Paul Vercoe dwarfs his tiny Lotus Europa, a car so little and so light that two people could pick the body up and walk away with it.

It's still a work in progress, but by the end of January he hopes to have it on the road again after rebuilding it from "a thousand pieces".

Made in England, the 1973 Lotus Europa ended up in California, where a friend of Paul's found it and brought it to New Zealand. Shortly after its arrival, Paul, a mechanic by trade, took it over and began a two-year project to rebuild the pieces.

"I had to find a manual for it first," he says. "And lots of parts aren't available any more so I had to make them."

The 1600cc twin-cam Lotus motor is based on Ford Cortina, while the suspension and running gear is based on Triumph. He also had to change it over to right-hand drive.

Lotus Europa was built as a sports car by the company's founder, Colin Chapman, a man involved with Formula 1 race cars.

This article reproduced with kind permission of The NELSON MAIL WHEELS WEEKLY newspaper. Original article appeared in the December 28th, 2006 edition.

The final Europa Special version came with an engine uprated to 126bhp with a five-speed box; good to nearly 125mph, which at last gave it the performance to match the chassis. The company built more than 9000 Europas between 1966 and 1974 before moving on to new models.

Europas had also been seen on the racetracks. Lotus Components, part of the Lotus operation, built 55 Lotus 47s, Europas with the twin-cam engine, for Group 4 racing during 1967. Then in 1969, a pair of Lotus 62 Europas race-proved a new engine which was to be the prototype for the new range of Lotus road cars.

Paul says the high-performance motor and light weight made the Europa a fast car with "plenty of get up and go".

He likes it purely because it's a different car and as far as he knows, it's the only one of its kind in Nelson.