Power
Thorney Motorsport Europa Power Pack 1 - £650 fitted
Engine ECU remap +20bhp +30lb's torque
The Europa has an interesting ECU, part VX220 Turbo, part VXR Astra but all Bosche and frankly not exactly hugely developed. Standard power delivery is best described as ‘lumpy’ and has peaks and surges that sometimes make for hard going especially on part throttle. Fortunately our ECU remap changes all of that and we can create a smooth power delivery as well as increasing the peak power by over 20bhp.
The main issue that affects the VX220 Turbo is heat and the Europa is no different in this respect (the lack of vehicle under trays is as a result of heat build up)
having a turbo mounted forward of the engine jammed up against the firewall does not make a nice environment for power creation or delivery, for this reason we cap power increases on the stage 1 ECU remap to around 25bhp. Despite this cap the car is pretty much transformed with a lot more torque and a lot smoother delivery that feels perfect on the road and a lot more exciting on track.
Europa Stage 1 power at wheels
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Europa Stage 1 power at flywheel
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As with all our modifications we firstly run the car on our £150,000 dyno facility to check everything is running perfectly before we upgrade the ECU and repeat the process again during and after remapping to ensure the upgrade is working perfectly. Each car is different and we remap each one accordingly making any necessary changes to the car as they are needed.
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Thorney Motorsport Europa Power Pack 2 – £2500 fitted
ECU Remap and Milltek Sport sports exhaust system +45bhp +50lb's torque
This is where the fun really begins. The Bosche ECU has a glitch where the boost available to the engine is determined by the available airflow (normally boost is controlled by the ECU itself) so if you create more airflow on the Europa you immediately gain fairly dramatic power as the boost is increased automatically – this is fantastic news if the standard exhaust is crap, and trust us the stock unit could win awards in this regard – it’s just as a bad as the VX220 Turbo exhaust because its basically the same system.
Europa Stage 2 at flywheel
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Full Milltek sport race exhaust
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Europa Stage 2 at wheels
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So if you add a decent sports exhaust, with proper 100 cell race catalytic converter, replace the pre-cat with a straight through pipe and free breathing rear silencer you can add 30bhp even to bog standard car – it’s a bit of a no brainer really. The additional benefit is that this extra airflow drops the engine temperatures down by so much that we can increase the power from the car without increasing heat too much and create a 255bhp Europa that (without putting too fine a point on it) will trounce all its competitors in terms of in gear acceleration and drops the 0-60mph (if you care about such measures) to near 4 seconds dead. Remember this car only weighs just under a tonne so 255bhp compares very well against other cars all weighing in excess of 1300kg’s.
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Milltek Sport exhaust rear tips
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Milltek Sport rear tips
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Of course a decent sports exhaust is also about noise, the standard Europa doesn’t sound bad as standard (how any no noise at all be described as bad) but its hardly a sports car noise is it? The Milltek Sport exhaust sounds absolutely fantastic, it has a lovely crackle and pop on the overrun, sounds brilliant at full acceleration but combines this with a subtle sporty note at lower rpm – no boom and unintrusive at motorway cruising speeds. Combine all this with the lifetime warranty, completely MOT compliant, full stainless steel construction and no effect on your warranty and it represents the perfect accompaniment to the car.
The Milltek Sports exhaust is available separately of course and even without a remap will add around 20-25bhp to the power of the car.
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Thorney Motorsport Europa Power Pack 3 – £TBC
ECU remap, full Milltek Sport Exhaust, charge cooler
In development. Heat is the crucial issue for the Europa and we have long been fitting charge cooler systems to the VX220 Turbo to maxmise power at the same time as keeping things cool. We’ll be releasing a new charge cooler system for the Europa this summer.
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Thorney Motorsport Lotus Europa Brake Upgrade Stage 1 - Road/Fast Road
Change the pads - simple. Stock pads are poor and expecially so when you consider they’re being asked to make up for calipers which aren’t up to the job. A simple change to a better pad will transform the cars brakes. The choices are pretty varied but we recommend the Mintex 1144.
The Mintex is a road based pad but can cope extremely well with occasional track work and doesn’t need lots of warming up to get the best from them. They’re also pretty cost effective and can happily use the standard disks.
Mintex 1144 Front - £59.00
Mintex 1144 Rear - £76.00
Mintex Pads, full set fitted - £200
Thorney Motorsport Lotus Europa Brake Upgrade Stage 2 - Fast Road and Track
Whilst the Mintex pads are perfectly able to cope with occasional track work the move to a track specific pad is a significant step up and recommended for those people who regularly track their car. For this, we recommend the Pagid RS14.
