Overhaulin' Europa

If you noticed, this one took a whole lot longer than one or two week. One reference was that it may have taken months.

EDIT: Well I caught the first part of the show last night and they explicitly said it had taken months.

from a comment foose made, i get the idea that he simply wanted to do it. i liked the car, well, everything except the wheels.

All right, I'm willing to retract my badmouthing of Chip Foose (mostly... those wheels were all Foose and 100% awful). They did well with that car.

mikeatrpi wrote: The complexity of this project was above and beyond anything I've seen on Overhaulin before. Custom CV axles, custom chassis modifications, custom suspension, all of the glass work, and on and on. I'm impressed - but I'm also curious why they took on this project. It obviously cost a lot of money and took a long time - why would they take on a project like that for a double episode show? Is it Foose flexing his muscles or are they bringing in a wider audience?

Foose loves all cars, he has said it before. I think that there has been so much criticism for a show that was about doing something nice for deserving people, that they decided to show that they can do a lot more than fix body work, paint, and drop a crate motor in an old muscle car. It probably is also a way to get a wider audience.

I think Chip has some input in what comes on the show, so I think he wants to mix it up. Someone said it before, that they would have a hard time doing something like a Corvair, but I think otherwise. Whenever they do a car that is out of the "realm", they always call in someone who knows those cars well, so I would have faith in them if they decided to do my Corvair.

I was totally impressed. I don't like every little thing Foose does, but his vision, creativity, artistry and skills demand respect. Not to mention he seems like a truly nice guy.

mikeatrpi wrote: I'm impressed - but I'm also curious why they took on this project. It obviously cost a lot of money and took a long time - why would they take on a project like that for a double episode show? Is it Foose flexing his muscles or are they bringing in a wider audience?

I am sure the fact that Jay Leno was intimately involved with the project had nothing to do with it.

racerdave600 wrote: i liked the car, well, everything except the wheels.

this

When I saw that he was going to cram 18's into it, I was like "No, no NO!!!". Otherwise, it was an amazing, SEMA-level project. They did an incredible job on everything.

18's on a Europa is blasphemous. 15's would be gorgeous (and functional).

She wasn't on the episode, but I recently learned that A-Team member Cherie Westrich was in the Weezer spinoff band The Rentals. Interesting.

Just read throught this thread on lotustalk:

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f3/overhaulin-europa-next-sunday-144713/index2.html

The expected amount of hatred, but the best point was that the thing wasn't running at the time of reveal. Thus, no startup/test drive segment. I hope it got sorted out.

Dr. Hess wrote: He has just kinda hinted around on it. He is under some type of contractual obligation to not spill the beans and he wouldn't even announce that it was coming until the Overhaulin' web site listed the episode as coming up. But, I think he is pleased with it. I can't access that forum at the moment, but I'll see what comments I can dig up when I get home.

Doctor, Did he post on the Yahoo list after the last episode played last night?

Yeah. He said:

Dean said: Yikes, it looks like my acting career ended up on the cutting room floor... oh well that's show business. Better keep plugging away at my day job. At least the car was in the few of the scenes. I did spot my son and my wife spotted me a few times, but the whole interview part with Jay went bye bye... We did film another full segment for Leno's Garage. Maybe I'll make that cut. It was fun fun fun, so no complaints! I voted- "well the paint was nice". The one scene, where they had a laptop and pretended to start the car in the Foose garage must have had a fake soundtrack. When they started it in Jay's garage, something was hitting the flywheel. Sounded scary. Hope he finds us here and get's help to put it on the road. Dean (Blue S2/Zetec)

Uh...he's not getting stranded with a car with dubious mods in a non-running condition, is he?

In reply to alex:

No, if they are in a no-start condition, they go back to Foose until it's ready to go back to the owner in running/driving condition.

I'm still anxious to see a photo or two of he (semi) finished product. No Velocity channel here...

In reply to Woody:

How it looks is of course a matter of taste, but I think they did a good job of cleaning up the look of the car and created something unique. The use of the late model Lotus (Toyota) engine I thought was appropriate, and they took steps to strengthen the car to handle the power.
I like Europas, but I like quirky cars, and I would never say that the Europa is an elegant design, but what Foose did to it makes it look pretty cool in my opinion. I may have picked other tires and wheels, but I don't even mind the ones he used. It's like Jay said, they didn't just modify this car, they re-designed it.

Here is the final version for those who didn't see the episode...

Those wheels really are awful.

Chip has such an eye for lines, flow, detail, I cannot believe that he doesn't see those wheels as the eyesores they are.

I didn't watch the program (no TV), but are those off-the-shelf wheels, or custom Foose creations? And if they're custom, are they limited by the available "blanks"? That's about the only reason I can think of to push them to such levels of wagon wheel.

I think the nose-job is actually quite attractive.

For all the wheels he could have used in that size, those are probably the most tasteful.

I think they have much larger brakes on it as well.

I didn't get to watch it, but what headlights are on the end product?

In reply to KazeSpec:

Porsche 911, IIRC.

Don't like the wheels. Front end looks great. Any mods to a Europa is turd polishing, so overall, good job.

Does anyone else think the finished product looks a little like a Miura/Fiat 850? Particulary the Miura concept from a few back. Maybe it is just the Italian flag stripes throwing me off. Notice the vents behind the doors too.

I think he did a great job, and I bet that if it wasn't right at the reveal Foose took care of getting it right. As much as I don't always agree with his design ideas, you gotta respect Chip Foose - he makes his vision a reality and appears to be right there getting his hands dirty with everyone else.

Sultan wrote: Funny to see the guy get in the car. I am not saying he has a high BMI score but he is like me, we just got ahead of our eating....

I was (at the time) a proud owner of TWO Europas, the '75 I bought brand new. That was 100+ lbs ago. It was hard enough then, would be impossible now. And to think I sold my first one -- an S2 with a Ford twin-cam w/ twin Webers replacing the Renault -- to a very pregnant woman! The biggest problem (besides sitting on the ground) was a 5"-6" wide door sill that you'd have to clamber over to get in and out. After a while you develop a method: open door, roll to the left placing both hands on the ground, walk your hands forward bringing your legs out enough to get a bent knee over that sill, arrange feet on the ground and stand up. Close door.

In the "good" column, when I'd use it to commute to work, if it was a hot day I could park UNDER the TT trailers used by the company for long-term storage. It was the only shady spot in a sea of asphalt.

They will NOT clear a soda/beer can in the road. Ask me how I know...