Introduction The Lotus Type 46 Europa was introduced to the public in December 1966, with deliveries starting immediately; it was the first road-going mid-engined car produced by Lotus. Despite Lotus East (the US east coast distributor) stating that the Europa was "the first road car to make use of what has become standard design practice for GT Prototype racing cars of the past three years," the Europa was the fourth mid-engined road car to make it into production after the Lamborghini Miura (introduced in mid-1966), the De Tomaso Vallelunga of 1964, and the René Bonnet 'Djet' (later the Matra 'Djet') of 1962, none of which were produced in as high numbers as the Europa. The Europa was described by Lotus founder, owner, and Managing Director, Colin Chapman, as a "GT car with outstanding good looks and the now-famous Lotus standards of road holding, safety and reliability." And it did indeed set new standards for roadholding and handling - it was these properties which contributed to its safety, by actively helping the car to avoid accidents in the first place. Reliability: well, let's just say it was probably as good as any other Lotus road car of the time, although the Renault engine was probably not as highly strung, and more forgiving than the Lotus Twin Cam unit! The car was initially produced in left-hand drive format for export to Europe, with France and Germany as the main markets. The car sold in reasonable numbers, although it never quite met the target of 500 units a year - some 640 Series 1 cars were produced between December 1966 and April 1968, equalling an average of 450 cars sold per year. A dedicated racing version, the Type 47, was also introduced at the launch of the road-going car. The Type 47 was powered by the Lotus Twin Cam engine and was built to order in limited numbers by Lotus' race shop, Lotus Components.

The main flaw of the retrospectively-named Series 1 was that its chassis was bonded to the body. While this made for a strong and stiff structure, it did give insurance companies some concerns, as an accident that bent the chassis could only be repaired by replacing the complete chassis and body unit, or by cutting the damaged chassis from the body and moulding in a new one. In 1968, the car was given a number of revisions to become the Series 2. It was designated the Type 54, and had a bolt-on chassis (still of the same overall design), incorporated electrically-operated windows and some detail changes, as well as a few more creature comforts in the cockpit. Some 4300 Series 2 cars were made between April 1968 and December 1971, giving about 1110 cars produced per year, exceeding the original sales target by over 100 per cent. These figures included a revised version for the US market - the Type 65 - which incorporated various features to meet new US standards; it was also known as the Federal Europa. The Series 2 was replaced by the Type 74 - the Twin Cam - in 1971, which was heavily revised to address many of the problems of the Series 2. The most significant change was the replacement of the Renault engine with Lotus' own Ford-based engine.

Other changes were cut-down rear buttresses to increase rearward visibility, and a revised cockpit floor to give a bit more room. The final incarnation was the 1972 Twin Cam Special (TCS) which got the more powerful, big-valve 'Sprint' specification Twin Cam, and an optional five-speed gearbox. Twin Cam and TCS production numbered just under 5000 units, which gave a yearly rate of around 1600 cars - even better than the Series 2 rate. The Europa was a success, and production ended in 1974 after some 10,000 cars of all types had been produced. It was replaced by the company's second mid-engined road car - the Esprit.