In 1963 after becoming aware that Ford of America wanted to build a Le Mans racer Ron Hickman and Colin Chapman decided to bid for the work. Ron Hickman designed a mid-engined two-seater which was shown to Ford. Lotus lost out to Lola who already had an Eric Broadley engineered contender racing with a body designed by John Frayling. Colin Chapman decided to turn the rejected Le Mans car into a scaled down road car which was launched as the Lotus Europa. However the Hickman design was considered too complicated so John Frayling, who had earlier worked on the Lotus Elite, returned to Lotus for the final design of the Europa. Announced in December 1966 as the Type 46 Europa, this car used a back bone chassis similar to the Lotus Elan, but with a Renault 16 1470cc 82 bhp engine mid-mounted behind the cabin. 296 of this very basic S1 model were made. A later Series 1A and 1B were given removable side windows. Lotus also engineered a racing version of the Europa as the Type 47 with a Lotus Twin Cam engine, and about 55 were made. The Series 2 Europa (Type 54) was launched in April 1968 and given wind-up windows, and in 1969 there was a Type 65 version, essentially a federalised version of the Type 54. Road-going Europas with the Lotus Twin Cam engine were finally announced in 1971 as the Type 74 with revised rear deck for better visibility. The Twin Cam Europa was later upgraded to the Big Valve 126bhp engine. Black and Gold Europa Twin Cam Specials were produced to commemorate the Team Lotus 1972 and 1973 Formula One World Championships.