RACE HISTORY

FORD’S MOTORSPORT presence transformed in 1963, starting in January when a trio of Falcon Sprints debuted in the Monte Carlo Rally. No doubt gun driver Bosse (‘Bo’) Ljungfeldt was disappointed to finish 43rd outright but he did win all six special speed stages. On September 20 that year ‘Gentleman’ Jack Sears entered a works Lotus Cortina at the Oulton Park round of the British Saloon Car Championship, where he finished third outright behind a pair of Galaxies. That was enough for a class win, and the similar car of Trevor Taylor came second in class. For the 1964 season the Alan Mann cars were almost invariably faster than those prepared by Lotus. Mann lobbied hard for the rear suspension change but it didn’t become available until the following year. Teams of works Lotus and Alan Mann Racing Lotus Cortinas also competed in the US with the best result being Jim Clark’s class win in the 1965 Sebring 300. The red and gold Alan Mann cars were at work cleaning up in Europe with Sir John Whitmore winning the 1965 European Championship. That car is almost certainly the most original 1960s racer still in existence and recently sold by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed for £139,500. In Australia Jim McKeown put his Lotus Cortina on pole for the 1964 ATCC at Lakeside. It was probably one of the fastest examples in the world. The Lotus Cortina’s international rallying career was dependent on the rear suspension change and blossomed in 1965’s Welsh Rally, won by Roger Clark and Graham Robson. There were also the Acropolis and RAC victories from Bengt Söderström, and three second places in 1966. For 1967 the Mark II shone briefly before the Escort Twin Cam took over.