EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL

Developed on opposite sides of the English Channel, the Alpine A310 and Lotus Europa offered supercar technology in miniature

- MARTIN BUCKLEY

You only get one chance to extract yourself from a Lotus Europa in a dignified manner. Getting in, funnily enough, is not too difficult so long as you remember to slide your bottom in first and swing the legs in afterwards although even then it is almost impossible to avoid getting your right leg tangled up with the door. Getting out, at least for the stouter among us, is to be avoided during daylight hours, particularly if you have an audience (most of whom would like nothing better than to see yours truly crawling away from this 3 ft 744in-high mid-engined Lotus).

To be honest, I would defy anybody this side of Twiggy to exit a Europa with his or her dignity entirely intact. Linda Thorson drove an S2 Europa in The Avengers and even she didn't make it look all that effortless, but then she was quite tall.

In my case, the technique that appears to cause the least hilarity involves using the sill - and the roof – for leverage while peeling the Lotus away from my body, all the while bent forwards like a reverse limbo dancer. Only comparatively dignified, then, but it could be a lot worse.

Thin rimmed wheel for delightful steering

Big Valve spec only for final two years

Europa corners with peerless agility

'The agonies of ingress and exit are generally worth the effort, particularly when the Europa in question is a 126bhp Special'