1974 Lotus Europa Special

Not every black-and-gold Europa Special is a John Player Special. Lotus kept the Special name and the gold pinstripe until production ended in 1975 and offered the cars in other colours besides black; a good many have since been repainted into the livery everyone remembers.

This car is honest about it. Registered in August 1974, close to two years after the commemorative cars of September 1972, it left the factory in Roman Purple and was changed to John Player colours later in life. Mechanically it is a full Big Valve Special, rebuilt, renewed and replaced throughout by a succession of owners at considerable expense. It has covered around 93,000 miles, a figure very few surviving Europas can match, and it is still used as its makers intended.

Why it matters

It shows how the black-and-gold livery became the Europa's public face, whatever colour a car was actually built in.