The Lotus Europa is a British sports car that was first presented to the public in 1966. Its serial production started a year later and lasted until 1975 - it was concentrated mainly in the town of Hethel in Great Britain. Lotus Europa was the brand's first mid-engine car approved for normal road traffic. It was created primarily in order for Lotus to enter the segment of passenger sports cars. The vehicle was created in a fairly close cooperation with the Renault concern, from which one of the engines driving Lotus Europa and the gearbox were borrowed - the same that was used in the Renault 16. While creating this model, care was also taken to ensure the best possible aerodynamic properties of the car and low curb weight. However, despite this, the car's performance was rather poor, which was due to the use of too weak power units with only 78 to 126 HP. The advantage was, however, great traction properties. In the Lotus offer, the Europa model was replaced by the Esprit model.