" of information and/or maintainer of a registry of these cars who would like to get the originals for their archive, please let me know (I'm an Alfa guy and don't know much about Lotus).

 

[Bibs]

Hey Ruedi, thanks for the information. I'm sure Malcolm Ricketts would be very interested, I'll pop you a PM and make sure they get to him if that's ok with you?

[Ruedi]

Got the PM and replied. Thanks! 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Ruedi

[Dean]

Hi Gents

My late brother Mark Jones was a fibre glass fabricator at GS Cars in Tower Hill Warmly and also at their other garage in Bell Hill St George in the mid seventies.

I have a pre-press release photo taken by my brother which was taken at Doddington House on the outskirts of Bristol near the M4 Bath junction, Now the residence of a Mr James Dyson ! . My picture even has a yellow metal GS Lotus Centre Bristol tool box badge framed within the picture.

The car was built for the 1975/6 motor show held in Earls Court and my brother traveled up to London with the car

This was at a time when TV series like UFO were influencing car designs as we moved towards the 1980,s

Let me know if you would like a copy of the framed picture

[MartinRicketts]

Hi Dean 

I was very interested to read your post as I am the current owner of this car and I would very much like to see the photo you have, if possible.

Will post more about the car and other GS Europa's soon.

Thanks 

Martin Ricketts 

 

 

[ZXRRDave]

Saw your green GS in issue 11 of absolute lotus Martin. It's a stunning car, thanks for sharing it with us.

Edited April 28, 2020 by ZXRRDave

[SimonHinsley]

If anyone has a contact details for Martin Rickets I can fill in some gaps in  the cars history . It passed between two friends of mine in the 80’s / 90s and I assisted lots of jobs on it.

My mother still blames that car for my poor A level results !!

[Wardster74]

We had one in our garage.  It had rotted away.  We left it in the garage when we sold the house.  I used to play with it as a kid.  No idea what happened to it!  Last time I saw it was 2000.

 

My aunt bought it from the London motor show in 74 I think.  It has the coolest red topped engine block.

[Bibs]

26 minutes ago, SimonHinsley said:

If anyone has a contact details for Martin Rickets

Welcome Simon - I'll pop you a PM when I'm back in the office tomorrow

[gscars]

hi every one  my stepfather was Bernard Gray owner of gs cars who finansed the production of the gs europa,  he died in 1 982 and I carried on gs cars until retirement in 2002.  about 9 cars were built from registered europa.  I gave all panels to Malcolm as he had 2,, I still see a couple of our builders and shared info with rob ford of lotus club Avon.  1 car in parts was sent to n west usa geoff Johnson who built on a europa s2   roger fowler

[europa88]

My Europa Special was from the Warmly garage 🙂 Registered January 1972

[ramjet]

On 17/07/2021 at 07:14, gscars said:

hi every one  my stepfather was Bernard Gray owner of gs cars who finansed the production of the gs europa,  he died in 1 982 and I carried on gs cars until retirement in 2002.  about 9 cars were built from registered europa.  I gave all panels to Malcolm as he had 2,, I still see a couple of our builders and shared info with rob ford of lotus club Avon.  1 car in parts was sent to n west usa geoff Johnson who built on a europa s2   roger fowler

Welcome to TLF. 

Have you got any more photos of the Europas that were built?

You should duck over to the Introductions area and say hi in there as well.  

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