Topic: Motoring Memories: Lotus Cortina, 1963-1967

[Autos_Editor]

With modification by Lotus founder, Colin Chapman, the Lotus Cortina quickly made its reputation on racing and rally circuits.

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[tpl]

That cylinder head continued and modified over those years and was on my Elan +2S 130  on a 1600 cc block in 1973.
The A bracket rear end was I suppose, typical Chapman, "add lightness"  but it certainly did not help the car stay together.  I don 't remember the exact problems but I'd suspect that the attachment points on the bodyshell just were not strong enough.
Our local traffic cops had a Mk 1 and were seen hurtling around the place too fast just for the delight of the car.   Apart from Jaguars for Expressway patrol  ( there were no expressways anywhere near where I lived) the Cortina was possibly the fastest police car around at the time.

[blur911]

I have a photo, yay.
A friend of mine is the original owner, still using it for the same thing.

[Oldsguy]

I remember seeing many of the regular Cortinas of this generation running around - Ford must have had some success selling them here. Sadly, what I remember most about these, aside from styling that I thought was fairly handsome, was seeing a blue cloud of oil smoke trailing them and lots of body rust.