The Lotus Europa S.2 '68 is a two-door mid-engined grand-tourer coupe built by Lotus Cars. It only appears in Gran Turismo 6.
Colors[]
Nine colors are available for this car:
- Cirrus White
- Burnt Sand
- Lotus Yellow
- Bahama Yellow
- British Racing Green
- Wedgewood Blue
- French Blue
- Royal Blue
- Carnival Red
In-game description[]
"A midship sportscar in which one can experience ultra-sharp handling performance."
The first midship-engined, production sportscar of Lotus was the Lotus Europa, which made its debut in 1966.
The reverse Y backbone frame established in the first Elan was combined with a lightweight FRP body. This is notable as the engine-mounting area was split in a Y shape, allowing the engine to be mounted as low as possible to lower the centre of gravity.
The unique styling (sometimes called a 'bread van', due to the flying buttresses surrounding the engine lid) was by John Frayling. The car underwent wind tunnel testing, which was rare for its time, and had an excellent Cd (coefficient of drag) value of 0.29.
Though midship cars were then seen as luxury sportscars for the wealthy, what Lotus aimed to provide was a sportscar that was affordable to the masses. For this reason there were many efforts made on the Europa to lower its cost.
The most notable part of this was in the powertrain, using the 4-cylinder 1.5 L OHV of the Renault 16 with 80.9 BHP as is. The earliest type 46, also called the Series 1, only weighed 610 kg, so there were no complaints about its performance. The extreme cost reductions came at a price, however, as the side windows were fixed and on the interior there was no carpet, nor any soundproofing. This obviously resulted in problems in terms of comfort.
The type 54, known as the Series 2 from 1968, addressed these issues. It was equipped with electric windows, the seats were given an adjustment mechanism, and efforts were made to soundproof the interior. Though the car became 50 kg heavier because of this, it was a huge improvement in terms of comfort and interior quality. Having the lowest centre of gravity in the series with very sharp handling, there are many fans of this type 54.
Acquisition[]
GT6[]
This car can be bought at the Lotus dealership for 30,000 Credits. It has a detailed interior. A special 15th Anniversary Edition model is also available by pre-ordering the game via the Gran Turismo official website.
Trivia[]
- This is one of the six GT6 cars with a 15th Anniversary Model variation that have yet returned in later games. The others are the Audi R8 LMS ultra (Audi Sport Team Phoenix) '12, Ford Shelby GT500 '13, Ford Focus ST '13, Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 (Volkswagen Motorsport) '08 and Audi Sport quattro S1 Rally Car '86