Ford Lotus-Cortina
Ford Lotus : Cortina
Lotus boss Colin chapman came up with the idea of building a new twin-cam engine, then slotting the result into both his own Elan sports car and a new high-performance saloon. That saloon was the Lotus -Cprtina.
The twin-cam coversion designed by Harry Munday,plus a small increase in capacity, boosted the basic Cortina engine from 60 bhp to 105 bhp. Capman`s attentions to the Cortina included coil springs and A -frame location for the rear axle, wider wheels and distinctive livery- all the cars were white with a green flash.
Few other cars of the era offered sports-car performance with four seat saloon accomodation and the Lotus Cortina quickly became an enthusiasts` favourite. It was also a spectacularly successful machine for saloon car racing, particularly in the hands of Jim Clark.
But it wasn`t perfect. The A-frame locating the rear axle mounted on the differential casing and the loads it fed into the axle caused the casing to distort,resulting in oil leaks.It wasn`t uncommon to see a racing Lotus-Cortina trailing oil smoke from the rear. From 1966, it reverted to the leaf sprung live axle used on the softer Cortina GT to solve the problem.
In 1967, Ford launched a new Cortina.Though there was a twin-cam model (at first called the Cortina Lotus later Cortina Twin Cam) it was not the driver`s car the previous model had been and today it`s the Mark 1 Lotus-Cortina which enthusiasts still lust after.
All production Lotus-Cortina were two door saloons in white with a green flash. This car is prepared for historic saloon car racing which is more popular than ever.