LOTUS CORTINA MK1

Arguably, the golden era for touring motorcar racing was the 1960s and one of the most iconic saloon cars of that decade was the Mk1 Lotus Cortina. Initially Ford marketed their highperformance sports saloon as the ‘Consul Cortina developed by Lotus’. Thankfully the Consul title was quickly dropped and after a couple of other name changes the model became popularly known as the ‘Lotus Cortina’. The Lotus Cortina’s origins go back to 1961 with Lotus founder Colin Chapman taking a personal interest in the development of what would become a legendary vehicle.

For some time Chapman had been investigating the possibility of building his own engines for Lotus, due to the exorbitant cost of using the Coventry Climax engine. Collaborating with a friend of his, Harry Mundy, who was an engine designer and technical editor for Autocar magazine, the pair developed a twin-cam variant of the Ford Kent engine which was tuned by Keith Duckworth of Cosworth. During the latter stages of the engine’s development, Walter Hayes at Ford asked

Chapman to fit what had become a 1557cc engine to 1000 Ford Cortina saloons, this being the number of production machines required to comply with the homologation requirements of Group 2 racing homologation. The first 1000 Type 28 Lotus Cortinas were fitted with aluminium doors, boot and bonnet, although these would later revert to steel.

Although a handful of Mk1 Lotus Cortinas were finished in red, the model will forever be associated with its trademark Ermine White with Sherwood Green striping.

The Lotus Cortina certainly made its mark on the world of motorsport with Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Mike Beckwith being among the drivers who achieved success behind its wheel. During the years it was in production between 1963 and 1966, a total of 3306 examples of the Mk1 Lotus Cortina were produced.

It remains a true icon of British engineering at its very best, while the costs of restoring and owning one today make building a custom Lambretta seem like a bargain!