Braking power and feel is much improved and resistance to fade much better. The downside is that they squeak like stuck pigs – ignore any advice that this can be avoided because it can’t – live with it, however its a small price to pay for the extra feel. The Pagid is specifically supplied with the VXR220, however it is a track only pad and (in theory) should not be used on the road, however many do and all without issue (including us). The Pagids also can take a little time to warm up (a couple of applications should do it) but its not a major issue.
The higher temperature resistance from using a track specific pad means brakes tend to lock up less and you get more feel through corners (a VX Achilles heel).
Pagid RS14 Front - £130
Pagid RS14 Rear - £140
Pagid RS14 full set (fitted) - £370
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Thorney Motorsport Lotus Europa Brake upgrade stage 3 - Fast road, track and race
The Europa runs on the same 5 bolts hubs as the VX220 and the same offset wheels so the AP Racing brake upgrade we developed directly with AP just bolts straight on. This is rather good news as the AP kit was developed specifically for the VX220's higher weight and different weight displacement and is so well regarded that Lotus copied it for the official upgrade to the S2 Exige.
Normally brake upgrades should be done in pairs (front and back) however the front brakes are so woefully under powered compared to the rears on a stock car that a front only kit was the desired option (the torque balance was that bad).
The kits have a custom designed caliper and set up which took over 5 months of development. They provide a whole new meaning to the concept of brake feel (an achilles heel of the VX compared to the Elise) and work perfectly with the enhanced ABS set up on the Europa.
4 Pot lightweight caliper (upgraded from stock single piston)
307mm/26mm grooved disk fitted on separate alloy bells (upgrade from297mm/24mm stock disk bit integrated bell)
Braided hoses
Dot 5.1 fluid
Ferodo DS2500 pads (Pads can be upgraded to Pagid RS14's front and rear - ultimate stopping power, add another £300)
£1550 supplied
£1699 fitted
The kits have a custom designed caliper and set up which took over 5 months of development. They provide a whole new meaning to the concept of brake feel (an achilles heel of the VX compared to the Elise which applies to the heavier Europa) and work perfectly with the enhanced ABS set up on the Europa.
4 Pot lightweight caliper (upgraded from stock single piston)
307mm/26mm grooved disk fitted on separate alloy bells (upgrade from297mm/24mm stock disk bit integrated bell)
Braided hoses
Dot 5.1 fluid
Ferodo DS2500 pads (Pads can be upgraded to Pagid RS14's front and rear - ultimate stopping power, add another £300)
These are the exact same calipers we use on the VX Turbo race car so they can handle every bit of track stress the Europa can throw at it and transform the car.
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Thorney Motorsport full geometry enhancement - from £150
The Europa has been billed as the grand tourer of the Lotus stable and whether you agree with that as a concept is moot, the fact is the handling has been set very much on the side of safety. This means as standard the car understeers like a pig and can be quite unrewarding to drive on the limit.
We're used to all this from the VX220, the Europa is heavier than the VXT but its weight displacement is slightly better so it doesn't take much to re-set the chassis geometry to get some fun back into it. These enhancements all but eradicate understeer and get rid of the snap off oversteer which also affects the car on the limit.
Nitron NTR Single Adjustable Suspension
£1149 supplied, £1499 fitted (includes full geometry enhancement)
The standard Europa is a little 'high' and the suspension certainly set up for road rather than track so overall the result is that in terms of handling the car is a poor performer compared to its power. Nitron have been one of the front runners in Lotus suspension development and they were the natural choice for us when we developed the kits for the VX220 and VXT.
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Milltek Sport rear tips
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As soon as our own Europa arrived we spent considerable time with Nitron in developing a specific Europa kit which (unsurprisingly) is based on the VX220 Turbo kit we already developed. The NTR set up represents the perfect compromise between adjustable handling and cost, the units are single adjustable which means the damping can be softened or stiffened up via a single knob so a perfect set up can be achieved. We offer a full support service to help you attain the proper set up for your driving including recommended road and track settings to suit your driving style.
As with any fully adjustable suspension a full geometry is required and we again set the chassis geometry according to your requirements.
Thorney Motorsport Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 wheelset
Full set - £595
With Toyo T1-R tyres - £965
With Yokohama AO48 tyres - £1250
With Toyo R888 tyres - £1199
The standard Europa wheels really weren't such a good idea, same 17" sizes as the VX220 which means you're stuck with Bridgestone 175 cross section front tyres - a contributory cause to the understeer. Why on Earth Lotus didn't spec Elise wheels we've no idea.
No harm though, we specifically developed a custom wheel for the VX220 with Team Dynamics with a 16" front and 17" rear size so that owners can swap to decent size tyres and get nearer to Elise handling. Offsets are identical to standard save for the front track widened out by 5mm to give extra clearance for the AP brake kits.
The wheels are specifically designed to cope with work on track in that they are NON spigot ring wheels, ie they bolt straight on without the need for a retaining ring, wheels that use retaining rings are not recommended for use on track.
The wheels are available in black, white and silver.
