Dinky Toys 218 Lotus Europa S1 Yellow & Blue & Period Decals Vintage 1969-73

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Dinky Toys 218 Lotus Europa S1 Yellow & Blue & Period Decals Vintage 1969-73

Vintage 1969-73 Dinky model of a series 1 Lotus Europa. Yellow bodywork with opening with blue roof and rear buttresses. Original fluorescent orange and black nose stripe and rear red chequered flag paper decals plus a range of period waterslide decals (from the Corgi Hillman Hunter London-Sydney rally car). 1968/69 G-suffix numberplates.

Jewelled headlights, painted rear lights. Opening doors with detailed black (LHD) interior and gold 3-spoke steering wheel. Clear crazing with windscreen wiper and rear view mirror detail. Opening rear engine cover revealing the detailed Renault engine in gold. Spring suspension, metal 5-spoke hubs with rubber tyres. Dark grey detailed baseplate secured to the body with 2 slotted-head screws.

By the mid-1960s, the mid-engine vehicle configuration was well-established as the optimal design for Grand Prix cars, however almost no road vehicles yet used this arrangement. Lotus planned the Europa to be a volume-produced, two-seater mid-engine sports coupe built to reasonable cost, quite an ambitious goal for the time. Like all Lotus vehicles of the era, the Europa was designed and built following Colin Chapman's oft-stated philosophy of automotive design: "Simplify, then add lightness". To this end, a number of ingenious design approaches were made by Lotus to allow it to economically overcome the many challenges presented by the novel mid-engine arrangement.

Production of the original Lotus Europa ceased in 1975, with a total of 9,230 cars of all models having been built

The Series 1 or S1 Europa (also known as Lotus Type 46) was announced for sale to European markets on 20 December 1966. The first cars were delivered in France in February 1967. Volkswagen owned the rights to the Europa name in Germany, so cars for sale in Germany were badged Europe rather than Europa.

The S1 was fitted with a modified Renault 16 1,470 cc straight-four engine and a four-speed gearbox. The engine was a special 82 hp (61 kW) version (as opposed to the 63 hp (47 kW) generated in standard form). Lotus adapted the affordable but lightweight Renault engine and gearbox to the revolutionary Europa longitudinal mid-engined layout, inverting the gearbox's crown wheel on its pinion gear to avoid having four reverse gears. The S1 weighed 610 kg (1,345 lb). Autocar magazine achieved a top speed of 121 mph (195 km/h), and recorded a 0–60 mph acceleration time of 9.3 seconds. Of particular note, in excess of 0.9 g (8 m/s2) lateral acceleration was consistently achieved by Car magazine on road tyres of that era.

Only 296 examples of the S1 were manufactured (chassis numbers from 460001 to 460296). These cars had extremely light and minimalist construction, with fixed side windows, fixed seats (adjustable pedals needing the use of tools), no door handles, no internal door covers, and an aluminum dashboard. The steel chassis central beam was sandwiched (incorporated) within the fibreglass bodywork, thus reinforcing stiffness, but making repair rather complicated.

Series 1A and B (around 350 built) had removable side windows, wooden dashboard, and internal door panel covers which could accommodate the windows once taken off. Series 1B had a redesigned rear panel, with new, rectangular light clusters (the original S1 used Lancia Flavia rear lenses).

Including the S1A and S1B (which incorporated some of the later S2 changes) variations, 644 Europa S1s were manufactured.

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