• The Europa Group 5 although built by Zakspeed was actually based on a TOJ – Team Obermoser Jorg – chassis which were famous for their Warsteiner liveried Sports Cars and Formula 2. It appears that the car had actually been built on a 1978 SC206 chassis due to the front crossmember holding the suspension/shockabsorbers upper pick-up points.
• The link and origin of the chassis can probably be traced back to Ertl days in Formula One when he campaigned an Hesketh 308 sponsored by Warsteiner, the same sponsor that backed the TOJ team back then too. But altogether it wasn’t just a TOJ, it also featured suspension components sourced from Chevron Racing Cars and their previous B21 model as well as Sachs gas shock absorbers while the whole thing rolled on 16′ front and 19′ rear BBS wheels with the slick tyres coming from Goodyear.
• On the engine and transmission side, it was powered by the Zakspeed-Ford developped BDA Turbo unit, the same unit as the one that engined the smaller DRM Division 2 Zakspeed Capri model with a capacity of 1400cc and boost of 1.2 bar. The whole thing was then coupled to a Hewland sourced FGA unit in order to get the power to the wheels through CV joints driveshafts.
• And of course, that whole package was covered by a Lotus Europa body but not the usual one of course, it was a grown-up version that just looked like a massive wing but which kept one of the primary aspect of the original model, a very low total height. Something which permitted the car to reach speeds near 300km/h it was said. All that was backed by Japanese camera manufacturer Minolta.
• Why such a project? Basically, it had been the dream of Ertl and the Europa was the car he had previously described as the best base for a Group 5 special. Certainly, this was due to the aerodynamics and the fact that it would permit the engine to sit behind the driver, a perfect balance in essence.
• After what was said to have taken 2000 hours and 4 months to build, the car was debuted at the 1979 Nürburgring 1000KM World Champinship round where Ertl would share the car with Heyer and Gröhs. Having qualified the car in 19th position with a time of 8:49:900 around the “Green Hell”, they would unfortunately retire on the cars’ debut with an electric failure.
• Second outing came at the Nörisring 200 Meilen where the 7 best qualifiers of Division 1 and 2 would battle for a prize money of 105 000 Deutschmarks and be put together in a special “long distance” race but this time the engine would blow-up during the race for a DNF again. It would then be raced another 3 times with two non-finishes and a best result of 6th in an Interserie round held at Hockenheim that same year and the car would then be kept away from the track.

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